Senior Project Manager (Ref: 6372) in London

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

The Role

This role is a rare opportunity to play a part to bring about systematic change to the planning system and planning casework. We are seeking ambitious individuals with great communication and organisational skills to join our highly performing, supportive and friendly teams across Natural England’s Sustainable Development work.

Job Purpose

You will help shape and deliver legislative planning, policy reforms and infrastructure projects to ensure that they are customer focused, digitally enabled and sustainable in the long term with a shift to nature’s recovery at scale delivered through the planning system. Priority work areas include the Nature Restoration Fund, wider planning policy reforms and implementing Government reviews such as the Lead Environmental Regulator pilot (major projects/infrastructure development).

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

Responsibilities of this role include:

• Prepare, monitor and control the development of the business case and project plan(s) to ensure that the project scope, cost and timeframes are agreed and deliverable; agreeing and deriving the benefits as intended.
• Apply project management expertise through selection and application of the most appropriate project management methodologies, operating to organisational project delivery standards and ensuring that all approvals and assurance is understood and applied in accordance with schemes of delegation to ensure compliance within your project.
• Identify benefits and ensure they are understood, measured, tracked and owned.
• Supervise the process of contract negotiation and approval and contractor management.
• Undertake detailed stakeholder analysis to ensure that the project is understood and supported by all relevant parties. Plan stakeholder engagement to manage expectations through timely communications to all relevant audiences (internal, external, senior stakeholders, delivery staff).
• Identify, record and monitor project issues/risks including mapping mitigating actions and resolution. Where necessary ensure escalation to the appropriate level at the appropriate time to protect the project and organisation from reputational damage.
• Develop and maintain relationships across the project management and change management profession to enable continuous improvement, best practice change management and build capability across the organisation.
• Undertake the appropriate close procedures for the project including record keeping and lessons learnt to ensure that a formal audit trail is maintained, and future initiatives can be improved.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• A recognised project delivery qualification (e.g. APM PMQ, PRINCE2, MSP) or 3+ years of experience managing small projects or working in a management team on larger ones. (Essential)
• Strong knowledge and experience of project planning, risk and benefits management, and business case development. (Essential)
• Able to work effectively across teams and build strong, collaborative relationships. (Essential)
• Able to work confidently in busy and complex environments, making sound decisions and managing risks. (Essential)
• Strategic thinker who can link project work to wider organisational goals. (Essential)
• Professional, organised, and proactive: able to lead by example and hold others to account.