Project Support Higher Officer (Ref: 6374)

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

• Assist the Project/Programme Manager to prepare, monitor and control the business case and project plan(s) to ensure that the project scope, cost, timeframes and intended benefits are agreed.
• Support work to deliver the project against the baselined plans.
• Select and apply appropriate project management methodologies.
• Work to meet organisational standards for project delivery and understand assurance and approval requirements.
• Support the preparation of highlight reports as required by governance.
• Identify benefits and ensure they are understood, measured, tracked and owned, developing management and realisation plans as required.
• Ensure appropriate contract management resource is available, if commercial procurement is required.
• Prepare, monitor and control project spend in line with organisational and treasury standards and to the agreed project budget.
• Identify, evaluate and manage project issues/risks. Understand tolerances and escalation routes where required.
• Manage knowledge throughout the life cycle, including information management, records keeping and learning from lessons.
• Support the preparation of end of tranche/project closure reports.
• Prepare for and facilitate audits.
• Identify and manage stakeholders.
• Commit to professional development, contribute to the project delivery profession and build networks to enable continuous improvement and build capability across the organisation.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Demonstratable organisational skills, with experience of prioritising and working under pressure and at pace. (Essential)
• Experience of working in a project environment involving managing milestones, assumptions, dependencies, risks and budgets. (Essential)
• Excellent interpersonal, influencing and relationship-building skills. (Essential)
• Experienced user of Microsoft Office suite in particular; Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. (Essential)
• Good analytical skills, and the ability to work collaboratively across teams to identify opportunities for securing better outcomes. (Essential)
• Good communications skills, be able to advocate for the work you are delivering, negotiating and influencing when required. (Essential)
• Proven self-motivation and resilience. (Essential)
• Project Management tool experience, e.g. Microsoft Project. (Essential)
• An understanding of the Defra 25 Year Environment Plan. (Essential)

How To Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We will assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency. Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

Please note: Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application. However, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Experience of working in a project involving key milestones, assumptions, dependencies and budget (Essential).
• Demonstratable organisational skills, with experience of prioritising and working under pressure and at pace (Essential).
• Experienced user of Microsoft Office suite in particular; Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint (Essential).

Personal Effectiveness

• Be ambitious, identify and adopt ways to make improvements in your team and your organisation and inspire others to act (Practitioner).
• Act with integrity, addressing challenging issues and managing conflict through being open and objective (Practitioner).

Work Delivery

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines (Practitioner).
• Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures (practitioner).

Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

• Listen to and understand diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and your organisation (Practitioner).

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving 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.