Senior Planning Advisor in Edinburgh

Team / Directorate: Development and Planning Advice Service, Operations

Starting salary: £41,132 rising to £44,988 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)

Contract type: Permanent

Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)

Post number: 203900, 203901, 203902, 203903

The role

Are you a planning professional with strong technical expertise and a passion for shaping sustainable development? We're looking for a Senior Planning Advisor to take on a lead role in managing complex, high-profile casework within Natural Resources Wales' (NRW) Development Planning Advice Service (DPAS). As the senior case manager (terrestrial) in your local Development Planning team, you'll lead on the most significant planning proposals and provide oversight for NRW's input into Local Development Plans. Your expertise will directly influence how development takes place in Wales - ensuring it aligns with national priorities for climate, biodiversity, and natural resource management.

You'll also play a key role in coaching and mentoring colleagues, supporting consistency, quality, and knowledge sharing across the team and wider service.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading on complex and high-impact terrestrial development planning casework.
• Overseeing NRW's advice to Local Planning Authorities on Local Development Plans.
• Providing technical expertise across the team and contributing to service-wide best practice.
• Coaching and mentoring team members to support professional development and service resilience.
• Working collaboratively across DPAS and other departments to ensure consistent, high-quality advice.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced planning professional to lead on nationally significant work and support the growth and quality of a highly regarded environmental planning service.

Interviews will be conducted in person. The location will be confirmed at a later date. Successful external applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. We aim to make offers of appointment within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.

What you will do

• Oversee and provide assurance of Advice to Local Development Plans and other sub-regional strategies and plans, including the advice on strategic environmental assessment of such plans.
• Produce Advice to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects or complex, high-risk development proposals ensuring NRW advice is robust, evidence based and delivered to deadline.
• Contribute professional judgement and assistance to decision-making in respect of strategic and complex individual development proposals and Plans managed by other team members.
• Assure information prepared in relation to challenges against NRW development planning advice, Attend Appeals and Inquiries.
• Provide operational input to the development of NRW policy, process and guidance.
• Ensure that NRW Policy, process and guidance is consistently applied within the team.
• Development of effective customer relationships (internal and external).
• Influence local development projects and strategies early in their evolution.
• Responsible for the technical development of team members.
• Provide functional advice and experience to multifunctional place planning such as Area Statements.
• Contribute to the development of the team work plan.
• Manage and deliver continuous Improvement projects for the Service.
• Maintain auditable records of actions and outcomes to justify and demonstrate that all legal and procedural requirements have been met.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post.
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post.
• Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method:

• Excellent knowledge and substantial experience of environmental assessment and development planning processes.
• Excellent understanding and significant experience of the development sector.
• Experience of community liaison and public engagement activities in relation to major projects.
• Able to communicate and negotiate effectively with stakeholders at senior management levels.
• Good written and spoken communication skills and an ability to represent both the technical and strategic aspects of Development Planning work to non-specialists, both within NRW and externally, in a concise and effective way.
• Able to analyse complex information and situations, solve problems and make sound judgements.
• Able to coach and mentor others effectively.
• Able to manage projects and lead virtual task groups.
• Strong and effective self-management and organisational skills.

Welsh language level requirements

Essential: Level A1 - Entry level (able to use and understand simple, basic phrases and greetings, no conversational Welsh). Please note if you do not meet the A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

Benefits

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme).
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days.
• Generous leave entitlements for all your life needs.
• Commitment to professional development.
• Health and wellbeing benefits and support.
• Weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose.

Please keep reading

If you think you have what it takes to do this role, but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and we will be happy to discuss the role with you in more detail.

We're passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, culture, or religion. We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values. We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on a variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.