Team Lead – Mayoral Planning & Development Management

Team Lead – Mayoral Planning & Development Management

Introduction to the role and applicant profile

The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) is seeking to appoint an exceptional Team Lead – Mayoral Planning & Development Management to establish and lead a new planning function at an important point in the evolution of the region’s planning system.

The West of England is one of the UK’s fastest-growing city-regions, with significant opportunities and challenges around housing delivery, economic growth, regeneration and infrastructure investment. How we work together across the region to manage strategically important development will be critical to achieving those ambitions.

New Mayoral planning powers will create an important new role for the MCA in relation to planning applications of potential strategic importance. Our challenge is to turn those new statutory responsibilities into a credible, effective and collaborative service.

As Team Lead – Mayoral Planning & Development Management, you will lead that work. You will build the team and capability we need, establish the operating model and ways of working for the new service, and forge strong relationships with local planning authorities and other partners across the region.

This is not simply about establishing processes. Success will depend on creating a service that combines high-quality professional advice and robust decision-making with trusted relationships across organisational boundaries. You will need to establish credibility quickly, navigate differing priorities and perspectives, and create a culture in which the team can operate confidently on complex and high-profile planning matters.

This is a rare opportunity to build a new statutory planning function from the ground up and shape how it operates from the outset.

We are looking for an outstanding leader who combines strong planning expertise with the ability to build teams, develop trusted relationships and turn new statutory responsibilities into an effective service.

you’ll play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our ambitions by:

• Establishing and leading the MCA’s new Mayoral Planning & Development Management function.
• Building and developing a high-performing team with the skills and confidence to deliver a new statutory service.
• Creating the operating model, governance, systems and ways of working needed for the function to succeed.
• Developing strong and trusted relationships with the region’s local planning authorities and other key partners.
• Creating effective arrangements for handling planning applications of potential strategic importance.
• Providing clear, robust and impartial professional advice to the Mayor and senior leaders.
• Leading the MCA’s work on applications called in for Mayoral determination.

What you'll be doing

• Build and lead the MCA’s new Mayoral Planning & Development Management team, establishing its culture, capability and professional standards.
• Translate new legislation and policy into a practical and effective operating model.
• Establish the governance arrangements, procedures, casework systems and performance framework required to support the new function.
• Build strong working relationships with local planning authorities and agree effective arrangements for referrals, information sharing and case management.
• Work collaboratively with planning authorities, government, developers, statutory bodies and other partners while navigating different organisational interests and responsibilities.
• Provide trusted professional advice to the Mayor and senior officers on complex and potentially sensitive planning matters.
• Lead the assessment and handling of planning applications of potential strategic importance referred to the Mayor.
• Lead the handling of applications called in for Mayoral determination, including associated planning and section 106 matters.
• Create a service that is responsive, proportionate and respected for the quality and integrity of its professional advice.

What you'll bring

• Have a track record of building, establishing or significantly developing teams, services or professional capability.
• Can create clarity and momentum where structures, processes and ways of working are still being developed.
• Are an effective and supportive leader who can recruit, develop and get the best from professional teams.
• Have a strong track record of building trusted relationships across complex organisational and stakeholder environments.
• Can work constructively where organisations have different responsibilities, priorities or perspectives and find practical ways forward.
• Have the credibility and confidence to influence senior stakeholders and provide clear professional advice in politically sensitive environments.
• Can translate legislation, policy and strategic objectives into practical operational arrangements.
• Understand the importance of sound governance, transparency and professional integrity when exercising statutory functions.
• Bring substantial development management experience and the professional judgement required to deal with major or complex development proposals.
• Membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute and significant professional experience in development management will be essential.

Why choose us?

The introduction of new Mayoral planning powers gives us the opportunity to build a completely new capability within the MCA and to establish strong, collaborative arrangements for how those powers operate across the West of England.

You will be joining at the beginning, not inheriting a finished model. You will have the opportunity to shape the service, recruit and develop its team, establish its relationships with local planning authorities and create the systems and ways of working that will underpin it for the future.

For the right person, that offers something unusual: the opportunity to combine professional planning expertise with building a team, creating a new service and establishing a new set of relationships across the region.

The closing date for this role is 29th November 2026 at 11.59pm. The interview dates are scheduled for w/c 7th December 2026. Please note this is subject to change.