Senior Design, Conservation and Sustainability Officer in City of Westminster

Location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP

Apply Before: 4th March 2026

The Role

As Senior Design, Conservation and Sustainability Officer, you will be at the heart of shaping the borough’s comprehensive urban design and landscape, which includes a high number of historic, landmark buildings. Your goal will be to balance the needs of a vibrant economy and growing communities with the conservation of Westminster’s unique character. Working closely with the Head of Design, Conservation and Sustainability and Principal Design, Conservation and Sustainability Officers, you will visit, monitor and report on the condition of historic buildings and conservation areas, advising applicants, building owners and other stakeholders on their care and protection. This will include lending your expertise on adaptations that could be made to existing buildings to address climate change and energy efficiency. There will be a strong writing element to this role, including preparing documents to secure protection of buildings in conservation areas, write-ups of unauthorised works on listed buildings, and preparing appeal statements and evidence for consideration at hearings, attending to give evidence when required.

We would like your contributions to the preparation and production of studies, policies and guidelines relating to urban design and conservation across the borough. You will be joining a team of architects, urban designers, specialists in architectural history, conservation and sustainability, working in a borough of constant change that needs to be handled sensitively, preserving its amazing history.

About You

To be equal to the role, you will have professional, specialist expertise on the conservation, care and protection of historic buildings and urban design, including an understanding of adaptations to address climate change and energy efficiency. You either have or are working towards a degree in architecture, architectural conservation or urban design, including sustainability within the built environment. Plus, you would be keen to gain a relevant qualification in Urban Design, Town Planning or Conservation.

Experience-wise, you have dealt with planning and related applications, including negotiating with applicants, appeals and enforcement. You have liaised with internal and external stakeholders, effectively understanding customer needs and communicating clearly, whether in writing or verbally. Working well in a team comes easily to you, and you have worked under pressure, delivering results within challenging timeframes and limited resources. From this, you have gained excellent organisational and analytical skills, with an ability to prioritise while maintaining high standards of output. You understand project and programme management, including how to successfully budget and allocate resources, and have kept computerised records, ideally using document management systems.

You should have familiarity with planning law and procedures, relevant statutes, circulars, rules and regulations, as well as the City Council’s own policies and procedures. To thrive here, you are self-driven with a strong attention to detail and like to work on your own development.

What We Offer

Westminster is home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster, where our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best.

As a forward-thinking Council, we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for an interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.