Principal Land Consultant in Leeds

What if you could do the kind of work the world needs? At WSP, you can access our global scale, contribute to landmark projects and connect with the brightest minds in your field to do the best work of your life. You can embrace your curiosity in a culture that celebrates new ideas and diverse perspectives. You can experience a world of opportunity and the chance to shape a career as unique as you.

WSP’s Land team is seeking talented Land professionals to join what is already the largest and most successful team in our industry. This is an exciting opportunity to develop or begin a career with a team that enjoys a successful reputation for the successful delivery of major strategic infrastructure projects across the UK and Ireland through the support provided by land referencing, urban and rural landowner engagement, consultation management, land access, formal consents, statutory orders, compensation agreements and land acquisition.

The Role: We are the largest and most successful Land business supporting infrastructure development in the UK and Ireland, with 300+ specialist professional colleagues consisting of land consultants, property specialists, project managers and utility and topographical surveyors. We have the widest portfolio of projects available in our industry, offering unrivalled opportunities to both develop and diversify careers, working on some of the most exciting and challenging projects across the whole of the UK and Ireland.

Alongside our land referencing capabilities, our team of surveyors secures powers and/or negotiates land acquisition and land access to support infrastructure development. We provide clients with Property Cost Estimates, agree Heads of Terms and compensations, manage disposals, payments and client accounts, and offer the full range of property-related services to assist our clients in the planning, securing and exercise of powers to construction, operation and maintenance of their infrastructure assets.

Principal Land Consultant Responsibilities:

• Ensure successful delivery of projects securely, on time, within budget and to high standards.
• Be a trusted advisor to clients (externally and internally) and manage relationships.
• Advise on Land issues across the UK and Ireland, including relevant statutory processes to acquire land.
• Secure land rights for high profile, strategic infrastructure projects across all sectors.
• Liaise with landowners, land agents, legal representatives, planning authorities, key stakeholders, contractors and clients.
• Work with Land team colleagues and collaborate with engineering, environmental, and planning teams.
• Undertake quality assurance of deliverables in relation to land interests and rights.
• Support quality and the sharing of knowledge and lessons across regions and projects.
• People management as a leader and role model.
• Manage, motivate, mentor and develop staff and contribute to the development and delivery of the business strategy.
• Support the writing of bids/tenders to secure opportunities from internal and external clients.
• Delivery of training on technical topics by contributing to and participating in our CPD-accredited Land Academy.
• UK and Ireland travel plus the possibility of travel to WSP’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India.

What we will be looking for you to demonstrate:

• Expertise in urban and/or rural environment, property, communities and stakeholders.
• Experience in working on infrastructure development schemes with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience of negotiating commercial terms with landowners and knowledge of the legal process for land acquisition.
• Demonstrable experience of reducing land risk for clients and advising them on land-related matters.
• Track record of the development of Orders and/or acquisition of consents and interests in land.
• Ability to communicate effectively with strong influencing and negotiating skills.
• Ability to work in a team and on own initiative, being able to work under pressure and deliver high quality outputs.
• Strong landowner and public engagement skills.
• Good business and IT skills.
• Adherence to quality assurance and good document management skills.
• A degree in Geography, Land/Estate Management, Agriculture or similar.
• Chartership or membership of a relevant professional body would be advantageous.
• The ability to travel effectively to various sites/locations is a necessary function of this role.

Your development: We appreciate that development and training is important to you and that is why we have a supportive environment that invests in your development, whether that’s chartership, training or mentoring. WSP’s Land Academy is designed and delivered by our expert Land team for our Land team, with a focus on providing the best standard training and CPD across the industry.

With a broad selection of projects, we don’t pigeonhole you into a particular project or role. The Land Academy enables you to broaden your capability into GIS, Data Management, Valuations, Negotiations, Referencing and Access and Project Management to be a more rounded and valuable consultant. Project experience rotates, on average, around every 18 months.

Join our close-knit community of talented individuals who share your passion for making a positive impact. Our global team includes more than 69,000 employees, working together to make a difference in communities both close to home and around the world.