Senior Project Manager in London

Join ZSL during its landmark 200th anniversary and help shape the future of its world‐renowned conservation zoos and estate. As a Senior Project Manager within the Estates team, you will be at the heart of delivering transformative projects that enhance our spaces for wildlife, visitors, and conservation impact. Acting as a champion of best‐practice project management, you will build strong partnerships with stakeholders and drive the successful delivery of ambitious, high‐profile initiatives.

From early concept and feasibility through to design, procurement, construction, and final handover, you will lead the full lifecycle of medium to large‐scale projects. With a focus on safety, sustainability, and quality, you will ensure every project is delivered to the highest standards, carefully managing programme, cost, risk, and compliance along the way. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to ZSL's next chapter, leaving a lasting legacy as the organisation enters its third century.

• Project Management: Act as client‐side Project Manager on a variety of capital projects (ranging in value from £250k to £5m) providing strong leadership to internal teams, external consultants, contractors, and multidisciplinary stakeholders.
• Stakeholder and Contractor Management: Lead and support contractor/consultant procurement, contract selection and administration (typically JCT), tender reviews, and performance management.
• Budget Management: Manage project budgets in collaboration with Head of Capital Projects and Finance, including cash‐flow forecasting, monitoring, and reporting.
• Health and Safety: Ensure full compliance with statutory health and safety requirements and best practice, including on‐site inspections and safe working practices.

• Demonstrable experience as a project manager in a construction environment.
• Professional qualification in a construction or project management discipline (RICS/RIBA/APM or equivalent).
• Confident in managing project budgets and financial reporting on medium‐to‐large capital schemes.
• Competent IT skills, including MS Office and project management tools.
• Excellent communication and collaborative skills including clear writing and presenting.
• Due to regular travel between sites, a full, clean driving licence and access to your own transport are required.

This role is subject to standard pre‐employment checks, including confirmation of your right to work in the UK. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

ZSL recognises that conservation is one of the least diverse sectors, and we actively encourage applications from candidates who identify as part of underrepresented communities. We are committed to building a supportive and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and celebrate the value of a team of employees with diverse skills, experiences, and heritage.

We're ZSL, an international conservation charity. Through our unrivalled animal experts in our two zoos (London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo), the work of our pioneering scientists, our dedicated conservationists, our purpose is to inspire, inform and empower people to stop wild animals going extinct. Our vision is a world where wildlife thrives and we're working every day to achieve this. From investigating the health threats facing animals, to helping people and wildlife live alongside each other, we are committed to bringing wildlife back from the brink of extinction.

• Purpose driven work – join an organisation where every role contributes to creating a world where wildlife thrives.
• Pension scheme – we offer a generous pension scheme with up to 12% contributory pension.
• Flexible working – talk to us about your flexible working requirements and we will do everything we can to make sure you work in a way that suits you.
• Holidays – 25 days annual leave allowance, plus UK bank holidays (increasing with milestone anniversaries).
• Access to ZSL's staff Equality Networks: Race & Culture, Team Pride, Disability, and Menopause, supporting an inclusive and welcoming workplace for those with lived experience.
• Wellbeing – access to a blended programme of wellbeing initiatives, including confidential access to our 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• Life assurance – eligible employees will be enrolled in ZSL's life assurance scheme from their first day.
• Complimentary tickets – annual allocation of Whipsnade Zoo and London Zoo tickets, with a 30% discount in online and retail shops.
• Cycle2Work – our cycle to work scheme enables you to lease a bicycle.
• Season ticket loan – we offer an interest free loan for eligible London‐based employees to buy a season ticket for travel between home and work.
• Family friendly policies – we offer enhanced maternity, paternity, and adoption packages.

We may close this role early or extend the closing date due to the number of applications we receive, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. We anonymise applications until interview stage to ensure a fair hiring process. It's important to highlight your unique skills, experience, and knowledge. Over reliance on AI‐generated content may miss key criteria outlined in the job description and reduce the effectiveness of your application.

If you have any questions about this role, we’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch with our recruitment team at recruitment@zsl.org.