Senior Project Manager (Ref: 6373) Reference number: 446892
Salary: £37,950. A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Contract type: Fixed term
Length of employment: For a period of up to 1 year
Working pattern: Full-time, Job share, Part-time
Location: National (England)
Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.
Our Role Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.
Strategic Outcomes for Nature Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.
Recovering Nature - Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives. Building Better Places - Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us. Improving Health and Wellbeing - Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live. Delivering Security through Nature - Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.
The Role
This role is a rare opportunity to play a part to bring about systematic change to the planning system and planning casework.
We are seeking ambitious individuals with great communication and organisational skills to join our highly performing, supportive and friendly teams across Natural England's Sustainable Development work.
Job Purpose You will help shape and deliver legislative planning, policy reforms and infrastructure projects to ensure that they are customer focused, digitally enabled and sustainable in the long term with a shift to nature's recovery at scale delivered through the planning system. Priority work areas include the Nature Restoration Fund, wider planning policy reforms and implementing Government reviews such as the Lead Environmental Regulator pilot (major projects/infrastructure development).
Key Tasks / Principal Accountabilities
- Prepare, monitor and control the development of the business case and project plan(s) to ensure that the project scope, cost and timeframes are agreed and deliverable; agreeing and deriving the benefits as intended.
- Apply project management expertise through selection and application of the most appropriate project management methodologies, operating to organisational project delivery standards and ensuring that all approvals and assurance is understood and applied in accordance with schemes of delegation to ensure compliance within your project.
- Identify benefits and ensure they are understood, measured, tracked and owned.
- Supervise the process of contract negotiation and approval and contractor management.
- Undertake detailed stakeholder analysis to ensure that the project is understood and supported by all relevant parties.
- Plan stakeholder engagement to manage expectations through timely communications to all relevant audiences (internal, external, senior stakeholders, delivery staff).
- Identify, record and monitor project issues/risks including mapping mitigating actions and resolution. Where necessary ensure escalation to the appropriate level at the appropriate time to protect the project and organisation from reputational damage.
- Develop and maintain relationships across the project management and change management profession to enable continuous improvement, best practice change management and build capability across the organisation.
- Undertake the appropriate close procedures for the project including record keeping and lessons learnt to ensure that a formal audit trail is maintained, and future initiatives can be improved.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
- A recognised project delivery qualification (e.g. APM PMQ, PRINCE2, MSP) or 3+ years of experience managing small projects or working in a management team on larger ones. (Essential)
- Strong knowledge and experience of project planning, risk and benefits management, and business case development. (Essential)
- Able to work effectively across teams and build strong, collaborative relationships. (Essential)
- Able to work confidently in busy and complex environments, making sound decisions and managing risks. (Essential)
- Strategic thinker who can link project work to wider organisational goals. (Essential)
- Professional, organised, and proactive: able to lead by example and hold others to account constructively. (Essential)
- Confident user of Microsoft Office, especially Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and project planning tools (e.g. MS Project). (Essential)
- Experience leading and inspiring teams or mentoring others. (Desirable)
- Experience of leading organisational change / reform projects. (Desirable)
Benefits At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.
We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.
You'll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.
We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported
Locations Natural England has adopted hybrid working - which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.
Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.
National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.
View a map of our office locations: informational summary only
Pay
It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.
You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.
How to Apply We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.
If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.
This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:
Technical Skills and Knowledge Personal Effectiveness Work Delivery Putting People at the Heart of the Environment When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.
Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.
Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.
If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.
Please note: Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application. However, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience . click apply for full job details