NRF Senior Executive Officer Policy Implementation and Strategy - ( Ref : 6582 )

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 Governments 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.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at: Natural Englands Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

Job description

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 team within the Sustainable Development Portfolio.

Job Purpose

You will help shape legislative planning and policy reforms to ensure that they are customer focused, digitally enabled and sustainable in the long term with a shift to natures recovery at scale delivered through the planning system.

The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is designed to accelerate development while introducing innovative mechanisms that can extend significant and targeted environmental protection that drives natures recovery. The NRF will offer a flexible, scalable approach to delivering environmental improvements where development impacts protected sites or species. Through Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), the NRF will identify strategic, landscape-scale conservation measures to ensure better outcomes for nature.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Supporting the preparation of secondary legislation

• Supporting on the delivery of Natural Englands guidance and implementation requirements that sits alongside secondary legislation, including collaboration with Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

• Supporting operationalization of the digital system (and relevant offline processes) as the Nature Restoration Levy Regulations and guidance evolve, working closely between policy and digital colleagues.

• Supporting development of paper-based processes that sit outside of the digital system.

• Supporting stakeholder engagement particularly regarding integration of the NRF with the planning system.

• Working internally with the Project Management Office to ensure Natural England processes are updated as needed to ensure alignment as secondary legislation and guidance is produced.

• Leading the development of registers to support NRF implementation and operation, which will be embedded into our digital service, working with digital, policy and monitoring colleagues.

• Providing agile support across workstreams toward the implementation of the Nature Restoration Fund.

Skills and knowledge

• A strong understanding of key environmental and planning legislation and the role of policy and the policy-making process (essential)

• Ability to use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques to disseminate complex technical advice (essential).

• Experience of delivering work against agreed targets and deadlines in line with relevant project/programme management structures (essential).

• Able to pick up new areas of work and use the information available to make informed decisions (desirable).

• Able to establish and maintain strong internal/external working relationships and/or lead partnerships, supporting mutual objectives (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.

Youll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days (pro-rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (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 here: online map of Natural England office locations

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

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. Please be aware that we reserve the right for roles that receive a high volume of applications to initially sift applications for one competence only .

Technical skills and knowledge

Work Delivery

Personal Effectiveness

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 the Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.