Senior Officer - Marine Infrastructure - ( Ref : 6865 )

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

The Team

The Planning and Infrastructure Team sits within the Strategy Directorate of Natural England.

The Team works across the terrestrial and marine environment to:

• Advise Government on national policy issues, contributing to the development of planning policy, guidance and process changes and responding to national consultations.
• Provide strategic technical advice and leadership to our programme and operations teams and develop new approaches to planning and infrastructure work.
• Develop and maintain relationships with key national partners including Government, other regulators and agencies, NGOs and the commercial sector.

This presents a unique opportunity to influence government policy to secure greater outcomes for the natural environment, whilst also playing a key role in both supporting and shaping Natural Englands Planning and Infrastructure work.

Job description

We are looking for a Senior Officer to join our team to lead strategic work on planning and major infrastructure in the marine environment including Linear Infrastructure. The role will play an important part in shaping Natural England's approach to infrastructure development, influencing policy, guidance and practice to secure better outcomes for nature whilst supporting sustainable development.

The Government's ambitions for economic growth, infrastructure delivery, clean energy and nature recovery are driving significant change across the planning and infrastructure landscape. Major investment is anticipated across sectors including energy, transport, water, housing and coastal infrastructure, creating both challenges and opportunities for the natural environment. Natural England has a key role in providing strategic advice to government, regulators, industry and partners, helping to shape planning policy, improve environmental outcomes and develop effective approaches to infrastructure delivery.

In this role you will play a key role in shaping Natural Englands response at a critical time with fundamental changes proposed to the planning, infrastructure planning and environmental assessment regimes. You will work alongside our Infrastructure Principal Officers and the wider Planning and Infrastructure Team to provide the leadership and technical focus to drive forward Natural Englands ambitions for the natural environment. This will be delivered through our policy advice and by helping to shape the way in which we deliver our statutory advice on major infrastructure work.

A key element of these roles will be interacting with key regulators, delivery bodies, industry bodies and partner organisations within the major infrastructure sector. You will work proactively to build an understanding of the aims, objectives and challenges of industry and partners and provide strategic support to decisionmakers dealing with complex or novel impacts.

Collaborative work both internally and externally will be required to identify and maximise opportunities to improve our evidence base and knowledge, identifying consenting challenges and driving forwards solutions to those which help further the ambitions of the governments Environmental Improvement Plan.

Internally, you will provide national leadership and technical advice for your core topic area to ensure consistency of advice both within and across sectors, through the development and provision of training, guidance and leading technical networks.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Act as sector lead for a key marine Infrastructure sector(s) for example linear infrastructure (such as subsea cables and pipelines).
• Provide and co-ordinate technical advice to Defra, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) other government departments to support NEs response to emerging infrastructure planning policy and guidance including responses to national consultations.
• Build effective relationships with Defra, DESNZ, and other Government Department colleagues alongside key infrastructure delivery bodies, developers and industry groups. Act as relationship manager as required.
• Provide technical infrastructure planning advice to operations teams on casework and environmental assessment processes, particularly around novel/precedent setting issues or where strategic approaches are required.
• Lead/contribute to technical guidance, standing advice, briefings and, training on infrastructure and planning. Work with industry and regulators to develop best practice guidance and approaches where possible.
• Horizon scan, understand future development proposals and policy changes relevant to the sector, identify opportunities and share this intelligence with delivery teams to able them to anticipate future workloads.
• Progress opportunities to increase the evidence base around environmental impacts associated with the sector(s), with a focus on addressing key evidence gaps, working collaboratively and with partners.

It should be noted that we are working in evolving policy environment with novel technologies and new industry sectors emerging. The successful candidate(s) will therefore need to be willing to adapt in response to changing demands on the team.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• A relevant degree and/or extensive experience in a related field.
• Technical expertise and applied experience of the planning system, legislation, national policy and guidance, Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, Marine Licensing and Oil and gas licensing.
• Technical expertise and experience of the application of environmental assessment processes to planning casework (HRA, EIA, MCZ Assessments, SEA).
• Experience of working with key national external partners and stakeholders that have been directly engaged with the infrastructure/planning system systems.
• Understanding of the legislative/policy/strategic context of infrastructure and planning work.

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 per year (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.

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