Hertford, UK
Principal sustainability officer
at East Herts Council
East Herts Council (EHC) is seeking a principal sustainability officer to be part of its team in Hertford, UK.
Salary: Grade 9 to 10, £42,107 to £51,201 (including local weighting) plus an additional £3,500 market supplement
Contract: full time, 37 hours per week, permanent, based in Hertford with blended working available
Closing date: Tuesday 14 November 2023 at 5 pm
Are you a planner, surveyor, architect or built environment professional who is looking to grow your career by ensuring development is sustainable? If so, we want to hear from you as we are recruiting to an exciting new role.
At East Herts, we incorporate sustainability guidance as a key tenet of our design and conservation advice and we adopted a sustainability SPD in 2021 to bolster the policies in our 2018 District Plan. But this is not enough and we want to go so much further, so we are seeking an ambitious suitably qualified professional to join us and lead on providing specialist sustainability advice with regards to the built environment. We are looking to revise our district plan, putting sustainability at its core, and we are looking to create a district design code that incorporates innovative guidance and solutions for making development in East Herts far more sustainable. We need to make both our existing and proposed built form more sustainable and we need to plan future developments carefully to ensure they are built in the right places and in the right ways to make them as sustainable as they can be. We need a principal sustainability officer who can work closely with planning policy, development management, conservation, urban design and landscape colleagues to deliver consistent professional advice, innovative solutions to the issues we face, strong negotiation skills and excellent customer service.
East Herts is experiencing significant growth with a range of strategic sites being developed including a new 10,000 home settlement within the emerging ‘Harlow and Gilston Garden Town’ and you can ensure that these site allocations come forward in the most sustainable way. With a thorough understanding of sustainability principles, policy and practice, you will have excellent negotiation skills and the ability to present ideas and proposals clearly and effectively, with experience of providing sustainability advice to officers, councillors, developers and members of the public. You will actively participate in guidance and policy making and negotiate positive design changes as part of the development management process. In particular, you will ensure masterplans and design codes lead to sustainable developments.
We are looking for an exceptional candidate to make a positive contribution to the team at a key moment in a number of large-scale projects. You will provide proactive design advice as part of planning performance agreements, pre-applications and planning applications and work with colleagues across the planning service, Hertfordshire’s design review panel, developers, agents and communities to help deliver positive outcomes for East Herts. You will have a relevant post-graduate qualification, eligibility for membership of a relevant professional body and ideally experience of working in a similar role in a local planning authority context.
If you are an experienced sustainability professional, committed to best practice and driving excellence and can contribute positively to the work and culture of a growing and progressive team, then we want to hear from you.
In line with their pay policy, EHC will review the application of the market supplement annually, and if warranted, will make adjustments in liaison with affected staff.
The role
As the principal sustainability officer, you will manage the delivery of specialist sustainability advice to support and add value to high-quality developments in East Herts. Managing service delivery, you will provide clarity to pre-applications, masterplans and planning applications as well as guiding junior colleagues assessing applications. You will develop sustainability guidance and policies, and contribute to codes that enhance and conserve the natural and historic qualities of the area, whilst promoting sustainable development.
Additionally, you will:
- provide advice on delivering renewable energy within projects
- represent the council at planning appeals, hearings and inquiries
- develop content to engage the local community in sustainability
- ensure project delivery within agreed timescales and budgets
About you
To be considered as the principal sustainability officer, you will need:
- experience of developing sustainability guidance and policy
- experience of dealing with masterplans and design codes
- experience of working within a customer-focused environment
- experience of using graphical and design skills to communicate ideas and advice
- demonstrable experience of working in partnership arrangements
- knowledge of sustainable development and integration of renewable energy measures
- knowledge of the planning system including planning policy, development management, design guides and codes
- knowledge of sustainability theory, tools and techniques
- a degree in architecture, landscape architecture, geography, planning or a relevant subject, and a relevant post-graduate qualification in sustainability or similar
- full membership of a recognised professional body or demonstrable eligibility for full membership
- a full, valid driving licence
Other organisations might call this role climate change and sustainability officer, senior sustainability officer or similar.
East Herts Council is an equal opportunities employer who values diversity and is strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.
So, if you can help us to enhance the incredible historic environment of East Herts as our principal sustainability officer, please apply via this link.