Consents Project Manager

Cambridge County Council; Huntingdonshire; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing package

Additional 4 weeks annual leave (pro‑r

Flexible bank holidays

Enhanced pension contributions

Development opportunities

Paid volunteering hours

IDEAL network and peer support groups

Employee Recognition Awards

Cambs Rewards discounts

Car Lease & Cycle to Work schemes

Job summary

Cambridgeshire County Council is seeking two Consents Project Managers (one permanent, one fixed term to March 2028) to lead responses to NSIPs and TWAOs. You will coordinate inputs from planning, engineering and other services, ensuring timely, well-structured outputs for senior officers and elected members.

You will operate within a politically aware environment, with a focus on energy and water NSIP projects, applying project management best practice and clear risk communication across

Qualifications

• Experience delivering projects of varying complexity within a statutory/allocative framework.
• Knowledge of planning legislation relevant to NSIPs and TWAOs.
• Experience liaising with developers, consultants and external partners.
• Strong communication and coordination across organisations to achieve strategic aims.

Responsibilities

• Project manage the Council's responses to NSIPs and TWAOs, coordinating inputs from multiple services.
• Undertake information management and provide updates/reports to senior officers and Elected Members.
• Collaborate across the Place and Sustainability Directorate and with other County Council services.
• Engage with developers, their consultants and external partners to ensure shared understanding of issues and risks.
• Support the delivery of the growth agenda while safeguarding assets and enabling benefits for communities.

Skills

Project management

Planning knowledge

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Education

Planning legislation familiarity

Job description

This is an exciting time to join Cambridgeshire County Council's Consents Team. This role sits within the Consents Team in the Planning Service, part of the Place and Sustainability Directorate. The team oversees all the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) and Transport and Works Act orders (TWAOs) (Consents) within Cambridgeshire and neighbouring authority areas. We act as a central point of contact between the County Council, its technical officers, and developers of NSIPs and TWAOs to ensure the Council's interests are represented throughout the process. Cambridgeshire is experiencing accelerated growth, and the number of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects has increased in recent years. This role will project manage the Council's responses to NSIPs and TWAOs, to support the delivery of the growth agenda. The role will manage input from all relevant County Council services and liaise with internal and external stakeholders, seeking to protect Cambridgeshire's existing assets, secure enhancements and benefits, and support growth to come forward in the best ways possible for Cambridgeshire and its communities.

There are two Consents Project Manager roles available. One is permanent, and one is fixed term until March 2028. We request that applicants state their preference in their application.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage

• wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes

Take a look at our Employment Benefits Brochure attached to this advert to find out more.

What will you be doing?

The role involves project managing the County Council's responses to NSIPs and TWAOs, ensuring effective coordination, and instilling project management best practice throughout the process. This will involve working to strict and often competing deadlines, undertaking information management, and providing updates and reports to senior officers and Elected Members. The role will require working collaboratively across the Place and Sustainability Directorate, as well as with colleagues and stakeholders in the wider County Council to support the operational delivery of the organisation's objectives. You will collaborate with key internal and external stakeholders, including extensive liaison with developers, their consultants and agents, and relevant external partners. You will work with partners to ensure there is a shared understanding of the issues and risks, seeking to achieve successful outcomes for the Council and Cambridgeshire throughout the NSIP and TWAO processes.

About you

You will be capable of delivering a range of projects of varying complexity, working to strict deadlines. You will have to perform within a statutory framework of providing responses and reports. You will be able to operate within a political and technical environment. Ideally you will have previous experience of project management or Planning and be aware of Planning legislation relevant to NSIPs and TWAOs. The projects you may work on include Energy and Water projects, so experience in these fields would be beneficial. You will be able to smoothly manage projects and planning processes with a high level of attention to detail. You will have strong communication skills and experience of working in partnership across organisations to achieve strategic ambitions. You will be an excellent communicator, with experience of working with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers