Head of Natural Environment

The Methodist Church in Britain; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible benefits fund

Flexible working

Personal development opportunities

Staff networks

Job summary

HS2 Ltd in the United Kingdom is seeking a Head of Natural Environment to lead the natural environment teams within Environment Technical Services. You will set environmental standards, oversee ecology, landscape, water, waste and agriculture specialists, and act as the technical environmental authority for the project.

You will provide professional leadership, manage external stakeholder relationships, and ensure compliance with legislation and High-Speed Rail Act requirements while delivering

Qualifications

• Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution, or equivalent experience.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary environmental teams on major infrastructure projects.
• Ability to manage budgets and schedules and interact with government departments.

Responsibilities

• Set and assure environmental technical requirements and standards for the project, and help determine policy with National Authorities at Ministerial level
• Provide professional and functional leadership to ecology, biodiversity, landscape, water, waste and agriculture disciplines
• Act as professional lead for landscape design and accountable for delivering the HS2 Green Corridor
• Ensure landscape design and ecological requirements under the High-Speed Rail Act, EMRs and legislation are met
• Keep environmental technical standards compliant and relevant across development, construction and operation
• Manage specialist advice to Delivery and Rail Development and assurance of environment and sustainability evidence
• Own management of the Route-wide Organisational Licences and requirements
• Oversee risk-based LOD 2 functional assurance in support of Delivery teams
• Manage technical relationships with external stakeholders including Natural England, DEFRA, Forestry Commission and Woodland Trust
• Lead technical responses to environmental enquiries under FOI and EIR, including Ministerial queries
• Actively promote and embed EDI in all work and comply with organisational EDI initiatives, policies and procedures

Skills

Leadership

Environmental management

Stakeholder engagement

Policy development

Communication

Education

Chartered membership of a relevant professional institution

Job description

HS2 Ltd is recruiting a Head of Natural Environment to lead the natural environment teams within Environment Technical Services, acting as the project's technical environmental authority. The post oversees ecology, landscape, water, waste and agriculture specialists, setting environmental standards and owning the route-wide organisational licences. It stands out for the professional lead role on landscape design and the HS2 Green Corridor, with work at Ministerial level. Chartered membership or equivalent experience is required, and visa sponsorship is not available.

What the job involves

• Set and assure environmental technical requirements and standards for the project, and help determine policy with National Authorities at Ministerial level
• Provide professional and functional leadership to the ecology and biodiversity, landscape, water, waste and agriculture disciplines within Environment Technical Services
• Act as professional lead for landscape design and be accountable for delivering the HS2 Green Corridor
• Ensure landscape design and ecological requirements under the High-Speed Rail Act, EMRs and legislation are met, evidenced and departures technically appraised
• Keep environmental technical standards compliant and relevant, and ensure specialists maintain them across development, construction and operation
• Manage specialist advice to Delivery and Rail Development and assurance of environment and sustainability evidence against assessment and EMRs
• Manage technical functional support so HS2 Ltd meets its Nominated Undertaker responsibilities within budget and schedule
• Own management of the Route-wide Organisational Licences and the requirements arising from them
• Oversee risk-based LOD 2 functional assurance in support of Delivery teams
• Manage technical relationships with external stakeholders including Natural England, DEFRA, Forestry Commission and Woodland Trust, and maintain the SLAs with Natural England and the Forestry Commission
• Lead technical responses to environmental enquiries under FOI and EIR, including Ministerial queries, Parliamentary questions and media enquiries
• Actively promote and embed EDI in all work and comply with organisational EDI initiatives, policies and procedures

Qualifications

• Chartered membership of an appropriate professional institution, or equivalent experience

Experience

• Leading multi-disciplinary standards and environmental activity on complex major infrastructure programmes, including managing multi-disciplinary teams
• Managing competing engineering, technical and environmental demands with cost and schedule implications
• Project management across a range of environmental disciplines and processes
• Managing or supporting large-scale budgets in a design and construction environment
• Stakeholder management, including with government departments and other external stakeholders

Skills & knowledge

• Complex problem solving, gathering and synthesising information, and advising on options and technical solutions
• Communicating discipline-specific technical ideas to stakeholders and colleagues
• Influencing and negotiation with internal and external stakeholders
• Organisation and planning to deadlines, cost and quality requirements
• Commercial awareness of cost, schedule targets and integrated solutions
• Understanding of the environmental and sustainability regulatory and legislative framework relevant to HS2

Checks & eligibility

• Right to work in the UK at application, as no sponsorship is offered; pre-employment checks including DBS, references, financial and education

Other

• Knowledge of the UK context around HS2, including its political and environmental implications
• Applying information management, modelling and data security principles
• Behaving in line with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity and Respect

What’s offered

• Flexible benefits fund of 20% of base salary, paid on top and fully pensionable
• Competitive benefits, set out in the Benefits section of the HS2 website
• Flexible working
• Personal and professional development opportunities
• Support for adjustments
• Staff networks