Land Referencing Technician

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd; Belfast, Birmingham; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in land and property solutions is seeking a Land Referencing Technician for their Belfast office. This entry-level role involves analyzing land ownership data, utilizing Geographic Information Systems, and ensuring compliance with project standards. The position offers a competitive salary and opportunities for professional development within a supportive team environment.

Benefits

Enhanced Family Friendly policies

Employee Assistance Programme

Option to buy additional annual leave

Pension scheme

Life Assurance

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or relevant qualification required.
• Experience with Geographic Information Systems is essential.
• Attention to detail and accuracy is critical.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and verify ownership and occupation data.
• Capture graphical and textual information to specified quality levels.
• Liaise with team members, clients, and the public.

Skills

Attention to accuracy

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Geographic Information Systems

MS Office proficiency

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Job description

TerraQuest

Role: Land Referencing Technician

Location: Birmingham or Belfast in line with our Agile Working Policy. You will need to be able to work from either the Birmingham or Belfast office 2 days per week/office if within the commuting distance to be attended as often as business needs require.

Salary: Competitive

Who we are...

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd is an award-winning and market-leading specialist provider of planning, land, property, and business solutions. We are an established and trusted organisation that is renowned for its expertise in providing innovative and cost-effective solutions to both the public and private sectors. Our team delivers bespoke, flexible, and efficient services through a process-orientated delivery structure. We pride ourselves on strong customer relationships evidenced by the high proportion of referrals and repeat business.

Why work with us…

We are a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer, committed to supporting the well-being and development of all our people. With competitive salaries, enhanced Family Friendly policies; a fabulous suite of benefits (including Pension; Life Assurance; Employee Assistance Programme; option to buy additional annual leave in addition to 25 days plus Bank Holidays); true flexibility with our Agile Working approach, and superb training and development opportunities, we care about our team!

We are looking to recruit individuals into our experienced team who are high performers, ambitious, and willing to push to innovate, improve, and widen our services. You will also be keen to develop either project management skills in our industry, or technical land referencing prowess.

What we need...

The position will be as a member of a dedicated team, delivering specialist land and property services and projects in areas as diverse as processing planning applications to analysing, processing and capturing ownership and occupation data, including spatial data using a geographic information system (GIS), and extensive communication and interaction with stakeholders from the general public, planning professionals and our clients. The Land Referencing Technician will be responsible for ensuring all allocated project tasks are completed to time and quality and in compliance of TerraQuest’s standards and systems.

Ideally, you will have experience of land referencing, compulsory purchase process, and/or the wider industry from either previous roles or via projects undertaken during undergraduate or post graduate study. You may have experience of Compulsory Purchase Orders, Development Consent Orders, Hybrid Bills or other property related experience. This is a great entry level role within the Land Referencing landscape with scope for development for the right candidates. This will be a 12-month fixed term contract initially.

The Land Referencing Technician will be a member of the Professional Services team, with responsibility for the execution of project tasks as directed by the Assistant Project Manager/Project Manager. The Land Referencing Technician will report directly to the Project Manager and Assistant Project Manager.

What you will be doing…

• To analyse and verify information in relation to ownership and occupation of land and property.
• To capture graphical and/or textual information to specified quality levels and production rates as required.
• To undertake site based and office-based work as directed and record results of site visits accurately. Land Referencing Technicians are also required to occasionally undertake visits to sites throughout the UK.
• Day to day liaison with team members, clients and interested parties.
• To deal with enquires from the general public and record all correspondences accurately.
• To produce plans and relevant documentation on request.
• To process planning application validations, checking all information received, against a fixed turn-around target and to make the decision as to whether the application is invalid or valid and, where necessary, negotiate amendments to application submissions by communicating with the applicant/agent via telephone, email, letter (referring to the Senior Planning Technician or Assistant Project Manager where necessary for guidance).
• To be responsible for the quality of deliverables and completeness of updated project documentation and systems including Daily Production Logs, Quality Logs and customer business systems as directed.
• Maintaining attention to detail and a focus on accuracy at all times, often when undertaking repetitive tasks.
• Meeting production targets whilst continually meeting quality standards.
• Liaising with land /planning agents and members of the public and handling communication in a polite and professional manner at all times.
• Decision making on interpreting land and property or planning information, and escalating issues where necessary.
• Following formal work instructions and rule base logic to make decisions and to escalate appropriately.
• Decisions whether information is valid, accurate, up to date and compliant with standards and guidelines.
• To undertake complex analysis of land/planning information of a legal nature.
• Quality Control Rates – complete a number of recorded errors against acceptable level of quality rates.
• Productivity Rates – complete a number of tasks, cases or applications performed within a time period against specified target rates.
• To undertake any other tasks and duties within the scope and grade of the post.

What we are looking for…

Must-haves:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant to the business.
• Exposure to/experience of Geographic Information Systems.
• The ability to organise own workload and be able to work autonomously.
• The ability to work to deadlines and within a team environment.
• Attention to accuracy and detail.
• Ability to read plans and maps.
• Basic understanding of geography.
• Proficiency in MS Office suite and use of internet
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Confident in dealing with difficult customers and achieving positive outcomes.
• A right first-time approach with focus on maintaining high productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.

Desirable

• Experience within the land referencing or planning industry, and of compulsory purchase more widely.
• 6 months work experience using Geographic Information Systems
• Experience of land ownership subject area and analysing title information held at HM Land Registry;

Or

• Experience of the planning applications subject area and experience working within Local Planning Authority

Please apply for more information and please do not be put off if you do not have all of the experience and skills required. If you have the majority of skills and relevant experience, we would still like to hear from you!