Landscape Architect

Canal & River Trust; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Increased holiday entitlement

Employee benefits

Job summary

Canal & River Trust is seeking a Landscape Architect to join the Placemaking & Design team. You will lead landscape architecture within multidisciplinary teams, influence external stakeholders, and help shape waterside places across England and Wales.

Regular national travel is required with home-based work and hub facilities. The role demands a degree in Landscape Architecture (plus post-graduate diploma) and chartered status, with strong IT skills (GIS, AutoCAD, Adobe).

Qualifications

• Degree and post-graduate diploma in Landscape Architecture.
• Chartered Landscape Architect or equivalent.
• Strong advocate for high-quality design and placemaking.

Responsibilities

• Provide landscape architecture leadership within multidisciplinary project teams.
• Create vision documents and waterspace strategies focused on placemaking.
• Review and respond to third-party planning applications as statutory consultee.
• Produce design guidance and influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Create high-quality graphics to support the Trust’s ambitions.
• Collaborate with Environment & Climate Action on biodiversity and nature-based solutions.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Influence

Time management

Travel willingness

Education

Degree in Landscape Architecture

Post-graduate diploma in Landscape Architecture

Tools

AutoCAD

GIS

Adobe Creative Suite

SketchUp

Job description

Join Our Team: Landscape Architect opportunity

Navigate your future and lock in your career as we keep our canals open and alive.

We are currently recruiting for a Landscape Architect to join our Placemaking & Design team. Reporting to the Principal Landscape Architect, you’ll be part of a small but high-performing national team of landscape architects and architects, creating and influencing great waterside places, whilst helping to shape and secure the future of our canal network across England and Wales.

The diverse nature of the Trust’s network, and the range of activities, users and stakeholders that use our waterways, presents unique opportunities for landscape architects to work within our Customer & Place Division, and across our multidisciplinary charity.

We design and influence new waterway and waterside places; enhancing the waterways, creating great waterside places, and connecting our canals to wider neighbourhoods and communities. We develop propositions along the Trust’s waterway network, understanding the heritage and tradition, but also ensuring canals remain relevant through thoughtful, creative and innovative design. Our work takes a place-based approach to create sustainable and valued relationships between communities and their canals.

This is a national role, across our canals in England and Wales. The role has home working status, with Trust ‘hub’ office facilities available across our Regions. An essential part of this role will be a requirement for regular national travel to sites and Trust hubs, (which may or may not be accessible by public transport).

Working Hours & Location

This role follows 37 hours, Monday to Friday working pattern. This role is based working from home, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces from time to time for team working and collaborative meetings. It is important that you can reasonably commute to one of our main hubs below. The regularity & flexibility of travel will be discussed further at interview stage.

Relevant Hubs: Leeds, Newark, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Birmingham, Hatton, Leighton Buzzard, Gloucester & Little Venice (London).

Role Overview

You will be a motivated individual, able to work as part of a team, with experience of influencing others and working in multi-disciplinary teams. You will be required to work to set deadlines and demonstrate a willingness to learn new skills and expand your technical knowledge. You will need a good working knowledge of IT, in particular Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, experience of GIS based systems, Sketch-Up and AutoCAD would be advantageous.

You will work within the Placemaking & Design team, carrying out specific tasks and supporting the Trust by providing an in-house design consultancy and influencing external parties, working at different levels on an exciting range of projects. You will positively influence Trust and third-party projects to realise innovative opportunities, enhance the waterways and create great waterside places for people and nature by:

Key Responsibilities

• Providing landscape architecture leadership within multidisciplinary project teams across all areas of the Trust, including producing design principles, sketch schemes and outline masterplans, as well as detailed schemes and documentation to support Trust-led planning applications.
• Creating vision documents and waterspace strategies focussed on placemaking and shaping, connecting people with the natural and historic environment and the benefits our canal network can bring to local communities.
• Reviewing and responding to third-party planning applications in the Trust’s role as statutory consultee, protecting our historic network.
• Producing design guidance documents related to different Trust workstreams, to positively influence internal Trust project teams and wider policy makers such as ATE/Local Authority policy makers and developers.
• Producing high-quality graphics to support and promote the Trust’s ambitions.
• Working with our Environment & Climate Action team to develop a package of landscape-led initiatives, including biodiversity net gain, nature recovery schemes and nature-based solutions.

About You

You will be a motivated individual, able to work as part of a team, with experience of influencing others and working in multi-disciplinary teams. You will be required to work to set deadlines and demonstrate a willingness to learn new skills and expand your technical knowledge. You will need a good working knowledge of IT, in particular Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, experience of GIS based systems, Sketch-Up and AutoCAD would be advantageous.

Skills & Qualifications

Technical

• Degree and post-graduate diploma in Landscape Architecture or Urban Design.
• Chartered Landscape Architect or relevant equivalent (e.g. Registered Practitioner in Urban Design).
• Passionate advocate for the value of high-quality design, placemaking, and nature-based solutions.
• Strong problem-solving and landscape design skills.
• Ability to work across all aspects of the landscape profession, including landscape planning, urban design, heritage, and public realm projects.
• Experience of developing planting plans, landscape specifications, and illustrative visualisations.
• Knowledge of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy, legislation, and guidance would be advantageous.
• Ability to draft, review, and develop technical guidance, standards, and best practice documents.
• Strong IT skills, particularly Adobe Creative Suite, with the ability to produce high-quality graphical outputs and visual communications.
• Experience of using GIS and AutoCAD would be advantageous.

General:

• Passionate advocate for the value of high-quality design, placemaking, and nature-based solutions.
• Adaptable and able to apply skills across a diverse portfolio of projects and environments.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with experience of engaging a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to influence, negotiate, and build productive relationships across organisational boundaries.
• Confident presenter, with strong verbal communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of multidisciplinary teams.
• Self-motivated and able to manage priorities across multiple projects.
• Ability and willingness to travel across England and Wales, with a valid UK driving licence and access to a vehicle.

Contact & Application

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at [e-mail]. We encourage early applications as we may close the vacancy once we receive enough suitable candidates.

What We Offer

In addition to your annual base salary of £44,000, we also offer a competitive pension scheme, increasing holiday entitlement, and a range of employee benefits. For a full breakdown of our benefits, check out our brochure here: EVP - 1 (https://canalrivertrust.pagetiger.com/cqhhihy/1).