Marine Licensing and Offshore Consenting Lead

Maritime and Coastguard Agency; Southampton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A government agency focused on maritime safety is looking for a professional to join their Marine Licensing and Offshore Consenting Team in Southampton. This role involves reviewing applications for significant national projects, ensuring compliance with maritime safety regulations, and contributing to the UK’s energy security strategy. The ideal candidate has experience in the maritime industry, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to influence stakeholders. The position offers benefits such as a generous pension scheme and flexible working options.

Benefits

Employer pension contribution of 28.97%

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Experience in the nautical or maritime industry.
• Ability to work within statutory obligations.
• Experience in assessing infrastructure projects.

Responsibilities

• Review applications for Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects.
• Lead preparation of responses for Hearings on Development Consent Orders.
• Assess Marine Licence applications for accuracy and fit for purpose.

Skills

Attention to detail

Problem-solving skills

Stakeholder influence

Job description

Join the Marine Licensing and Offshore Consenting Team within UK Technical Services Navigation, supporting the UK's transition to Net Zero. You'll assess applications for major national infrastructure projects, including offshore renewables, port developments, and carbon capture. Working closely with internal leads, you'll help ensure maritime safety, support the UK Energy Security Strategy, and deliver 50GW of offshore renewable capacity by 2030. This role contributes directly to meeting statutory obligations under the Marine Licensing regime and improving maritime safety.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren't limited to:

• Review and assess applications for Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects (NSIPs) including Offshore Renewable Energy Installations (OREIs), port developments, nuclear, low carbon hydrogen (carbon capture utilisation and storage), and the UK cable wide upgrade as submitted by the relevant maritime regulator. This will include advice and guidance at all stages of the zonal assessment, planning process, pre‑application, and post consent stages, in accordance with DfT Guidelines and MCA established procedures.
• Review and assess Development Consent Orders and Deemed Marine Licences ensuring they are accurate for MCA's requirements and are fit for purpose, working with Department for Transport (DfT) legal as required.
• Lead the preparation of responses to the Examining Authority's Questions, Actions and Relevant Representations during the Hearings on 'Shipping and Navigation' and 'Development Consent Order' (DCO) agenda items for all Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and attend and speak at the Hearings as deemed necessary.
• Review and assess Marine Licence applications, in conjunction with the Marine Licensing Lead, to ensure responses are submitted within the 28 days timescales, and to provide advice and guidance to the devolved licensing authorities in the UK on marine licence applications and associated mitigation to reduce risks for safe navigation.
• Continuously review and update MCA published guidance used by the Offshore Renewable industry, Marine Guidance Notes and Methodology for Assessing Navigational Risk in line with IMO's Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) requirements.

Are you a focused individual with attention to detail? Do you have nautical or maritime industry/administration experience and want to contribute to reducing maritime risk and improving safety? Have you got strong problem‑solving skills and the ability to confidently influence stakeholders at all levels?

Disability Confident: a Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) implements the government's maritime safety policy in the United Kingdom and works to prevent the loss of life and occurrence of pollution on the coast and at sea. Safer lives. Safer Ships. Cleaner Seas. Our vision is to be a world‑leading organisation, accelerating the transition to sustainable shipping with non‑negotiable safety standards. We put our people, our customers and our planet at the heart of everything we do.

Benefits

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King's birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below! Find out more about what it's like working at MCA.