Place Economics Consultant

Mott MacDonald; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks enthusiastic Place Economics Consultants to join their dynamic Cities Studio team. This role offers the opportunity to work on diverse urban development projects, preparing economic strategies and impact assessments that shape communities and enhance public and private sector initiatives. You will collaborate with a talented team, utilizing your analytical skills to deliver integrated solutions that meet complex urban challenges. With a focus on career development, this position provides a pathway to senior roles, allowing you to make a tangible impact on the future of urban environments. If you are passionate about socio-economic development and enjoy working in a collaborative setting, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Qualifications

• Master’s or Bachelor’s degree in Economics or related field required.
• Experience in economic strategy, impact assessments, and financial appraisal.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate on integrated place-based projects for clients.
• Develop economic and financial appraisals and impact assessments.
• Support delivery of technical reports and presentations.

Skills

Analytical Skills

Project Management

Data Analysis

Stakeholder Engagement

Education

Master’s degree in Economics

Bachelor’s degree in Economics or related field

Tools

HM Treasury Green Book

Five-Case Business Cases

Job description

Discipline: Project programme and commercial management

Job Ref: 7159

Recruiter Contact: Chris Raybould

We’re a global engineering, management, and development consultancy.
Our purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything we do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming our clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.

A fundamental part of this is respecting each person’s differences and striving to meet their needs.

About Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald is a global management, engineering and development consultancy adding value for public and private clients on agenda-setting, next-generation projects worldwide. We believe that working together as integrated teams allows us to meet the complex challenges facing our clients in developing and regenerating economically-successful and sustainable places.

Cities Studio

This role sits within Mott MacDonald’s Cities Studio team. Cities Studio is comprised of place economists, town planners and urban designers providing integrated and deliverable urban development solutions that enable communities, businesses, and places to thrive.

Cities Studio undertakes projects spanning a range of complex urban contexts including:

• Economic development strategy and policy at local, regional, and national scales
• Town centre and urban regeneration
• Transport hubs and transit-orientated development
• Mixed use urban quarters and neighbourhoods
• ‘Campus’-style developments, such as around healthcare, education, or industrial facilities.

Place Economics

Place Economists are an integral part of Cities Studio. They provide public and private sector clients with business cases, economic development strategies, funding and financing delivery advice, and economic impact assessment across the UK and internationally to support a range of urban development schemes.

This role is being created to support the continued development and growth of Cities Studio, providing greater senior-level economist staff capacity to respond to existing client requirements and emerging opportunities. This role should also expand technical resource capacity in the team.

This role will report to Project Managers for day-to-day work. You will play an important role in delivering the technical skills, report writing, and presentations and engagement with clients. Over time, you will continue to refine your technical skills and also develop your skills in project and client relationship management.

Significant career development opportunities will be available including involvement in a diverse portfolio of project work such as development of analytical and delivery-focused skills. There will be opportunities to progress to more senior economist and team leadership roles over time, offering greater levels of responsibility.

Overview of role
Due to increased business, we are looking to recruit Place Economics Consultants.

You will work on a wide range of projects in many sectors, preparing economic strategy and policy advice, business case advice, economic and socioeconomic impact assessments and undertaking evidence reviews, data analysis, stakeholder interviews, and engagement.

You will develop both qualitative and quantitative research tools as well as further developing our existing models.

Your responsibilities will include the following:

• Collaborate with other Cities Studio disciplines and be supported to deliver integrated place-based projects for clients
• Develop economic and financial appraisals, including undertaking data analysis and baselines
• Develop evidence-based research to support strategies and regeneration and development programmes
• Support place-based strategy work with masterplanning, urban design and town planning colleagues
• Support delivery of a broad range of built environment-related Five-Case Business Cases and related feasibility studies and impact assessments
• Support delivery of economic development advice verbally and via reports to clients.
• Support delivery of technical and narrative-led reports, action plans, and presentations.

Candidate specification
You have both a personal and professional interest in socio-economic and urban development. You are enthusiastic to work in a collaborative team environment on behalf of a range of public and private sector clients. You’ve previously worked in similar roles, most likely within a multi-disciplinary or specialist place economics consultancy, or the public sector. Throughout your career, you have had the opportunity to work on projects in the fields of economic development, regeneration, transit-oriented development, placemaking or similar fields.

An ideal candidate would both be able to work as a part of a team and work independently, as required. Our team works in offices across the country, so you should be comfortable in a hybrid (in-person and virtual) working environment. You should be analytical and approach projects with creative solutions.

You will be able to demonstrate the following:

• Preferred master’s degree / Essential bachelor’s degree in Economics, Economic Development, Finance, Geography, a Social Science, or a related discipline.
• Experience delivering some combination of economic strategy and policy, business cases, impact assessments, and economic and financial appraisal.
• Familiarity with HM Treasury Green Book and Five-Case Business Cases, ideally qualified as a Better Business Case Practitioner (though certification can be supported for the successful candidate.)
• Experience supporting the development of proposals for clients or developing and selecting proposals for bidders.

We have a collegiate and collaborative culture which values equality and diversity, and we take proactive steps to create an inclusive workplace. Together, we are opening opportunities with connected thinking.