Project Assistant

London Borough of Waltham Forest; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

London Borough of Waltham Forest is seeking a motivated Project Assistant to support housing sustainability projects under the Council's Climate Emergency agenda. You will help plan, implement, and monitor a diverse portfolio, coordinating residents, contractors, and internal teams while maintaining records and generating reports.

The role is ideal for someone at an early career stage, with strong organisational skills and a willingness to learn in a public-sector environment.

Qualifications

• Degree desirable; 5 GCSEs at grade A-C or equivalent to include English and Maths.
• Experience delivering or supporting major projects in public sector or complex environments.
• Knowledge of Agile, backlog grooming, sprint planning and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Support the delivery of housing projects under the Climate Emergency agenda.
• Assist in the collection and analysis of housing and energy data for planning and reporting.
• Maintain accurate project records and databases related to retrofit works.
• Liaise with internal teams, contractors, consultants, and residents for coordination.
• Prepare and update reports, presentations, and other documentation as required.
• Provide general administrative and logistical support to project managers.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder coordination

Data analysis

Reporting

Agile knowledge

Microsoft Office

Education

Degree desirable

5 GCSEs including English & Maths

Project management qualification desirable

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Are you passionate about tackling climate change, improving housing quality, and supporting sustainable communities? The London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF) is offering an excellent opportunity for a motivated and organised Project Assistant to support our team in delivering vital housing sustainability projects. This role is ideal for someone early in their career, looking to gain valuable experience in project delivery, planned and cyclical works, and public service. As a Project Assistant, you will play a key supporting role in contributing to the successful planning, implementation, and monitoring of a wide range of projects across the Council's housing portfolio. These projects are central to the Council's Corporate Climate Emergency Strategy and are designed to improve the sustainability, safety, and comfort of homes while significantly reducing carbon emissions. You will support day-to-day project activities by assisting in the coordination of key stakeholders, including residents, internal service teams, contractors, and consultants. Your role will involve maintaining detailed and accurate digital records, tracking project milestones, and helping to ensure all documentation and compliance requirements are met. In addition, you will contribute to the development of reports, data summaries, and presentations that inform decision-making and highlight progress to both internal and external audiences. Your work will help ensure that the Council's planned and cyclical works programmes are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards, ultimately benefiting residents and contributing to a more sustainable future for the borough. This is a unique opportunity to gain valuable experience in project delivery, sustainability, and public sector housing, while actively supporting meaningful climate action.

• Support the delivery of retrofit and energy efficiency projects under the Council's Climate Emergency agenda.
• Assist in the collection and analysis of housing and energy data for planning and reporting purposes.
• Help maintain accurate project records and databases related to retrofit works.
• Liaise with internal teams, contractors, consultants, and residents to support effective project coordination.
• Prepare and update reports, presentations, and other documentation as required.
• Provide general administrative and logistical support to the Project managers.
• Experience of managing small to medium projects in complex and challenging environments.
• Experience of supporting complex projects and programmes in managing and reporting project progress, risks and issues, budgets, decisions to the SRO.
• Knowledge of the financial, legal and social environments in which a local authority operates.
• Experience of managing stakeholder relationships.
• Possess in depth understanding of Agile, its values and principles, including backlog grooming, release and sprint planning, burn‑up/down charts, and more.
• Be effective at planning, monitoring and reviewing.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with an ability to interact effectively with people at all levels in an organization including senior level executives.
• Work effectively as part of a team and have a genuine desire to assist colleagues.
• An ability to respond to unpredictable volume of work with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn new ways to accomplish work activities and objectives.
• Work effectively and efficiently, paying careful attention to detail, data confidentiality and accuracy.
• Self‑starter with high degree of initiative, urgency, and follow through.
• Possess strengths in organisational, attention‑to‑detail, reasoning, critical thinking, and problem‑solving skills.
• Able to work in an inclusive manner with staff and residents.
• Good IT literacy, particularly with Microsoft Office applications.
• Able to work in an inclusive manner with staff and residents, Degree desirable. 5 GCSEs at grade A-C or equivalent to include English and Maths.
• Project management qualification desirable
• Terms and conditions: Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; Satisfactory declaration of interest; Satisfactory DBS check; Suitable driver's license desirable; As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public‑facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident‑focused, insight‑led, digitally driven, and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well‑being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace.

• Promoting equality of opportunity
• Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage
• Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels.
• Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self‑identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy. We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.