Senior Environmental Sustainability Advisor

Balfour Beatty plc; Dundee (MI); Hybrid; USD 80,321 - 113,788; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Smart working (up to 40% remote)

25 days annual leave

Pension

Share incentive plan

Volunteering leave

Recognition schemes

Job summary

Balfour Beatty plc is seeking a Senior Environmental Sustainability Advisor to join our Power business unit, supporting major projects across Scotland. You will lead on environmental sustainability, ensuring compliance and guiding teams to deliver sustainable outcomes for clients and communities.

The role requires strong leadership, extensive regulatory engagement, and a deep knowledge of environmental legislation, permitting, and best practice, with line management of junior advisors and

Qualifications

• Experience engaging with regulatory authorities and managing environmental compliance on large infrastructure projects.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to manage teams and subcontractors.
• Excellent knowledge of environmental legislation, permitting, and best practice.
• Ecology background would be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert guidance and leadership across multiple projects for environmental sustainability.
• Support project teams to meet environmental commitments and comply with standards.
• Lead on ecological considerations and liaison with regulatory bodies (NatureScot, SEPA, Marine Scotland, Local Authorities).
• Oversee environmental performance reporting and drive data quality improvements.
• Manage permitting and licensing requirements across project lifecycles.
• Offer site-based support from feasibility through post-construction.
• Line manage and mentor junior Environmental Sustainability Advisors and graduates.
• Collaborate with clients, stakeholders, subcontractors and environmental specialists to deliver sustainable solutions.
• Support work-winning teams with planning, permitting and environmental inputs.

Skills

Environmental sustainability expertise

Leadership / team management

Regulatory engagement

Ecology background

Collaborative approach

Job description

About the role

At Balfour Beatty, we’re on a journey to lead the way in sustainable infrastructure. We’re looking for a Senior Environmental Sustainability Advisor to join our Power business unit, supporting major projects across Scotland. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact by ensuring our projects meet the highest environmental standards while helping us deliver long‑term, positive outcomes for our clients, communities, and the environment.

What you’ll be doing

As a Senior Environmental Sustainability Advisor, you’ll play a key role in providing expert guidance and leadership across multiple projects. You will:

• Support project teams in meeting environmental and sustainability commitments, ensuring compliance with legal, client, and Balfour Beatty standards.
• Lead on ecological considerations, liaising with regulatory bodies including NatureScot, SEPA, Marine Scotland and Local Authorities.
• Oversee environmental performance reporting, driving continuous improvement in data quality and outcomes.
• Manage permitting and licensing requirements for projects, ensuring compliance at every stage.
• Provide visible site‑based support, from feasibility through to post‑construction.
• Line manage and mentor junior Environmental Sustainability Advisors, Coordinators, and graduates.
• Collaborate with clients, stakeholders, subcontractors, consultants, and environmental specialists to deliver innovative, sustainable solutions.
• Support our work‑winning teams by advising on planning, permitting, and environmental requirements.

Who we’re looking for

We’re seeking someone who brings:

• Proven expertise in environmental sustainability, ideally with an ecology background.
• Experience engaging with regulatory authorities and managing environmental compliance on large infrastructure projects.
• Strong leadership skills, with the ability to manage teams and subcontractors.
• A collaborative approach, with confidence in engaging clients, stakeholders, and partners.
• Excellent knowledge of environmental legislation, permitting, and best practice.

Why work for us

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

Why join us?

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:

• Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.
• 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata).
• Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave.
• Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…

About us

Balfour Beatty’s Power Transmission & Distribution teams work with regional, national and international electricity network owners and operators to provide technical engineering solutions across the full spectrum of the electricity grid, including overhead lines, cabling, substations and distribution networks.

From scoping and feasibility, to design, construction and on‑going maintenance, our in‑house experts, flexible resources and industry‑leading innovations support customers in the development of some of the UK’s most ambitious power transmission and distribution projects.

Diversity and inclusion

At Balfour Beatty we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential components of any successful, happy workplace. Through our Value Everyone Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan, we are growing our diverse workforce and developing our inclusive culture where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. To find out how we are making this a reality, visit www.balfourbeatty.com/diversityandinclusion.

To help and support us with our desired commitment to create an inclusive culture we are members of WISE, ENEI, Business Disability Forum and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE). In 2020, we signed the Audeliss and Involve Open Letter to demonstrate our commitment to taking key long‑term and sustainable actions on Black Inclusion. Balfour Beatty is also a Gold Award holder in the Ministry of Defence 'Employer Recognition Scheme' and actively encourage applications from Armed Forces personnel, veterans and reservists.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to working with people who have disabilities and long‑term health conditions to remove barriers for them in obtaining employment. We are also committed to offering applicants with a disability an interview if they meet the minimum requirements for the role. For more info, visit https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/.

We are looking to continually improve our resourcing process and ensure that it is fair and inclusive for all. If you have any feedback on the process, please share this with us at [e-mail].