Head of Marine Licensing Operations - G7 - ( Ref : 6365 )

Job summary

This position can be based at Newcastle or York

Job description

This role is eligible to be based in the Newcastle or York office.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Driven by government’s aim for clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas, MMO’s purpose is to protect and enhance our precious marine environment and support UK economic growth by enabling sustainable marine activities and development.

We are the independent regulator for England’s seas, professionally delivering service-focussed outcomes for our customers.

We are a team of around 500 people and combine our Newcastle upon Tyne and London operations with a local presence around the English coastline in Brixham, Beverley, Harwich, Hastings, Lowestoft, North Shields, Hayle, Plymouth, Poole, Portsmouth, Preston, Scarborough, Shoreham, Whitehaven.

More information about our work is on the GOV.UK website and you can read the MMO’s Story here

Job description

This is a leadership role with real impact.

At the MMO, we regulate and enable how England’s seas are used — balancing economic growth with environmental protection at a time when demand for marine space has never been higher. If you’re an experienced operational leader looking to apply your skills to work that genuinely matters, this is your opportunity to lead at scale and shape a nationally important service.

As Head of Marine Licensing Operations, you’ll lead one of two high-performing casework operations teams within our Marine Development Directorate. Together, these teams assess and determine marine licence applications across major sectors including coastal development, ports and harbours, and renewable energy. In 2024/25 alone, the service delivered decisions on more than 660 applications. You’ll be accountable for day-to-day operational delivery, performance and outcomes — ensuring decisions are timely, robust and fully compliant with regulatory frameworks.

You won’t be doing this in isolation. The two posts are designed to provide shared leadership and operational resilience across the service. You’ll work closely with your counterpart and senior colleagues — including the Head of Marine Licensing Quality and Support, and Finance to drive efficiency, manage risk and continuously improve how the service operates. A key part of your role will be building strong, trusted relationships with expert advisors and external partners, translating complex evidence into clear, confident and defensible decisions.

This role is ideal for a leader who thrives in complex, regulated environments and brings clarity to operational delivery. You’ll set direction, empower teams and create a culture focused on performance, collaboration and public value — ensuring our licensing service remains trusted, responsive and ready for the future.

Key tasks, accountabilities and responsibilities:

• Work collectively as a member of the Directorate Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and the Marine Licensing Management Team (LMT) to support organisational goals and corporate initiatives as required.
• Provide a leadership role in the management of the marine licencing team, with a focus on people and service delivery performance.
• Oversee and manage the delivery of the marine licence applications and statutory advisor service to the Planning Inspectorate for England (PINS), working alongside Strategic Marine Licensing, leading on the sign off of High priority casework.
• Input into briefings and manage cases escalated for review.
• Lead, manage and support Senior Case Managers to deliver the marine licensing blueprint.
• Proactively manage team resources effectively using business planning and financial management to ensure targets and key performance indicators are met and tracked efficiently using project management systems.
• Develop Senior Case Managers to quality check the service provision in line with processes to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Ensure a consistent approach is taken to dealing with licensing applications.
• Proactively seek feedback from multiple sources to continually improve the service offering.
• Work closely with DEFRA and DESNZ to support the delivery of government initiatives and priorities.
• Deputise for G6 Head of Marine Licensing Service Delivery when required.
• You will be expected to travel to management and team meetings in the Newcastle, and other office bases as and when required by the role.

Key skills for the role:

Essential

• Experience of leading and managing teams greater than 10 people.
• A strong ability to plan, prioritise and control workload to delivering results to agreed timescales.
• Effective management of team resources to ensure delivery of business plans.
• Ability to report against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and achieve customer service targets.
• Ability to monitor and forecast workflow projections from major customers to understand optimum resource requirements and input into income forecasts and workforce planning business case.
• Managing key relationships with relevant industry stakeholders and national primary advisors such as Environment Agency and Natural England.
• The ability to make decisions based on a range of complex information.

Desirable

• Skilled at presenting to internal Boards, Senior Leadership Teams and large team meetings.

Experience for the role:

Essential

• Over 5 years' experience in effective people/performance management.
• Experience in leading a professional and diverse team to deliver at pace with excellent customer service.
• Experience of planning and prioritising workload to deliver results to agreed timescales.
• Ability to demonstrate effective communication with a wide range of people, in appropriate media.
• Evidence of engaging and influencing at a senior level with a wide range of internal/external stakeholders and customers.
• Experience of interpretating legislation/regulations and applying them to a range of practical situations/solutions.

Desirable

• Experience of working with Other Government Departments including Defra, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Transport, devolved administrations, and local authorities.
• Experience of working with key external stakeholders including Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Natural England, JNCC, Environment Agency, Historic England, and The Crown Estate.
• Knowledge of environmental issues and/or marine industries, gained through direct experience in a marine management role. To note, training will be provided to the successful candidate.
• Experience of working with political figures including Ministers and MP’s.

Qualifications for the role:

Essential

• Degree in relevant environmental science, including planning, and/or has relevant experience (over 5 years).

Desirable

• Masters degree in relevant environmental science and/or has relevant experience.
• Professional membership of relevant organisation such as IMarEST.

Please see the candidate pack for full details of the role.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Qualifications

Degree in relevant environmental science, including planning, and/or has relevant experience (over 5 years)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,923, Marine Management Organisation contributes £16,200 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Please refer to Job Description

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Leanne Stockdale
• Email : Leanne.Stockdale@marinemanagement.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : defra-recruitment-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-5/brand-10/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/6/opp/6365-6365-Head-of-Marine-Licensing-Operations-G7/en-GB

Attachments

23012026 Candidate Pack - G7 Head of ML Operations Opens in new window (pdf, 657kB)23012026 G7 ML Candidate Pack - Colleague Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 1034kB)