Principal Officer - Development Plan Delivery - ( Ref : 6382 )

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK.

Job description

The Team

This is an exciting opportunity to join a busy team at the forefront of delivery, as Natural England seeks to deliver major government planning reforms, supporting our ambition for a healthy natural environment that underpins sustainable growth, supporting greener homes and infrastructure that create healthier nature-rich places for people to live, learn, work and play.

The Major Planning Casework Team sits within National Delivery and provides national leadership, coordination and support for Natural England’s engagement with major planning casework, including development plans, nationally significant projects and other complex, high‑risk casework. The team works across the organisation and external partners to ensure planning systems support nature recovery and achieve Natural England’s ambition for thriving nature for people and planet.

Development plans (Local Plans and Spatial Development Strategies) represent some of Natural England’s most strategically important planning work, shaping the future of places before development proposals come forward. National Delivery plays a critical role in overseeing a pipeline of development plan work delivered by area teams, ensuring we provide high‑quality, timely, advice, prioritising our resource and enabling growth and nature recovery through strategic advice.

The Role

This is a new leadership role providing national oversight, operational coordination and strategic direction for the delivery of Natural England’s development plan work within National Delivery.

The postholder will:

• Champion development plan work as a key mechanism for nature recovery, promoting the value of proactive plan‑shaping internally and externally.
• Lead national oversight of a pipeline of Local Plans and Spatial Development Strategies (SDS), ensuring Natural England has a clear, coherent understanding of scale, timing, risks and opportunities across England.
• Ensure prioritisation and resourcing of development plan casework across Natural England, making sure that specialist time is deployed where it adds most value.
• Provide leadership and assurance on development plan delivery, ensuring consistent approaches, high‑quality advice, and effective risk management across the delivery.
• Act as the national coordination point, working with Area Team leads, specialists, Operations Managers, and Strategy colleagues to ensure that the organisation is aligned and that development plan commitments are delivered.
• Support and guide Area Teams, providing escalation routes, setting expectations and enabling teams to deliver high‑impact, evidence‑led advice on plan‑
• Drive improvements to operational systems, including forward planning, tracking tools, prioritisation frameworks, and national standards for development plan casework.
• The role requires strategic operational leadership, excellent judgement, strong stakeholder engagement skills, and deep understanding of the opportunities plan‑making offers for nature at landscape scale.

Key Accountabilities

The successful candidate will:

National Oversight and Strategic Coordination

• Provide strategic oversight of a national development plan pipeline, including complexity, risk, deadlines and resourcing needs, ensuring a clear organisational understanding of priorities.
• Lead the national coordination of operational delivery, ensuring Area Teams and specialists work in a coherent and aligned way to meet statutory deadlines, manage risks and secure the best outcomes for nature.
• Use insight and evidence to anticipate capacity and capability pressures, advising senior leaders on future resource, capability and organisational needs relating to development plan delivery.

Resource Planning and Deployment

• Ensure the effective deployment of finite specialist capacity (ecology, strategic planning specialists, modelling, species experts etc.), making clear decisions on priorities between plan‑making and development management casework.
• Maintain oversight of workloads across Area Teams, actively directing or rebalancing resource where necessary to support timely, high‑quality plan advice.

Leadership, Assurance and Quality

• Provide visible leadership by championing high standards of advice in development plans and providing senior guidance to teams dealing with complex or contentious issues.
• Ensure consistent application of Natural England’s strategic priorities as set out in our new Strategy, operational standards, governance requirements, and technical advice in plan‑making.
• Oversee escalation routes and ensure significant risks are identified, managed and communicated.

Partnership Working and Engagement

• Work closely with Specialists, Strategy colleagues and Area Teams to align approaches, share insight and maintain a consistent national position on development plan issues.
• Build strong relationships with external partners including local planning authorities, the Planning Inspectorate and other partners as appropriate.
• Represent Natural England in internal and national networks, promoting improvement, innovation and learning.

Continuous Improvement and Future‑proofing

• Support and advise on the development and improvement of national standards, guidance, tools and processes for development plan casework.
• Identify future challenges, opportunities and reforms

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Member of Royal Town Planning Institute (desirable but not essential).
• Strong strategic understanding of the Town and Country Planning system, with extensive experience in development plans, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment.
• Ability to lead and influence across organisational boundaries, supporting colleagues at all levels.
• Proven experience in operational leadership, including oversight of complex pipelines, prioritisation and the deployment of scarce specialist resource.
• Excellent judgement and ability to manage complex, high‑risk planning issues.
• Strong ability to build partnerships and influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex issues confidently and clearly.
• Understanding of Natural England’s strategic ambitions and how development plans can deliver nature recovery at scale.

Benefits

At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.

We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.

You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 33 days per year (pro rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.

We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

Natural England has adopted hybrid working – which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.

Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.

National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here: online map of Natural England office locations.

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

You will become an active member of the relevant local leadership community, the group of senior Natural England staff in each of the localities across England who we ask to provide support and co-ordination for the local group of staff.

How to Apply

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.

If you require a reasonable adjustment at interview, or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you should notify us of this at application stage where possible, or well in advance of your interview. We now provide primary interview questions in advance for all formal recruitments.

This vacancy uses competency-based assessment. We'll assess you against the competencies below during the selection process:

• Technical Skills and Knowledge
• Leading and Managing People
• Putting People at the Heart of the Environment
• Personal Effectiveness
• Work Delivery

When completing the application form you should present relevant examples using the STAR format. Give us an example of how you have demonstrated the competency (which can be work related or from another area of your life) and tell us about the Situation, the specific Task you had to undertake, the specific Actions you took, and the Result (both immediate and in a wider context) of your Action.

Please note that STAR format is not required when answering a Technical Skills & Knowledge competency.

Examples should be given in no more than 250 words for each competency.

If you are successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams or a suitable alternative, where you will be asked to give examples for all competencies as set out in the Job Description.

Please note: 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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Competencies

Competence 1

Professional competency

Detail

Technical Skills and Knowledge

Description

• Deep knowledge of relevant planning legislation, development plan processes and environmental assessment. (Essential)
  • Ability to interpret and apply policy to shape national approaches and set standards. (Essential)

Competence 2

Professional competency

Detail

Leading and Managing People

Description

• Encourage, inspire and support people to be ambitious, creative and innovative, and to reflect, celebrate and learn lessons from their work. (Expert)

Competence 3

Professional competency

Detail

Putting People at the Heart of the Environment

Description

• Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver Natural England’s vision, mission and aims. (Expert)
  • Work proactively and collaboratively with stakeholders and partners to identify and secure opportunities to deliver gains for people and nature. (Expert)
  • Build relationships and effective networks both externally and internally to bring in fresh perspectives, approaches and evidence to raise the profile of both your individual specialist work and that of Natural England. (Expert)
  • Understand the external influences affecting Natural England and assess the implication to the function e.g. Defra Policy, arms length body reviews. (Expert)

Competence 4

Professional competency

Detail

Personal Effectiveness

Description

• Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together. (Expert)
  • Identify, share and promote best practice and lessons learned to create a culture of learning that supports continuous improvement. (Practitioner)
  • Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence. (Expert)
  • Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience. (Expert)
  • Use relevant internal and external networks to exchange information. (Expert)

Competence 5

Professional competency

Detail

Work Delivery

Description

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Expert)
  • Understand and apply relevant policy, legislation, governance frameworks and strategies to your work. (Expert)
  • Clearly define roles, responsibilities and accountabilities and establish controls to monitor project progress and compliance. (Practitioner)
  • Recommend how resources should be allocated to optimise the return on investment and support Natural England's mission and vision. (Practitioner)
  • Understand and be able to interpret relevant international, national and local legislation, Conventions, byelaws statutory guidance and policy. (Expert)

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,000, Natural England contributes £14,774 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 : Phil Reynolds
• Email : phil.reynolds@naturalengland.org.uk
• Telephone : 07500 124003

Recruitment team

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

Further information

https://networkrecruitment.tal.net/vx/appcentre-7/brand-4/spa-1/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/8/opp/6382-6382-Principal-Officer-Development-Plan-Delivery/en-GB

Attachments

DEF-001h - Candidate Pack Natural England v2.3 Opens in new window (docx, 1325kB)