Senior Officer Strategic Solutions; Development and Nature

Do you want to make a real difference, working in a high priority area, securing significant environmental gains in the present and the future? Do you enjoy working in and leading a team? If so, this role may interest you as an opportunity to create a better future for people and nature.

The role is based nationally. Some travel may be required.

This role sits at the forefront of Natural England’s shift toward nature recovery king with our national leads and Area Teams, you will help shape the next generation of housing and infrastructure delivery—supporting new settlements, accelerating large-scale developments, and ensuring nature is designed into places from the outset. This role offers a unique opportunity to influence how major development ambitions are delivered nationally, resolving complex issues through strategic, landscape-scale solutions that achieve win–wins for nature, communities and the economy.

We are seeking an ambitious individual with great communication and organisational skills to join our highly performing, supportive and friendly teams across Natural England’s Sustainable Development work.

• Working nationally, you will have a strategic national coordination role, supporting Natural England’s Principal Officers for the New Towns and New Homes Accelerator Programmes to coordinate strategic approaches that unblock and accelerate housing and infrastructure development while maximising outcomes for nature recovery.
• You will work closely with Area Teams, developers, planning authorities and technical specialists to identify cross-cutting environmental barriers affecting large development sites, and develop proactive, strategic solutions that enable sustainable growth.
• You will champion early engagement with Natural England, promote nature-positive approaches to planned growth, and help ensure strategic mitigation and investment is targeted where it delivers the greatest benefit for people and nature.
• The focus will be on the impact types which present most risk to development and delivery of economic growth because they are difficult to resolve at site scale. These include cumulative, indirect impacts such as air pollution, water pollution, water shortage, habitat fragmentation, disturbance of sensitive species, and obstruction of natural coastal change.
• These impacts require strategic solutions which will address impacts at many sites and deliver gains for nature on a large scale. We are looking for win-wins which will help society to meet its broad objectives, including the boosting of nature’s recovery.

• Work closely with Natural England’s national and area team leads for the New Towns and New Homes Accelerator Programmes to identify and address thematic environmental issues causing delays to large housing and infrastructure projects.
• Provide proactive advice and support to developers, planning authorities and stakeholders to help unblock major development proposals while securing nature-positive outcomes.
• Coordinate with Area Teams to ensure consistent, aligned strategic approaches across the country, sharing insights, best practice and technical expertise.
• Identify opportunities for strategic solutions that address cumulative and cross-boundary impacts such as air quality, water quality, hydrology, fragmentation or coastal change, and support their development, design and delivery.
• Build effective partnerships with key stakeholders including local authorities, statutory agencies, developers, infrastructure bodies and environmental partners, helping resolve complex issues affecting major housing proposals.
• Convene partnerships and collaborate with experts to ensure that solutions are deliverable and achieve real benefits.
• Help target large-scale investment to mitigation measures which will make the most difference to nature’s recovery.

Support national coordination and maintain strategic oversight of emerging environmental barriers associated with housing development pipelines, cross‑cutting risks, ensuring Area Teams have clarity on priorities and pressures.