• Greater Cambridgeshire Local Authorities and their constituent bodies, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and the elected Mayor.
• Leaders, members and officers of Cambridgeshire LAs, the Greater Cambridgeshire Shared Planning Service (GCSPS), and Councillors (district, ward and parish) as appropriate.
• The Water Scarcity Group (WSG), national and regional partners and bodies, such as Water Resource East, Ofwat and RAPID.
• Other local stakeholders including businesses, the university, landowners, developers, and promoters.
• Colleagues across the GCDC and Homes England.
• Relevant committees and boards.
• Colleagues across MHCLG and other Government bodies, such as DEFRA, Environment Agency, Ofwat and Natural England; including where necessary briefing Ministers and other parts of government as required.

Key Accountabilities And Responsibilities

• Support the Director of Technical Services in developing a strategically impactful team with the right capabilities and capacity to support organisational objectives, specifically around water efficiency, water supply and treatment as part of an integrated water management approach to achieve sustainable urban design and implementation.
• Lead a small team of water specialists, growing the team as necessary, as the growth company resources increase and move towards a longer-term delivery vehicle.
• Establish and develop a deep understanding of the interrelated water infrastructure challenges limiting growth across Greater Cambridge and provide expert guidance, develop strategies and solutions to overcome these.
• Be the lead and strategic intelligent client for all water-related (and other infrastructure) procurement and provide oversight and management of project outcomes, programme and expenditure.
• Manage the delivery of consultancy and infrastructure works packages and contracts necessary to deliver the business plan, including client management of civil engineering projects.
• Be the primary technical lead in negotiations with statutory undertakers (Water Companies), the Environment Agency, and Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) and national government, developing efficient working relationships to ensure an up-to-date strategic overview of water-related infrastructure activity.
• Proactive problem-solving approach, working collaboratively internally and externally on a multidisciplinary basis, leveraging convening power to bring together local authorities, water companies, government agencies, markets and partners.
• Contribute to the Technical Services leadership to identify a wide range of tools to successfully navigate barriers to growth in Cambridge.
• Management and oversight of Senior Managers within the team, who are responsible for delegated water and environmental workstreams. Ensure appropriate resource management plans are in place to deliver this work.
• Effective performance management and leadership of water infrastructure team, managing individuals and groups. Allocates responsibilities and work, providing support and guidance as required. Encouraging learning and development, meeting performance targets.

Person Specification

Key Skills, Knowledge And Experience

• Essential: Degree in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering or other related field.
• Essential: Chartered status (e.g. CIWEM, CEng, CEnv) or equivalent professional accreditation.
• Essential: Extensive experience of managing and mitigating water-related infrastructure challenges for major developments and/or transformational urban and civic change projects.
• Full understanding of Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs) and Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs), and the role of those bodies responsible for the development, oversight and delivery of them, i.e. water companies, WRE, the Environment Agency and Ofwat.
• Have a detailed understanding of the economic, environmental, and social issues faced by the public water sector, and the current events and issues surrounding water challenges in the Greater Cambridge area, wider East of England region and OxCam Corridor.
• Expert knowledge of relevant best practice approaches and techniques in relation to delivering water infrastructure projects and integrated water management approaches.
• Strong skills in convening and managing an extensive network of partners internally and externally, including leadership of relationships and contracts with external consultants.
• Experience in managing delegated funding, ensuring adherence with procurement, legal and commercial guidance.
• Proven leadership of successfully leading teams and managing change, demonstrating high levels of personal awareness and effectiveness.
• An accomplished leader able to demonstrate the ability to navigate through complex environments in periods of uncertainty and circumstances of ambiguity to find creative, responsive and agile ways forward.
• Excellent oral, written and inter-personal skills with the ability to communicate information to a range of stakeholders clearly and concisely.

Key Performance Measures

• Development of a robust long-term water strategy and implementation plan to unlock and enable the accelerated growth of Greater Cambridge informed by evidence and options analysis (working with national agencies, water companies, regional and local partners).
• Deliver successful management and outcomes of water related projects and work packages supporting overarching infrastructure delivery across key strategic sites.
• Development of robust justifications of the need for specific infrastructure solutions and business cases for budget to deliver them.
• Establishing and maintaining credibility of GCDC in government and external forums as a credible infrastructure delivery partner.

Homes England Benefits

• Holiday - Homes England offers all staff 33 days annual leave per year in addition to 8 statutory bank holidays.
• Working Flexibly - At Homes England we have a strong culture of flexible working and encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance. We offer a wide range of potential working patterns, including part time, job share and compressed hours.
• Health and Wellbeing - We offer health screening with Nuffield Proactive Health Clinics, a free Employee Assistance Programme which offers confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as access to Occupational Health.
• Professional Development - At Homes England we are committed to your continued professional and personal development with learning as one of our core values. We pay for one job-related professional membership subscription per year for our employees.
• Family Friendly Benefits - We offer an excellent range of family friendly benefits, for example, maternity, paternity, shared parental leave.

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection Process Details

To apply please follow the links to our careers page.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

For more information on the role, please see the attached Job Description.

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application and interviews held as soon as practical after the closing date. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this role and Homes England.

Please note –