Environmental Case & Design for Environment

• Lead the development and ongoing justification of the programme's Environmental Case.
• Establish frameworks for identifying, assessing, and managing environmental impacts at system and programme level.
• Ensure environmental requirements and Best Available Techniques (BAT) are embedded within engineering and operational decision-making.
• Oversee environmental assessments, modelling, inventories, and supporting evidence required to demonstrate environmental performance.
• Ensure environmental risks are identified, assessed, managed, and visible to support informed decision-making.

Permitting, Consents & Regulatory Strategy

• Define and deliver environmental consenting and permitting strategies.
• Lead all environmental inputs to the Development Consent Order (DCO) process and subsequent permits, licences, consents, notifications, and authorisations.
• Support regulatory engagement activities and act as a senior environmental subject matter expert with regulators, planning authorities, and key stakeholders.
• Ensure all environmental submissions are robust, credible, and capable of withstanding external scrutiny.
• Navigate evolving regulatory frameworks associated with emerging fusion technologies.
• Drive continuous improvement through lessons learned from environmental performance and regulatory engagement.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a senior ambassador for environmental and sustainability performance across the organisation.
• Influence programme teams, supply chain partners, contractors, and external stakeholders.
• Represent the organisation confidently with regulators, government bodies, local communities, and industry partners.
• Champion a culture where environmental responsibility and sustainability are recognised as critical to engineering excellence and programme success.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing team environment.

About You

We're looking for a strategic environmental leader with experience delivering complex, highly regulated infrastructure, energy, nuclear, environmental, or major capital programmes.

Essential Experience

• Significant leadership experience in environmental and sustainability management within a regulated industry.
• Proven track record of developing and delivering environmental strategies for major infrastructure, energy, nuclear, industrial, or engineering programmes.
• Experience leading environmental consenting, permitting, and regulatory engagement activities.
• Strong understanding of environmental impact assessment methodologies, environmental management systems, and environmental risk management.
• Experience integrating environmental requirements within major engineering, construction, or operational projects.
• Demonstrated capability in leading multidisciplinary teams and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Expertise in environmental governance, assurance, and programme-level decision making.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including engagement with regulators and government bodies.

Desirable Experience

• Experience supporting Development Consent Orders (DCOs) and nationally significant infrastructure projects.
• Knowledge of radiological and non-radiological waste management principles.
• Understanding of Best Available Techniques (BAT) assessments.
• Experience within the nuclear, fusion, energy generation, or similarly regulated sectors.
• Chartered environmental, engineering, sustainability, or related professional status.

What You'll Bring

• Strategic thinking and commercial awareness.
• Outstanding leadership and influencing skills.
• Technical credibility combined with pragmatic decision-making.
• The ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity with confidence.
• A passion for environmental stewardship and sustainable innovation.
• Curiosity, resilience, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to help create a new energy industry while shaping the environmental standards that will define it.

You will work alongside world-leading scientists, engineers, regulators, and policymakers to ensure fusion energy is developed responsibly and sustainably.

Join us and help deliver clean energy for generations to come.

Qualifications

Essential:

• Degree or equivalent in a relevant subject, environmental engineering, or related field.
• Proven extensive experience in the environmental discipline, having worked with large programmes of similar complexity.
• Expert understanding of environmental and sustainability legislation and standards.
• Experience embedding Best Available Techniques (BAT) and Environmental Impact Identification (ENVID) into complex engineering projects.
• A strong understanding of ISO14001 standard &/or other environmental management frameworks including experience in the certification process.
• A strong understanding of project management lifecycle and progressive assurance techniques.
• A confident influencer both verbally and through the production of written reports.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to enable effective working relationships to be developed with people in a wide range of roles and levels of responsibility.
• CENV ISEP (or equivalent)

Beneficial:

• Track record of creative problem solving in ambiguous or innovative environments.
• Experience of the full lifecycle for technically complex plant systems within major programmes.
• Experience with environmental impact assessments and mitigation planning.
• Familiarity with GIS and other environmental data analysis tools.
• Environmental Lead Auditor.

Additional Information

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly women in STEM and individuals from British black and ethnic minority backgrounds, and individuals with disabilities. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) Partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, actively promotes EDI and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

UKFE is committed to being accessible. Please email talent@ukifs.uk if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions. Whilst not required at this time, there is a possibility of an SC Clearance being required in the future. If a candidate already holds an SC clearance, that clearance can be transferred to UKFE.

As we work towards our mission and goals, guided by our principles, STEP has six behaviours that are intended to capture the spirit of how we work:

• We champion safety
• We all matter
• We act as one
• We embrace change
• We are pioneering
• We deliver

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on