Principle Strategic Environmental Consultant

CAREERS

Join our team as 
Principal Strategic Environmental Consultant

As part of our ongoing growth plan we are looking for an outstanding individual to join our Team. You will be part of a small team that is passionate about landscapes, ecology and place making. Above all, we would welcome candidates willing to innovate the SEA process to high quality and cost effective products for our broad range of clients. 

Salary: Negotiable. The salary for this post is to be agreed based on qualifications and experience.   

Position: Full time or part time options

Location: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and/or home working

Benefits: Various, including stakeholder pension, professional institution subscription paid, CPD allowance, generous annual leave, Birthday policy

Job description: Principal Strategic Environmental Consultant


The Person:

We are looking for a Principal Strategic Environmental Assessment / Sustainability Appraisal Consultant to join our team in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The post is based in Cheltenham with an appreciation of home working if that suits the candidate. Lepus is a specialist consultancy, working with various plan making organisations that require our environmental assessment or evidence provisioning expertise in order to make their plans sound. For example, we prepare strategic environmental assessments, sustainability appraisal, habitats regulations assessments, landscape character assessments and large scale strategic ecological assessments.
We work from a Grade II Listed Georgian office located in the heart of attractive regency Cheltenham. The town was voted Best Place to Live in South West in the 2020 Times 2020, “You’re never far from a festival in this Cotswold spa town, but it’s the shops, schools and countryside that make it our pick of the southwest”.
Please apply to this position if you are looking for change, more responsibility and would like to be part of a small team that is passionate about landscapes, ecology and place making. Above all, we would welcome candidates willing to innovate the SEA process to high quality and cost effective products for our broad range of clients.



Responsibilities:

• Consultancy expertise: Provide consultancy advice and support on the strategic level environmental assessment of plans and programs through delivery of Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment.  
• Maintain a strong awareness of how the latest changes to legislation and planning policy has an impact on projects. Demonstrate an in depth practical working knowledge of the UK town and country planning system, plan-making process and relevant sustainability issues.
• Report writing: Write clearly written and easy to follow reports. Interpret data and format it into high quality, comprehensive reports, written in a manner that is robust yet can still be understood by non-technical people.  
• Project management: Sound project management skills. Ability to keep to time and budget. Engage in regular communication with our diverse range of clients and other stakeholders. Experience of preparing quotations and tenders.
• Team work: Assist with team management and supporting junior members of the consultant team. 
 Have the ability to work as part of a team and the capacity to work independently. Ideally, be able to show experience of working in a consultancy environment and working as part of a small team. Line management skills would also be beneficial.
• Business Support: Assist with business development for the SEA market sector at Lepus.


Qualifications:

• Qualifications: Masters degree, or extensive transferable skills, in a related discipline.  
• Relevant professional membership of organisations such as CIEEM, the Landscape Institute, IEMA or the RTPI. 
• Considerable experience of Environmental Assessment is required, ideally including Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal, and experience in the local plan-making sector is desirable. You must demonstrate a strong technical ability in this field and the ability to deliver appropriate SA/SEA documentation.   
• Proven professional consultancy experience and project management. 
• Experience of line management. 
• Experience of report writing and preparing of quotes and tenders. 
• Ability to demonstrate strong communication skills showing experience of managing clients and undertaking stakeholder consultation. 



How to apply:

If you meet the requirements for this post and are interested in applying, please email your CV and a covering letter in support of your application to: careers@lepusconsulting.com 

There is no closing date at the moment, but don’t hesitate to apply. The post will be filled once the right candidate has arrived.

Please do not call to discuss the post. We will call any candidates that appear to meet the requirements of the post.

Strictly no agencies. 

Issued: 15th November 2021





CONTACT

OUR TEAM

All of our staff are professionally trained in environmental planning to masters level. Our team is able to draw on a rich variety of project and programme experience.

Neil Davidson BSc (Hons) MSc CEnv MCIEEM CMLI

DIRECTOR
Neil is a founder of Lepus Consulting and a landscape ecologist with 20 years' experience, applying the principles of landscape level planning to help shape land use plans and programmes so that they maximise sustainable development performance.  

Neil has worked in local and central government for 10 years, providing ecological, green infrastructure, recreational and landscape management and protection advice, he also served as a policy advisor.  

Neil is one of the UK’s leading strategic environmental planning experts and set up Lepus, in part, to support local planning authorities in the preparation of their local plans. He regularly appears at Examination in Public and has an invaluable in-depth knowledge of plan making. Neil specialises in the Strategic Environmental Assessment, Green Infrastructure planning and Habitats Regulations Assessment of plans and programmes. 

Neil is passionate about landscape ecology and the opportunities to optimise ecosystem services through appropriate land use configuration; he is fascinated by butterfly metapopulation dynamics in calcareous landscapes.

Samantha Cheater BSc (Hons) MSc CEnv MCIEEM

PRINCIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT
Samantha is a Principal Environmental Consultant with 15 years’ experience in the environmental sector. Over this time, she has gained in-depth experience of plan and project led environmental assessment, with a particular specialism in Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This experience covers a wide range of sectors including land use and transport planning, major transport projects (road and rail), mixed use developments and projects from the education, health care and renewable energy sectors.  

Samantha has proven experience in co-ordinating and delivering a wide range of stakeholder consultations. This includes engagement with statutory consultees, non-statutory consultees and technical specialists.

Samantha has led projects for a diverse range of clients across England and Wales from both the public and private sector. Clients like Samantha for her professionalism and determination to find evidence-led solutions to potentially complicated large scale strategic challenges.

Rebecca Gregory BSc (Hons) PGDipLA CMLI

PRINCIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT 
Rebecca is a Principal Landscape and Environmental Consultant with 13 years’ experience in environmental consultancy and landscape practice. As an experienced Principal Consultant, Rebecca has been responsible for leading a variety of projects across the UK and acted as the key point of contact for clients in relation to landscape, ecology, heritage, Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) and green infrastructure projects. Rebecca achieved CMLI in 2008.

At Lepus, Rebecca focuses on landscape planning, green infrastructure and supporting Sustainability Appraisals. She has undertaken a range of landscape work including Landscape Character Assessment, Landscape Sensitivity Studies and Landscape Appraisals for a range of public and private clients. She supports and reviews the preparation of Sustainability Appraisals at Lepus, particularly in relation to her areas of expertise.

Rebecca is passionate about working with our clients to find more sustainable solutions in planning and development, particularly using green infrastructure approaches.

LET'S TALK

Lepus helps shape effective and appropriate environmental planning policy for our clients by delivering products that are meaningful, highly useful and sound. 

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