RESP Strategic Lead - England

About the Role

In April 2025 the National Energy System Operator (NESO) took on the exciting new role of being the UK’s Regional Energy Strategic Planner. We are responsible for developing 11 Regional Energy Strategic Plans (RESPs) across nine English regions, plus Scotland and Wales. One of the RESP regions is Central England:
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and the Swindon part of Wiltshire.

This role will be home based, but will include a weekly team day in our Milton Keynes or London office. Some travel is expected (e.g., to NESO Warwick Office for team workshops or within nations/regions to meet with key stakeholders). We are open to full time and part time applicants, as well as flexible working arrangements.

Our Central England based team will work with other NESO teams and with organisations at a local level (‘local actors’), including local government and gas and electricity networks, in developing the RESP. The purpose of the Central England Strategic Lead is to lead aspects of developing the Central England RESP, as detailed in the Key Accountabilities below.

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This Strategic Lead role will be focused on supporting and gaining input from stakeholders in the region. Having an understanding and lived experience of Central England will be key, as will having complementary energy expertise and experience to allow the Central England team to reflect the nation’s diverse society, environment and energy planning needs.

• To represent NESO’s national/regional energy planning function at strategic level and deputise for the Central England RESP manager
• To engage with specific key regional stakeholders within local government, gas and electricity networks, other local actors and whole energy system stakeholders to understand their views and requirements to ensure that RESP delivers value
• To design, support and run workshops and engagement activity with the Central England RESP Strategic Board, working groups and other regional stakeholders to progress the RESP
• To implement relevant parts of the RESP methodology to Central England and contribute to continuous development and consultation
• To be the subject matter expert in understanding specific aspects of Central England’s energy system and the interfaces with both internal NESO and external stakeholders
• To define and lead on RESP work packages; working in a matrix style structure to ensure work you leading upon is coordinated with other national/regional and hub RESP teams
• To produce and deliver clear, concise, short reports and slide packs in progressing the RESP. Ensure that the key messages are relevant, clear, and pitched appropriately for the audience
• To understand, engage and gain required and beneficial inputs from stakeholders in developing the RESP to the prescribed methodology; being able to clearly communicate and propose changes where needed to key assumptions
• To create new ways to analyse and present problems and potential solutions, sometimes building on the work and experience of others to quickly develop sufficient understanding of unfamiliar topics in developing the RESP

As the team grows, you may be expected to take on line management responsibilities for up to 3 people.

To deliver RESP requires a diverse team made up of individuals with a wide range of skills and knowledge which are unlikely to be present in a single individual. Key skills and experience we are looking for are:

• Experience with in the energy sector, including technical energy knowledge
• Experience of communicating with, and influencing, internal and external stakeholders at a range of levels
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Knowledge of energy project development life cycles and the ‘whole energy’ system – with advanced experience in at least one of the energy vectors (gas and/or electricity networks, heat decarbonisation, hydrogen, transport decarbonisation, etc)
• Experience of working with or within Local Authorities and/or energy distribution companies, ideally in Central England
• Abil…