Senior Policy Advisor

These roles will be available as both permanent and 12‑24 month secondments.

The Environment Agency are fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We don't just talk about diversity; we seek it, embrace it, and live it, for the benefit of our staff, our communities, and our environment. We welcome flexible working patterns for all our vacancies, including job share.

We need influential and enthusiastic Senior Policy Advisors to join a new team to bring forward high‑profile growth sites while ensuring environmental protections. This includes supporting the Lead Environmental Regulator programme and intensive interventions on difficult sites, bringing a range of expertise from across the organisation to resolve complex problems.

You will lead relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, directing effort across the organisation to support sustainable growth, innovation, and improved ways of working. You will drive cultural and behavioural change, ensuring our work supports the government’s growth mission while fulfilling our responsibility to protect and enhance the environment.

• Take the lead on developing an understanding of site‑specific issues, and work at pace with internal and external partners to find new and innovative solutions.
• Work with external organisations such as government departments, local authorities, water companies, and the private sector on specific sites, and build those relationships to develop pipeline of work and strategic interventions.
• Provide leadership and assurance for high‑profile projects, including leadership of the Lead Environmental Regulator programme, ensuring effective advice, risk management, and alignment with organisational strategy.
• Use data, evidence, and risk information to guide decisions to understand where interventions would have the greatest value.

You’ll join the Planning and Place team, which is part of the Nature and Place Directorate. We are a welcoming, inclusive, supportive team, based across the full breadth of the country, and we work collaboratively across our planning teams and with operational colleagues nationwide to deliver our planning service.

• A genuine interest in solving problems and finding new ways of working, being energized by working at pace and bringing the right people together to manage a difficult situation.
• An understanding of planning and permitting regimes and environmental regulation to help enable growth.
• Experience in partnership development, stakeholder management, and building internal and external relationships at a project or programme scale at pace.
• Experience of leading or supporting complex programmes, projects, or operational improvements in a regulatory, operational, or development environment.
• Comfortable working with data and confident challenging assumptions and communicating complex information appropriately across all business levels.
• Ability to work comfortably in a collaborative and inclusive way to propose and find new ways of delivering.