Location
Birmingham or London

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Birmingham: Base salary £79,035 to c£92,982 per annum depending on skills and experience
London: Base salary £85,358 to c£100,421 per annum depending on skills and experience
In addition, a flexible benefits fund of 20% is paid on top of base salary and is fully pensionable, along with a range of competitive benefits.

About the Role
As Head of Natural Environment at HS2 Ltd, you will lead the Natural Environment discipline teams, acting as the technical environmental authority for HS2 Ltd. You will set and assure environmental technical requirements and standards for the project, determine policies in conjunction with National Authorities, and operate to Ministerial level.

You will provide professional and functional leadership across natural environment disciplines including Ecology & Biodiversity, Landscape, Water, Waste, and Agriculture within Environment Technical Services. You will be the professional lead for Landscape Design capability, accountable for delivering the HS2 Green Corridor, defining strategies, key deliverables, and benchmarked outputs aligned with HS2 Design Vision principles.

Your responsibilities include ensuring compliance with the High-Speed Rail Act, Environmental Minimum Requirements (EMRs), external legislation, and technical standards. You will manage technical assurance activities, provide specialist advice to support delivery and rail development, and oversee the management of Route-wide Organisational Licences.

You will also manage relationships with key external stakeholders such as Natural England, DEFRA, Forestry Commission, and Woodland Trust, ensuring Service Level Agreements support programme requirements. Additionally, you will lead technical responses to environmental enquiries from the public, Ministers, Parliament, and media.

HS2 Ltd is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and you will actively promote and embed EDI in all aspects of your work, supporting organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures.

Experience
- Leading multi-disciplinary standards and environmental activities on complex major infrastructure projects
- Managing multi-disciplinary teams within complex delivery programmes
- Balancing competing demands including engineering, technical, environmental, cost, and schedule considerations
- Project management across a range of environmental disciplines and processes
- Managing or supporting large-scale budgets within design and construction environments
- Stakeholder management including government departments and external bodies

About You
- Strong complex problem-solving skills to evaluate options and advise on technical solutions
- Ability to gather and synthesise information to support decision making
- Confident technical leadership and communication skills to engage stakeholders and colleagues
- Knowledge of effective information management, modelling, and data security principles
- Influencing and negotiation skills with internal and external stakeholders
- Excellent organisation and planning skills, working to deadlines, cost, and quality requirements
- Commitment to promoting and embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all work

Qualifications
- Chartered Membership of an appropriate professional institution or equivalent experience
- Knowledge of the UK political and environmental context relevant to HS2 Ltd
- Understanding of Environmental and Sustainability Regulatory and Legislative Frameworks relevant to HS2 Ltd
- Commercial awareness including cost delivery, schedule targets, and integrated solution delivery