Associate Director – Environmental Construction Consultant Delivery Lead - Technical Director

Following recent client successes and increasing demand across major infrastructure programmes, we have an opportunity for an environmental construction consultant delivery lead to join our Environmental Management & Assessment team.

This role will focus on helping clients move from primary consent into delivery: identifying, planning, managing and assuring the environmental licences, permits, approvals, planning requirements and environmental commitments needed to enable construction and ensure compliance. This includes secondary consents, permits and licensing, and the discharge of planning conditions/DCO requirements.

This role would suit someone with experience in environmental construction management who's interested in moving into an advisory role; shaping decisions, improving outcomes, and getting involved in projects from design through to delivery.

This is a role of real significance for our business. Clients increasingly need clear, credible and proactive support through the post-consent and construction stages. In addition to our technical advice, our clients need delivery leadership, programme awareness, structured governance, risk management and the ability to bring multiple disciplines together around a single plan.

Join a great organisation

You will work with a diverse team of environmental planners, consent managers, technical specialists, project managers and construction-facing teams to lead and coordinate post-consent and secondary consents delivery across a range of major infrastructure projects e.g. the Great Grid Upgrade.

You will be expected to bring structure to complex delivery environments, provide clear advice to clients and project teams, manage risks and dependencies, and help WSP grow a consistent and high-quality environmental construction delivery capability. You will:

• Lead the growth of WSP's environmental construction and secondary consents capability, working with sector leads, account managers and service line directors to identify market opportunities and shape future service offerings.
• Oversee the identification, scoping and programming of environmental construction and secondary consent requirements, ensuring they are understood early and translated into clear delivery plans.
• Act as a recognised internal and external focal point for environmental construction and secondary consents delivery, providing technical leadership, guidance and consistency across projects and sectors.
• Act as Project Director or senior strategic lead on key post-consent and construction commissions, ensuring safe, profitable and high-quality delivery.
• Advise on the discharge of environmental planning conditions and/or DCO requirements.
• Develop and implement environmental compliance processes throughout design development stages. 
• Work with planners and project controls teams to integrate secondary consent activities into project programmes, including determination periods, seasonal windows, survey requirements, design dependencies, land access and contractor mobilisation.
• Work with discipline leaders and project teams to forecast demand, identify resource constraints and develop recruitment, secondment and capability-building plans.
• Identify resource needs early, support project resourcing discussions and help develop internal capability through mentoring, training and knowledge sharing.
• Promote a positive, inclusive and safe working culture, with a strong understanding of health, safety and wellbeing requirements in construction-facing and site-related environments.
• Contribute to WSP’s business strategy by helping build a scalable, consistent and commercially robust post-consent and construction offering.

What we will be looking for you to demonstrate…

• Experience in pre-construction and construction environmental management and delivery, secondary consents, and DCO/TCPA implementation.
• Strong understanding of the transition from primary consent to construction, including discharge of requirements/conditions, environmental management plans, contractor interfaces and compliance assurance.
• Working client-side, consultant-side or contractor-side during pre-construction and construction phases, including management of contractor interfaces and delivery risks.
• Establishing governance, reporting and assurance processes to manage environmental commitments, consent compliance and construction-stage risks.
• Coordinating secondary permits, licences, authorisations, notifications and consents across major infrastructure projects.
• Strong programme awareness, with the ability to understand dependencies, determination periods, seasonal constraints, delivery milestones and project-critical risks.
• Experience of problem-solving and conflict resolution.
• Knowledge of using or working alongside project controls tools and programme logic, ideally including P6 or equivalent programme management approaches.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex consenting requirements into clear actions for clients, contractors and project teams.
• Proven ability to provide leadership in ambiguous or fast-moving delivery environments, bringing clarity, structure and momentum.
• Strong commercial awareness, including the ability to scope commissions, support proposals, manage budgets and understand resource requirements.
• Proven ability to mentor and lead junior colleagues, helping build capability and resilience across teams.
• Chartered status, or working towards chartership, with a relevant professional body would be beneficial.