Senior Estates Surveyor – Central Hub - 22722

We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic individual to provide professional Estates expertise across all aspects of the Environment Agency’s business.

You will be the senior surveying expert working collaboratively within project teams helping deliver an ambitious programme of capital flood defence works investing £5.2 billion nationwide, better protecting 336,000 households from flood risk 2021-2027. You’ll be involved at all stages of project delivery.

Your surveying expertise will also be applied to managing a diverse land and property portfolio, including property management, valuation and dealing with landlord and tenant issues. As a confident negotiator, you’ll represent our interests externally with a broad client base.

This senior role will hold a portfolio of complex cases but will also require you to support others through proactive sharing and application of up-to-date knowledge of current legislation and best practice. This role sits within the Hub leadership team helping manage delivery and reputational risks across Central England. Whilst much is delivered in house, some projects require you to act as Intelligent Client working with our suppliers through framework contracts.

This role isn’t just about providing professional surveying expertise, it’s about playing an exciting and evolving role in making a long term difference.

The Central Estates Hub is a team of 17 surveyors of varying levels of experience and support staff offering professional Estates advice for land, compensation and valuation matters across the East and West Midlands, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.

We sit within a function 125 strong providing national coverage and offering opportunity to share best practice and specialist knowledge. We will play a key delivery role in enabling us to meet our ambitious Net Zero target.

With experience of working as a Senior Surveyor in a professional estates service, you’ll hold an appropriate RICS qualification (MRICS or FRICS) typically from commercial or rural pathways. You’ll demonstrate knowledge/experience in one or more of the following areas:
• In-depth understanding and application of planning, property and compensation legislation and compulsory purchase procedures.
• Provide advice on land and compensation matters to minimise project risk and compensation liabilities. Negotiating access to land, securing appropriate interests and settling compensation claims.
• Manage a diverse land and property portfolio including property management, valuation, landlord and tenant issues to ensure sustainable land use.
• Knowledge of current legislation and best practice to enable you to provide specialist advice as part of integrated teams.
• Confident communicator, able to engage professionally, efficiently and effectively with both internal and external customers through good networking skills.
• Exceptional negotiation and dispute resolution skills.

The competencies we will assess are ‘Achieves Results’, ‘Takes Decisions & Solves Problems’, ‘Focuses on Customers & Partners’, ‘Efficiency Innovation and Quality’ and ‘Coaches Others’. You can learn more about these competencies in our capability dictionary: https://tinyurl.com/ycu4cjrg.

If you would like to find out more about this role and the Environment Agency, you can download the Candidate Information pack, which contains some useful information that may help you when applying for this position and the careers website at https://environmentagencycareers.co.uk/

For further information, you can email the Estates Recruitment Team: RecruitmentEstates@environment-agency.gov.uk

A full and valid driving licence is essential. Regular travel including site visits to some remote locations will be required.
Interviews will take place via MS Teams in late July 2022.

Sets and delivers high work standards and demonstrates the drive to meet delivery targets. Prioritises and organises tasks and resources to ensure timely achievement of results.

This role will include involvement in delivering our programme of Flood Risk capital projects.

In no more than 250 words, using a specific example, please describe how you have delivered a successful piece of work / project whilst managing a variety of complex caseload. We would like you to briefly describe the piece of work / project and are particularly interested in how you planned and prioritised this alongside other workload. Please also include how you monitored progress and how you knew the outcome was a success.

Finds and delivers optimal solutions by effectively analysing all the information, probing to develop alternatives and taking sound and timely decisions.

This role is about representing your professional surveying knowledge and expertise in the context of EA business delivery.
In no more than 250 words, using a specific example, please describe how you have worked with clients to understand the issue and present options prior to agreeing the best overall course of action. We are particularly interested in where you have had to work hard to ensure the surveying element is fully understood thereby protecting your client from long term financial and reputational risk.

Identifies and addresses the needs of internal and external customers, providing rapid and effective responses.

This role will liaise, collaborate and negotiate with a diverse range of internal and external clients, customers and partners.

In no more than 250 words, please tell us how you have used your knowledge and understanding of your customers / external parties to improve the service you provide. We are interested in how you went about assessing, building and maintaining effective working relationships with them and how you used that to best influence. What was the overall outcome of your relationships?

Identifies and seizes the opportunity to create, introduce and implement new or improved methods and processes without compromising quality or accuracy.

The Climate Emergency and our organisational Net Zero ambition will require us to think differently about how we approach everything we do. We will need to change and adapt.

In no more than 250 words, tell us what difference / improvements you have made to something you have been involved in – how did you go about implementing changes to ways of working. We’re interested in improvements made to your own approach, or within a team environment or even at organisational/business level. Please use any example which best demonstrates changes/improvements – it doesn’t need to be climate linked.

Provides technical leadership that inspires and motivates others, irrespective of seniority, to achieve their professional and personal goals as well as those of the Environment Agency.

Although this role does not have formal line management responsibility, the individual will be key to helping team members continue to develop their professional skills and knowledge to successfully carry out their current roles as well as develop longer term. We also anticipate this role helping more junior member achieve their chartered status.

In no more than 250 words, please tell us about how you have helped raise the general standard of performance by promoting a positive learning environment and coached / mentored others to develop professionally. What inspiration have you provided to others?

A valid driving licence is required for this role.

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS or FRICS).