Senior Landscape Advisor
Closing Date: 29 June 2025 | Salary: Grade 6: £41,132 - £44,988 per annum | Location: Flexible
Team / Directorate: Development Panning Advice Services, Operations
Starting salary: £41,132 rising to £44,988 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)
Contract type: Permanent
Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)
Post number: 203911
The role
Are you passionate about protecting and enhancing Wales’ landscapes and seascapes? We’re looking for an experienced professional to take a lead role in advising on landscape and visual matters across a wide range of development and planning proposals.
As a Senior Landscape Advisor, you’ll provide expert technical advice on landscape, seascape, and visual amenity to both internal teams and external stakeholders. Your work will influence Local Development Plans, landscape management plans, and broader planning strategies—ensuring they reflect the value of Wales’ natural and cultural landscapes.
You’ll be a key contributor to our Development Planning Advice Service (DPAS), supporting colleagues through training, guidance development and mentoring. You’ll also help shape how NRW delivers consistent, high-quality advice across planning and development.
Key responsibilities include:
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Providing technical expertise on landscape, seascape, and visual impact to support planning and strategic decision-making.
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Advising on Local Development Plans, landscape management plans and other relevant planning frameworks.
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Supporting colleagues across NRW through training and guidance development.
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Building effective working relationships with planning authorities, developers, and key external stakeholders.
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Ensuring landscape and visual considerations are integrated into NRW’s advice and planning responses.
This is an excellent opportunity to lead work that safeguards and enhances some of Wales’ most valued landscapes. If you're ready to influence positive change through expert advice and collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.
To make an informal enquiry about this role, please contact Peter Jordan at peter.jordan@cyfoethnaturiolcymru.gov.uk.
Interviews will be confirmed at a later date.
Successful external applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. We aim to make offers of appointment within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.
What you will do
- Provide specialist landscape and visual amenity advice to Planning and Development Consent casework.
- Provide specialist landscape and visual amenity advice in relation to Local Development Plans, landscape management plans, Area Statements and other Plan and Strategies.
- Prepare information in relation to challenges against NRW advice, including attendance at Appeals and Inquiries.
- Act as ‘intelligent client’ in the management of NRW’s external landscape consultancy framework contract and the advice provided by it.
- Contribute to the planning and delivery of training events related to landscape aspects of development casework.
- Develop and maintain strong links with key partners in public, private and voluntary sectors and take forward projects and initiatives with them.
- Contribute to the development of NRW policy/ process and guidance.
- Produce auditable records of actions and outcomes to justify and demonstrate that all legal and procedural requirements have been met.
- Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
- Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
- Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
- Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.
- Required to take part in incident response activities.
Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills
In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.
- An appropriate qualification, preferably as a Chartered Landscape Architect, with relevant post qualification (Part IV) experience.
- A sound knowledge of the potential impacts of energy (particularly wind energy) and other developments on landscapes, seascapes and visual amenity, and on siting, design and mitigation issues.
- A good knowledge of the landscapes of Wales, including the historic landscape and LANDMAP.
- A working knowledge of the development planning process.
- Expert knowledge of Environmental Impact Assessment and landscape character assessment methods, the town & country planning system as it applies to NRW, and an understanding of relevant National Planning Policy.
- Good written and spoken communication skills and an ability to represent both the technical and strategic aspects of landscape to non-specialists, both within NRW and externally, in a concise and effective way.
- Good organisational skills and an ability to meet tight timetables and an ability to work across multi-disciplinary teams.
- Able to analyse complex information and situations, solve problems and make sound judgements.
- Able to communicate and negotiate effectively with stakeholders at senior management levels.
Welsh language level requirements
- Essential: Level A1 - Entry level (able to use and understand simple, basic phrases and greetings, no conversational Welsh)
Please note if you do not meet the A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.
Benefits
This role will offer a range of benefits, including:
- Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
- 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
- generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
- commitment to professional development
- health and wellbeing benefits and support
- weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose
See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.
Please keep reading
If you think you have what it takes to do this role, but don’t necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and we will be happy to discuss the role with you in more detail.
We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, culture, or religion. We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values.
We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.
We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.
We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.
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