Associate or Associate Director, EIA - Transmission & Distribution (Scotland)

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Overview

Energy transmission and distribution (T&D) are the backbone of modern society—powering homes, industries, and economies across the UK and around the world. At WSP, we bring deep expertise from delivering transformative T&D projects that enhance grid resilience, enable energy transition, and enable integration of renewable energy sources. Our teams work on high-profile infrastructure projects shaping the future of energy, including landmark T&D, hydrogen, and CCUS initiatives. We operate across the UK and internationally, providing opportunities to influence environmental design, assessment and management across the project lifecycle. This role sits in our Environmental Consents team and focuses on navigating evolving environmental consent landscapes to support development and upgrade of energy and electricity infrastructure through planning, environmental advice, and technical studies. You will contribute to planning applications, EA / EIA, route optioning, site selection, stakeholder engagement and support for DCO examinations and planning inquiries. This is a strategic role involving multi-disciplinary inputs for energy T&D, hydrogen, and CCUS projects.

Responsibilities

• Play a key role in growing our energy T&D sector offer, working with sector leads and client account managers to drive thought leadership and win new business.
• Provide environmental advice and support to clients, project managers and colleagues.
• Work with colleagues, environmental specialists, clients and engineering teams to promote sustainable design and environmental enhancement.
• Lead large, multiple, and complex projects, overseeing technical, quality, commercial, and health and safety performance.
• Build strong client relationships and identify opportunities to support project strategy, resourcing and delivery.
• Undertake activities to secure new work, including developing proposals for complex opportunities, delivering strategic bids and framework opportunities, and pursuing business development opportunities.
• Champion innovation through Digital EIA, Technical Excellence and Future Ready approaches.
• Drive performance improvement and career development across the team.
• Promote an inclusive and positive team environment, acting as a trusted advisor and mentor.
• Promote an inclusive workplace, with a focus on health and safety in line with our wellbeing culture.
• Contribute to the success of the WSP business strategy, while self-motivating towards goals relevant to the role, team, and projects.

What we will be looking for you to demonstrate

• Relevant environmental or planning degree (or equivalent experience), with chartered status or actively working toward chartership.
• Proven experience delivering EIA for T&D schemes under UK planning regimes such as the Electricity Act, Town and Country Planning Act and the Planning Act 2008.
• Familiarity with relevant consenting processes for energy and electricity transmission and distribution projects, including Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), Environmental Permit applications, Marine applications etc., and how these integrate with the planning system and EA / EIA for overhead lines, substations, pipelines, cable routes or network upgrades.
• Ability to lead client communications and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, regulators, and the public, with an understanding of public consultation and stakeholder engagement processes.
• Knowledge of emerging environmental and planning policy trends.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong report writing and review capabilities, attention to detail, and a focus on quality assurance.
• Strong understanding of health and safety principles as they apply to environmental consenting and infrastructure development, including risk assessment, mitigation planning, and compliance with relevant legislation and standards.
• Proven people management experience and a track record of developing and upskilling internal teams.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute to strategic planning, win new work through bids and proposals, and enhance reputation in the energy T&D sector.

Job details

• Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
• Employment type: Full-time
• Job function: Other
• Industries: Professional Services

Equal Opportunity

#WeAreWSP. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity/paternity. As a Disability Confident employer, we will interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. If you require workplace adjustments, please let us know.