Help us shape the future of an outstanding borough while preserving a unique heritage.

At the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, we are focused on putting our residents and local businesses at the heart of every decision. From the policy decisions that we're making through to the services that we are delivering, it is vital that we put the needs of our community first. We want to give everyone a great quality of life, with access to a comfortable home, sustainable and desirable employment options, and the chance to live and work in a healthy and safe environment. Our Sustainable Design & Heritage Team play a vital role in achieving all of these goals.

The Role:

As a Design & Heritage Officer, you will investigate and report on the full range of applications, proposals and enforcement matters under the Planning Acts. Working across site visits, applicant advice, listed building control and our customer service centre, you will balance conservation with innovation and ensure our borough moves forward while retaining its unique character.

The work is diverse and challenging, covering an area of enormous architectural significance. Over 70% of the borough is protected by 35 conservation areas and we have some 3,800 listed buildings alongside brownfield areas with significant capacity for growth and new housing. You will also prepare reports and design guidance as needed, and assist with a full range of conservation and urban design issues.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

You will need conservation and urban design experience, ideally in development management. You’ll have an excellent working knowledge of relevant legislation and practice, along with solid report writing skills, presenting skills and workload management skills.

You will also need a relevant degree (or the equivalent experience) in conservation, planning, architecture, urban design or landscape design.

Join us in this fascinating work, and you can look forward to a package that includes a competitive salary, a high-quality pension scheme and generous annual leave plus bank holidays.

Please apply online explaining how you meet the requirements set out in the person specification and job description. CV’s alone will not be considered for this role.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of suitable applicants.

Additional information

We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.

We engage our staff with a variety of learning types including face-to-face and virtual learning because we want to ensure our staff understand our values and behaviours, grow their skills and develop their careers.

This post is covered by the Fluency Duty, as outlined in the Code of Practice on the English language requirements for public sector workers.

We do not accept speculative CVs from any source.

Please note, we will primarily contact candidates by e-mail throughout the recruitment process, please monitor your email junk / spam folder as our system generated emails may be allocated to these folders by your email settings.

If you experience difficulties with the recruitment application process, please contact the recruitment team by email: recruitment@rbkc.gov.uk