Locations: Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom; Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom.
Job Description
What if you could do the kind of work the world needs?
At WSP, you can access our global scale, contribute to landmark projects, and connect with the brightest minds in your field to do the best work of your life. You can embrace your curiosity in a culture that celebrates new ideas and diverse perspectives, experience a world of opportunity, and shape a career as unique as you.
WSP’s Land team is seeking talented Land professionals to join the largest and most successful team in our industry. This is an exciting opportunity to develop or begin a career with a team that enjoys a strong reputation for successfully delivering major strategic infrastructure projects across the UK and Ireland. Your role will support land referencing, urban and rural landowner engagement, consultation management, land access, formal consents, statutory orders, compensation agreements, and land acquisition.
The Role
We are the largest and most successful Land business supporting infrastructure development in the UK and Ireland, with 300+ specialist professional colleagues. We offer the widest portfolio of projects, providing unrivalled opportunities to develop and diversify careers on some of the most exciting and challenging projects across the entire UK and Ireland.
In addition to land referencing, our team of surveyors secures powers and negotiates land acquisition and land access to support infrastructure development. We provide clients with Property Cost Estimates, agree Heads of Terms and compensation, manage disposals, payments and client accounts, and offer the full range of property‑related services to assist our clients in the planning, securing, and exercise of powers to construct, operate and maintain their infrastructure assets.
Senior Land Consultant
* The position focuses on securing land, land access, arranging surveys and building strong relationships with stakeholders and landowners via statutory powers and/or negotiation.
* Ideally have experience of managing land referencing and land access projects.
* Lead audits and quality assurance reviews of land referencing documentation and processes.
* Drive integration of land requirements with engineering, planning, and environmental strategies.
* Provide senior‑level advice to clients and project boards on land acquisition risks and opportunities.
* Oversee compliance with statutory processes and ensure projects meet regulatory and legal obligations, including data security and privacy.
* Resolve disputes and escalate sensitive issues with diplomacy and authority.
* Contribute to commercial strategy and risk management for land‑related contracts.
* Establish training programmes and succession planning within the Land team.
* People management and team leadership.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to engage with landowners, communities, and stakeholders.
* Ability to arrange and coordinate land surveys, ensuring compliance with legal and environmental standards.
* Experience working on infrastructure, utilities, or energy projects (preferred).
* Consult with landowners to explain proposed scheme, programme, discuss potential impacts and ensure accurate consultation notes are taken and uploaded to our consultation database.
* Skilled in stakeholder engagement, building trust and maintaining positive relationships.
* Ensure that WSP H&S procedures are adhered to for all site work.
* Knowledge of land access permissions, land access, s172 licences and site safety experience (preferred).
* Manage junior members of the Land team, providing support and technical training by contributing to and participating in our CPD‑accredited Land Academy.
* Use statutory powers and other available mechanisms to acquire land.
* Prepare and quality‑assure technical documents related to land interests and rights, negotiate access for surveys, consents and acquisition of land rights.
* Negotiate Heads of Terms to secure land for projects.
* Liaise with landowners, land agents, auctioneers, legal representatives, planning authorities, key stakeholders, contractors and clients.
* Work closely with Land team colleagues and collaborate with internal and external engineering, environmental, and planning teams.
* Experience working with multi‑disciplinary teams across a range of sectors and locations throughout the UK and Ireland.
* Develop efficient working practices and promote innovation to provide industry‑leading, best‑value services to our clients.
* Manage and develop a team of early‑career professionals, providing technical training and career development support.
* Contribute to business development and the delivery of the business strategy.
* Travel across the UK and Ireland, and potentially to WSP’s Global Capability Centre in India.
What we will be looking for you to demonstrate
* Degree or equivalent experience in Geography, Land/Estate Management, Agriculture or a relevant discipline.
* Worked to deliver land referencing, land access, landowner engagement services and statutory processes on major infrastructure projects.
* Experience of negotiating with landowners and knowledge of the legal process for the acquisition of wayleaves/easements/servitudes (desirable).
* Experience working with multi‑disciplinary teams across a range of sectors and locations across Ireland and/or the UK.
* Demonstrable experience of reducing land risk for clients and advising them on land‑related matters throughout all stages of a project lifecycle.
* Proven track record of developing Orders or equivalent and/or acquiring consents and interests in land, and knowledge of relevant legislation.
* Experience of infrastructure development schemes, particularly in the energy, highways, rail, water and/or aviation sectors.
* Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships with colleagues, landowners and clients at all levels.
* Ability to communicate effectively with strong influencing and negotiating skills.
* Knowledge of the urban and/or rural environment and farming practices (desirable).
* Chartership or membership of a professional body (advantageous).
* Ability to travel effectively to various sites/locations (necessary function of this role).
Looking for an exceptional fit? Apply and let us see how your experience aligns with this role and other opportunities within the team. Imagine a better future for you and a better future for us all.
The role is based in our Leeds or Newcastle offices, with the flexibility of hybrid working between one of these locations and from home. The candidate will ideally be located within North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, County Durham, Teesside, Tyne and Wear or North Lincolnshire.
We appreciate that development and training is important to you, which is why we have a supportive environment that invests in your development, be it chartership, training or mentoring. WSP’s Land Academy is designed and delivered by our expert Land team, focusing on providing the best standard training and CPD across the industry and supporting your management and ownership of projects, client advisory, line management, presentation, training and leadership skills.
Variety of work
With a broad selection of projects, we don’t pigeonhole you into a particular role. The Land Academy enables you to broaden your capability into GIS, Data Management, Valuations, Negotiations, Referencing and Access and Project Management to become a more rounded and valuable consultant. Project experience rotates, on average, around every 18 months. Day‑to‑day activities vary from site activities, landowner engagement, access negotiations, client meetings, project management, report writing, data management, digital innovation scoping and map production.
Join our close‑knit community of talented individuals who share your passion for making a positive impact. Our global team includes more than 69,000 employees, working together to make a difference in communities both close to home and around the world.
With us, you can. Apply today.
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