Overview
2026 UK Graduate Town Planning Career Path
Turn your ambition into action - apply now and shape your future with us.
Protect Nature. Shape Sustainable Development. Build a Better Future.
At Mott MacDonald, we’re more than a consultancy—we’re a purpose-driven community of passionate individuals working together to improve society. As a wholly employee-owned global business, we choose our own direction and focus on what truly matters: delivering sustainable outcomes for our clients, empowering our people, and making a positive difference in the communities we serve.
As a Graduate Town Planner, you’ll be part of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team delivering planning projects that make a real difference to people’s lives and the places they live, work, and thrive. This is more than a job—it’s a purpose-driven career where your contributions help build sustainable, inclusive, and resilient environments.
What You’ll Be Doing
* Work alongside experienced planners, engineers, and technical specialists to deliver planning solutions across sectors such as transport, energy, water, and urban development. Your responsibilities may include:
* Collaborate across disciplines: Support a diverse range of planning projects, working alongside experts and eventually leading multi-disciplinary teams.
* Draft and review deliverables: Prepare high-level options appraisals and planning application documents that shape real-world outcomes.
* Engage with stakeholders: Liaise with local planning authorities and statutory consultees to ensure timely registration and progression of applications.
* Support business development: Contribute to bids and proposals, helping the team grow and evolve through strategic input and innovation.
Candidate Specification
We are looking for committed and motivated graduates with a genuine passion and a desire to make a difference in the world. If this describes you, apply today to launch your career at Mott MacDonald.
To be eligible for this opportunity, you will have less than 12 months’ relevant experience (excluding placements) and have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree (obtained no earlier than 2024) or expected to achieve one, in one of the following degree disciplines:
* Town and Country planning
* Urban Planning
* Land Economy
* Geography
In your application, you should aim to demonstrate your genuine interest in both the opportunity and in joining Mott MacDonald. You can do this by highlighting any relevant experience or interests - such as modules you’ve studied, previous work experience, or any research you’ve undertaken about our company, values, and projects.
We personally review every completed application form we receive as this part of our selection process is entirely human led – we do not use AI tools at this stage and kindly expect you not to either. We want you to answer each application question with authenticity so we can get to know the real you. Joining us as a graduate is your opportunity to shape your own story.
We Are Looking For Graduates With The Following Strengths
* Proactively takes initiative to complete tasks efficiently and independently.
* Communicates effectively and clearly with clients and colleagues.
* Delivers high quality written work with strong attention to detail and clarity.
* Demonstrates a structured and analytical approach to problem solving.
As we want the best people for the role, we support flexible working. Please ask us at interview stage about any flexibility you may need.
Mott MacDonald Ltd. is not currently offering sponsorship to candidates under the Skilled Worker visa route in the UK. This decision is a consequence of changes to the Skilled Worker route by the UK Government in April 2024.
Our ethos is to develop, train and retain our graduates and therefore we are looking for a long-term relationship with our graduates. For this reason, we cannot accept applications from candidates who would be working under the Graduate visa route or other time-limited visas, (irrespective of visa duration), due to their temporary nature and the requirement for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route in future.
We continue to welcome applications from candidates who are eligible for alternative immigration routes in the UK, that do not require sponsorship as a Skilled Worker now or in future.
About Your Development
A graduate position should be more than just a job. With our graduate roles we aim to give you the experience and technical knowledge you need to progress your career. From the moment you join us, you’ll receive the training you need. You will be assigned a mentor to guide you to meet the objectives of your professional training needs. You will join our three-year early careers soft skills development programme – Accelerating your Future.
You will have the opportunity to make a difference; learn more about Our Purpose and the difference we can make!
Benefits and Additional Information
* Biannual salary reviews: for the first three years of your career, you’ll have biannual salary reviews.
* A competitive salary aligned with current industry standards.
* Contributory pension up to 7% of salary with guidance and options to invest in your future.
* A flexible benefits scheme to suit your needs.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We put equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can contribute.
Agile working
We embrace agility, flexibility and trust, and support working patterns that meet client, team and personal commitments.
More About Mott MacDonald
We’re a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Our purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything we do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming our clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities. We value differences and strive to meet diverse needs.
Location(s): Bristol, Cardiff, London, Manchester
Contract Type: Permanent
Work Pattern: Full Time
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