About Us
The Lake District National Park Authority looks after this special corner of England, encouraging people to protect, connect and grow as well as supporting those who live and work here. Our staff include rangers and field workers, advisers at our visitor centres, planners and ecologists. The Lake District is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a cultural landscape of international significance.
We’re looking for a passionate, committed and motivated Assistant Director of Sustainable Development to join us in a unique succession planning opportunity. The successful candidate will work with and shadow the duties of the Director of Sustainable Development with an aim to succeed into the Director role. You’ll provide direction for the organisation and specifically guide the Directorate to fulfil our Vision for the Lake District National Park, through its people, resources, strategies, policies, services and business processes.
What’s it like to work here?
Our people of the Park are passionate about the landscape and proud of the work we do to look after it and help others enjoy it. We are innovative and agile in our approach to work, ensuring we get the best from our resources.
We’re a medium size organisation, which puts us in a good position to be adaptive and act on our decisions. Whatsmore, our staff know each other and can quickly form workplace relationships to make great team players and problem solvers.
We operate a hybrid way of working combining working from home and days at our office base at Wayfaring House, Kendal. Although, as a senior driver in the organisation, a high degree of visibility and presence at our offices and sites across the park is required. You’ll be provided with a laptop to enable you to access our secure IT network when working remotely.
The role
The role is a career graded position starting as the Assistant Director of Sustainable Development and succeeding into the Director role. You’ll support the Director of Sustainable Development in managing our unique Lake District National Park Partnership and facilitate breakthroughs in partnership priorities. You will also fill a leadership role within the Authority particularly in the development and delivery of park strategy, including the new Management Plan and Local Plan for the National Park.
The role has significant focus on strategy development and communication and engagement with our National Park communities, local and national. In such an outward facing role the post holder must maintain a strong reputation for the Authority through networks and representations at international, national and local levels.
The attached role profile outlines the full person specification on this post. Even if you don’t meet all the essential criteria for the Assistant Director position but think you could be a good fit, we still want to hear from you. We’re keen to work with the right person for our organisation and are happy to support development for the right candidate.
About you
Your approach will be inclusive and compassionate. By inspiring your teams and wider colleagues, they’ll deliver our existing strategies as well as develop new ways of working and move the organisation forwards.
With substantial experience of policy, strategy, economics and/or planning, you’ll ensure the delivery of the Authority’s vision and partnership plan.
As a self-assured communicator and good listener, you’ll be comfortable representing the Authority on Partnerships, Boards, and other forums, to promote the delivery of the vision for the National Park and the Authority’s role in its delivery. You’ll empower our Park Management and Strategy and Partnership teams to build on their existing excellent delivery towards 30 x 30 requirements, maximise natural capital green finance opportunities whilst adhering to prudent financial management practices.
You’ll be experienced in delivering successful strategic initiatives and provide sound advice to Members, Strategic Leadership Team, Managers and staff on a range of organisational matters.
Benefits
Working with us, you’ll enjoy:
• 30 days holiday, 8 bank holidays and 2 statutory days leave per year
• Auto enrolment into our Local Government Pension Scheme
• A range of green benefits including electric car and Cycle to Work schemes
• Paid time off so you can volunteer
• Subsidised healthcare scheme
• Commitment to wellbeing and work life balance
We’re happy to talk about flexible working – let us know if you want to find out more.
See our website for a complete list of our employee benefits.
Contact
For an informal chat, please contact Stephen Ratcliffe (Director of Sustainable Development) on 01539 724555
Interviews to be held on Monday 3rd March in Kendal
We reserve the right to close this advert early should we receive sufficient applications, so please apply early to avoid missing out on this opportunity.
Diversity and Inclusion
As an equal opportunities' employer, the Lake District National Park Authority is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination based on age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.
Disability Confident Employer
We guarantee to interview anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the role. By ‘minimum criteria’ we mean that you must provide evidence in your application which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria, as well as meeting any of the qualification, skills or experience defined as essential.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .