Avalon is seeking a dynamic, natural leader to become our new Planning Director for the Bristol Office. This is a senior leadership role, needed to help fulfill a busy and growing project portfolio in the Bristol region. Offering a genuine opportunity to help shape the future direction of our practice in this part of the South West.

With a strong track record of delivering commercial planning advice on high-profile and complex sites, you’ll already understand the value that comes from helping deliver legacy developments you can be proud of, as well as from mentoring younger planning colleagues. You’ll be confident advocating innovative and ambitious schemes with planning authorities and stakeholders, and enjoy sharing ideas and creative solutions with clients and contacts to help deliver commercial aspirations. You’ll also understand the importance of building excellent working relationships with clients and contacts, and be interested in helping secure exciting new projects and business opportunities for your team.

As an Avalon Director, you will have the opportunity to play a central role in mentoring and developing planners at all levels, fostering a culture of professional excellence and innovation, to help colleagues achieve their full potential. Encouraging creative and innovative thinking across your team, to help overcome complex planning challenges.

For the right candidate, Avalon offers a role where your leadership, ideas and achievements are genuinely valued, and matched by a strong market-rate remuneration package and genuine opportunities for continued professional development and recognition.

We are proud to offer a diverse and stimulating workload focused on progressive placemaking, alongside a working culture that genuinely understands the importance of work-life balance — with pro-family, flexible and hybrid working options, generous annual leave, and a bespoke benefits package available.

The Role

As Bristol Planning Director you will take overall responsibility for the leadership and delivery of planning projects across the Bristol area, as well as in Somerset, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire as needed. You will also help lead a company-wide planning team working across a diverse and high-profile project portfolio — spanning residential, mixed-use, strategic land, regeneration and heritage contexts. You will be the senior point of contact for key clients regionally, guiding them through complex planning processes with confidence and authority, from early-stage strategy and pre-application engagement, through to consent, appeal and beyond.

Business development is central to this role. You will be expected to actively help build and maintain a strong network of client and professional relationships in the region, as well as working with other senior colleagues to help identify and convert new market opportunities across the South West.

As office lead, you'll help manage project workloads and resourcing for junior planners, and support them with their ongoing professional development through mentoring, knowledge-sharing, and fostering curiosity to learn through hands-on experience. We hope you will work with us to encourage a culture of collaborative learning and professional ambition, that ensures Avalon continues to attract and retain exceptional talent.

What You'll Bring

• Substantial experience in town planning at a senior level, gained within consultancy, a local planning authority, or in-house with a major developer or housebuilder
• A thorough and current command of planning policy, legislation and the wider development management framework, and its local interpretation in practice
• A proven track record of securing high-profile planning permissions, allocations and consents, across a variety of sites, experience of complex S106 negotiations
• Experience of managing and mentoring junior planners and team workloads
• Confidence sharing your professional experience and knowledge to help define application strategies and advocate proposals to stakeholders, proactive in communicating with clients and contacts
• Proven interest and success in business development — winning instructions, delivering excellent client service, building client relationships and networks. Ideally, bringing an established professional reputation and network
• MRTPI qualified, with a degree or postgraduate qualification in Town Planning or a related discipline

Your Skills & Approach

• A confident and inspiring leader who brings out the best in those around them
• Commercially astute, with a sharp eye for opportunity, your own business ideas and the drive to pursue them
• Articulate and authoritative in written and spoken communication, with the standing to represent the practice at the highest levels
• Independent and innovative in your approach when required — unafraid to challenge convention and bring fresh thinking to complex planning challenges
• A collaborative and inclusive leader, who champions professional development and fosters a high-performing team culture
• You see town planning as an opportunity to help deliver progressive placemaking

Why Join Avalon?

We’re proud of the projects we work on and actively target market areas where we see a chance to help positively shape the South West’s environment. We’re known for innovative planning advice and hands-on client advice, but we’re not afraid to give honest advice constructively to help achieve a better outcome.

Our team is dynamic and professionally ambitious, we don’t just tick boxes for planning validation. Everyone in the company brings something unique and valuable to the table, and we believe everyone still has space to still learn and be curious.

For our Directors, we offer the autonomy to lead and genuinely help shape the future of your team and the company, with the resources to grow and the recognition that outstanding work deserves. You can also expect a strong market-rate remuneration package, generous annual leave, pro-family and work-life balance policies, a bespoke benefits package, and options for flexible and hybrid working arrangements. All in a practice that genuinely values the people who make it successful.

How to Apply

If this role could be for you, please send your CV, along with a covering letter outlining your experience and ideas for the role to murray@avalonplanning.co.uk (Murray Ross, Partner). We’re happy to arrange an informal chat about this role prior to application, please get in touch.