Senior or Principal Consultant, EIA - Rail and Road (North East , North West and Scotland)

Join to apply for the Senior or Principal Consultant, EIA - Rail and Road (North East , North West and Scotland) role at WSP.

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. You can experience a world of opportunity and the chance to shape a career as unique as you.

A Little More About Your Role

There is a political consensus that infrastructure investment is vital and serves an enduring purpose. At all levels of UK government, projects are being taken forward that support sustainable economic growth, decarbonise the movement of goods and people, and modernise the services received by end users. At WSP, we draw on experience from working on over 36,000 transport and infrastructure projects in over 40 countries across 6 continents. As one of the global leaders in transport and infrastructure we are committed to sustainable transport and connecting communities.

As one of the largest environmental consultancies in the UK, you’ll get the opportunity to contribute to nationally significant transport projects and collaborate with some of the brightest minds in the industry. You’ll be encouraged to explore new ideas in a culture that values curiosity and diverse perspectives. With the continued changes and demand on the UK transport sector comes increased scrutiny and a more complex consenting environment. As a Senior Consultant or Principal Consultant in our Resilient Infrastructure team, you’ll play a role in navigating this landscape—supporting transport expansion through strategic planning, environmental advice, and technical studies. You’ll contribute to some of the UK’s most significant and transformative transport infrastructure projects, delivering services such as planning applications, EIA, GRIP Stages, and support for DCO examinations and planning inquiries to name a few. This is a role of strategic significance for our business and represents a challenging and exciting opportunity to identify, win and deliver multi-disciplinary inputs for transport infrastructure projects. We need people with creative spirit, a dedicated approach and a solid grounding in environmental design, assessment and management at any stage of the development project lifecycle.

Join a great organisation

As a Senior Consultant or Principal Consultant, you will collaborate with a diverse team of technical specialists and design professionals to lead and coordinate environmental contributions across project designs and assessments. You will be instrumental in improving the environmental performance for a range of projects. The role would suit an enthusiastic individual looking to influence, lead and deliver environmental elements of transportation infrastructure projects. You will have responsibility for directing and leading projects including tasks relating to recruitment, bidding, project team management, project delivery, and financial management.

Responsibilities

• Managing the delivery of a diverse range of environmental inputs into transport projects including planning applications, EIA, and support for DCO examinations and/or planning inquiries.
• An awareness of and experience in the delivery of environmental inputs into projects including EIA screening requests and scoping reports, environmental constraints studies, environmental management plans and Environmental Statements.
• Building relationships with clients and identifying opportunities to provide support in areas such as resourcing, programming, strategy development and project delivery.
• Undertaking activities to secure new work, including preparing proposals, contributing to strategic-bid preparation, and participating in business development opportunities.
• Supporting the development of innovative techniques to shape the way we do our business whether through Digital EIA, Technical Excellence, Future Ready EIA etc.
• Inspiring and upskilling junior colleagues to support their career development.
• Promoting an inclusive workplace, demonstrating an understanding of Health and Safety whilst living the values of our health, safety, and wellbeing culture.
• Undertaking actions that contribute towards the success of the WSP business strategy, whilst being self-motivated towards goals relevant to the role, team, and your projects.

What We Will Be Looking For You To Demonstrate

• A relevant environmental degree level qualification in EIA, or similar.
• Achieved or demonstrably working towards Practitioner or Chartered Environmental Status and Full membership of IEMA, or similar qualification with a relevant professional body.
• Familiarity with relevant consenting processes associated with transport infrastructure and transport-related projects, including Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), Environmental Permit applications etc. Understanding of how these processes integrate with the planning system and EIA for rail and road schemes, transport improvement works, rail sidings, or station and infrastructure upgrades.
• Demonstrates the ability to apply programme knowledge to effectively coordinate tasks across technical teams, external clients, stakeholders, and partner organisations, while consistently delivering projects or tasks on time and within budget, in full compliance with business management procedures.
• Ability to lead and contribute to meetings with the wider technical team and external clients and stakeholders.
• Advantageous to understand HS2, Transport for London (TfL), Pathway, WebTAG experience, Network Rail and/or London Underground requirements.
• Experience in coordinating a suite of environmental surveys required to support an EIA for transport schemes, with knowledge of the associated Health and Safety requirements.
• Experience in bid preparation and responding to client change requests with appropriate fee adjustments for transport infrastructure projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong report writing and review capabilities, attention to detail, and a focus on quality assurance.

What’s in it for you

• Work-life balance with hybrid working policy and opportunities to collaborate in offices across the UK.
• Inclusivity and belonging, with employee resource groups and a culture of inclusion.
• Health & wellbeing support through Thrive, Virtual GP, workplace adjustments, Gymflex, and menopause support.
• Flexible time with options like WSP My Hour, part-time and flexible working, additional leave, and bank holiday flexibility.
• Development opportunities including training, mentoring, and Chartership support.

#WeAreWSP

We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity/paternity. We will interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria and will provide workplace adjustments on request.