About the role:

This role will help LUC to further build the strength and resilience of our Historic Environment Team, as well as actively supporting the strategy for the team and LUC as a whole.

Supported by our existing Historic Environment Team, the successful candidate will be able to participate in all aspects of the delivery of our project work.

This is an excellent opportunity for an early-career historic environment specialist to develop fieldwork, research, evaluation and valuable interdisciplinary teamworking skills. We are looking for candidates with a good work ethic, enthusiasm and keen critical thinking.

The successful candidate will play an important role in helping deliver LUC’s wide-ranging portfolio of historic environment work, encompassing strategic and site-specific impact assessment at a range of scales, and contributing to nationally important applied research, through to conservation management plans and asset-specific management advice.

The role will add to the strength and capacity of the Historic Environment Team with responsibilities including (but not limited to):

• Impact assessment

– Assessing the impact of development proposals on the significance of heritage assets, through the heritage consents, town and country planning and EIA processes.

– Advising clients on schemes ranging from major infrastructure to small-scale changes to heritage assets.

– Developing innovative and robust mitigation and enhancement options, in collaboration with other environmental specialists.

– Peer review of Environmental Statements on behalf of local authorities and third-sector clients.

• Asset-focused conservation and management

– Analysis of the heritage values and significance, including the contribution of setting, of a range of heritage asset types – including scheduled monuments, listed buildings, parks and gardens, conservation areas and world heritage sites, as well as non-designated heritage assets.

• Area-based character assessment

– Analysis of the settlement morphology and the development of historic landscapes, e.g. Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC), Historic Area Assessment (HAA) and contributions to conservation area appraisals

– Assessment of visual and spatial qualities of an area, and how they influence character and appearance

– Identification of management issues and opportunities for enhancement

• Strategic research, guidance and policy

– High-level analysis of the historic environment, including identification of themes, influences, constraints, and opportunities (e.g. to feed into heritage strategy and local plan evidence base)

– Providing and producing guidance on the assessment of significance and management of the historic environment

– Input into local historic environment policy and guidance

– Developing assessment methodologies, criteria and standards for local assessments and designations

• Natural England agri-environment research

– Undertaking desk-based analysis of funding agreements and selected options, and their interaction with the historic environment

– Field survey and assessment of options’ effects on heritage assets and historic landscape character

– Collaborative working with a large multidisciplinary team, building understanding of heritage issues in land management

– Contributing to analysis, interpretation and reporting of results

– Liaison with land managers and wider research project teams, both within LUC and external colleagues.

Our orderbook generally contains these principal strands of work, but new opportunities and workstreams arise all the time – therefore a flexible approach and keenness to learn and develop is an advantage.

This is also an opportunity to work for a sincere, employee-owned company with strong values and a particular focus on addressing the climate emergency. The role can be based in any of LUC’s offices (London, Bristol, Cardiff, Sheffield, Manchester, Edinburgh or Glasgow). We work in a hybrid model with people being in the office a minimum of two days per week. There will also be travel required to visit sites, client offices and other office locations.

A full-time role is based on 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday). However, LUC has a strong track record in flexible working, and we have been recognised for our flexible working culture, so we are happy to discuss a range of flexible working options for this role including part time hours (minimum 30 hours per week) if desired.

Salary: £25,000-£39,000 FTE, Depending on experience, (including London allowance of £4,000 if applicable)

Experience and qualifications

The successful candidate will complement our existing dedicated Historic Environment team, and will be supported further by colleagues in our GIS and landscape teams.

Essential

• Educated to degree level (or equivalent work experience), in an appropriate historic environment-related discipline. – E.g. Archaeology; Architectural History; Historic Building Conservation; Landscape Archaeology
• A sound understanding and working knowledge of the fundamentals of British archaeology.
• An understanding and working knowledge of historic environment legislation, policy and practice across the UK, and the interface with the planning system.
• Experience of applying a proportionate, methodical, analytical and consistent approach to understanding the historic environment.
• Experience of applying significance and impact assessment methodologies to understand effects to heritage assets.
• Full UK driving licence.

Desirable

• Post-graduate qualification in a relevant subject.
• Experience of archaeological / historic environment field survey in rural and particularly upland environments.
• Understanding of and training in landscape archaeology.
• Understanding of land management and agricultural practices, including environmental stewardship schemes.
• GIS skills.
• Membership of the Institute for Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) or Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), or willingness to work towards the same.
• Offroad driving certification, and comfort in driving a range of vehicle types (cars, vans, 4x4 vehicles, manual and automatic gearboxes

Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.

Please apply by uploading your CV and covering letter via the above link

LUC is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and we actively encourage applications from under-represented groups. We value the differences, needs and contributions a diverse workforce represents, and we strive to embed equality, diversity and inclusion in all our people related activities.