Summary

Historic England is the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face globally. We must change how we live, work and behave if we are to limit further warming and avoid the worst impacts. This includes making changes to our historic buildings to ensure they remain safe and viable to be enjoyed by future generations.  We have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Historic Building Climate Change Adaptation and influence the national agenda for the benefit of the historic built environment.

As Head of Historic Building Climate Change Adaptation, you will be a powerful and persuasive advocate on the appropriate methods of maintenance, repair and adaptation of the historic building stock for Net Zero and climate resilience. Working with key internal and external stakeholders and learning from others, you will be a visible leader, providing an authoritative voice on attaining the combined objectives of achieving a Net Zero emissions and climate resilient society while sustaining the values of the historic built environment.  This will include ensuring that appropriate decisions are made about adaptation and reuse versus new build, as well as retrofitting in ways that avoid harming heritage assets and people’s health through maladaptation or unintended consequences. 

The location of this role is National and we offer hybrid working, where you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth and Cambridge.

Salary

National (Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth): £52,765 - £56,197

Cambridge: £54,390 - £57,926

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

What you will be doing

You will develop and share our technical approach and position across Historic England and the wider sectors so we can influence the national agenda for the benefit of the historic built environment.  This will include actively participating in, and where appropriate leading, both internal and external committees, steering groups and working parties.

Working closely with the Head of Climate Change and colleagues in the Policy Development Team, you will ensure our strategic advice to government in relation to adapting buildings for Net Zero and climate resilience is underpinned by evidence-based technical advice and guidance.  This will include contributing to consultations, calls for evidence, and briefings for Ministers and senior HE colleagues. 

You will lead the delivery of authoritative evidence-based advice and guidance on best practice methods of maintenance, repair and adaptation of the historic building stock for Net Zero and climate resilience.  This will include ensuring our published technical guidance reflects current understanding and best practice as well as providing timely technical advice and assistance to colleagues across the organisation.

You will lead and coordinate a prioritised and targeted programme of research to develop the evidence base required to underpin the advice we give.  This will require liaison with colleagues and external stakeholders to identify the evidence gaps, ensuring all research reflects highest academic and professional standards.  You will also support Public Engagement Group in communicating our position from a technical perspective to different audiences, providing leadership within the sector and beyond.

As a leader you will identify the priorities for the team, and lead, manage, coordinate and direct their work to ensure they contribute effectively in support of the wider Departmental, Group and Corporate aims and objectives, taking responsibility for dealing effectively with all staff related matters. 

The role will involve travel to local offices and locations throughout England and due to the national remit of the role, attendance at meetings and site visits may involve overnight stays, sometimes of more than one consecutive night.

Who we are looking for:

You will be an Architect, Chartered Building Surveyor or Chartered Architectural Technologist, with current ARB registration or chartered RICS or CIAT membership with:

• Extensive, appropriate and wide-ranging experience in the repair and adaptation of historic buildings, including diagnosing defects and a good understanding of the implications of interventions, obtained subsequent to ARB registration or chartered RICS or CIAT membership.

• A firm grasp of current UK legislation, policy, guidance and best practice driving the decarbonisation of buildings, and willingness to keep abreast of changes.

• Excellent negotiating, influencing and stakeholder engagement skills.

• Demonstrable leadership skills, including proven ability to manage the work of others

• Excellent communication skills, including drafting technical reports, guidance, articles and reviewing and editing the work of others to provide clear advice

• Experience of managing and delivering research projects, including management of consultants

Salary

£52,765 - £57,926 per annum dependant on location and experience.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Virtual 1st stage Interview dates: We will interview candidates as we find them and reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we find the suitable candidate.

How to apply

To apply for this role you will need to submit a CV and covering letter on no more than two sides of A4 explaining why you wish to be considered for the role and how your skills and experience meet the key criteria we are looking for.  If you would like an informal chat about the role, please email Sally Embree on sally.embree@historicengland.org.uk.

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://historicengland.org.uk/media/cftb2gey/head-of-historic-building-climate-change-adaptation-updated.odt

We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we find the right candidate.  Previous applicants, please contact the Recruitment team before completing a second application.