Design and Conservation Officer

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO4 £49,056 – £52,194

Contract Type: Full-time Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 11/09/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): w/c 21st September 2026

Reference: 2256

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

A hugely exciting opportunity has arisen for a Design and Conservation Officer in the dynamic and diverse Place and Design Team at Waltham Forest Council. This is a key place-shaping role in a team with a great track record and at the forefront of delivering vibrant, green, safe and accessible neighbourhoods across Waltham Forest.

We are looking for someone creative and energetic with demonstrable design skills; who is looking to build on and share those skills to work across teams and help unlock exemplar design across the whole development cycle – from the production of policy documents, briefs, feasibility studies and masterplans, to the pre-application process and post permission oversight of conditions and quality review. With the team focused on the implementation of our ambitious Local Plan, this role will be key to unlocking delivery of new homes, workspace and infrastructure across the borough. The right candidate will be excited about architecture, urban design, heritage, landscape and biodiversity and the design and delivery of joyful places.

You will work well with others and can communicate ideas and proposals effectively and will enjoy taking a creative approach to problem solving.

In this role you will work alongside a second Design and Conservation Officer, a Conservation Officer, Trees and Urban Greening Officer and Planning Policy Principal Officer and will report to a senior Design officer.

We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship.

The Place and Design Team

We are delivering the Council’s priorities for delivering a fairer borough through inclusive growth and ensuring that we deliver the new homes and jobs needed, and that they are of exemplar quality and supported by the right infrastructure in the right places. We are committed to engaging the borough’s diverse communities at all stages of the development cycle to ensure that future development brings the benefits they need and tackles the Climate Emergency head on.

We work within an inclusive structure that rejects silos, embraces sharing and learning and works flexibly and collaboratively. We have adopted a matrix working approach that assembles the right teams for the right projects, building resilience and skills. We also work collaboratively with other teams across the council, including Development Management, Area Regeneration, Culture, Housing, Property, Capital Delivery, Strategy & Design, and Highways and engage meaningfully with our local communities, businesses, strategic authorities (such as GLA, TfL), investors and developers.

We are building a reputation as an innovative, positive, proactive team that delivers excellent results with work produced in house including an adopted Local Plan, award winning buildings and public spaces, a visionary Residential Alterations and Retrofit SPD, an evolving Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy and a first-class Local Heritage List.

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