Spatial Planning Team Leader
Active Travel England
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 10th May 2026
Reference number: 456537
Salary: £57,515
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
Location: York
Job summary
Can you communicate clearly, openly and positively, explaining technical matters in an accessible way?
Are you able to support Active Travel England (ATE) in delivering its planning priorities?
If so, we’d love to hear from you!
Active Travel England is the government’s executive agency responsible for making walking, wheeling and cycling the preferred choice for everyone to get around in England.
Active travel makes people happier and healthier. That’s why Active Travel England wants to increase the number of local journeys being walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.
We are doing this by:
· Investing in and improving standards for active travel schemes across England.
· Integrating active travel in the planning and development system.
· Focusing on inclusivity and accessibility and giving people from all walks of life the opportunity to try active travel.
· Helping councils to access state of the art data and analysis to use in active travel planning and design.
Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:
· Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
· 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
· Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Find out more about what it's like working at Active Travel England
Job description
Active Travel England (ATE) plays a central role in delivering the Government’s ambition for half of journeys in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030. This role sits within ATE’s statutory spatial planning function, overseeing development management and plan-making services. You will lead core planning activity, manage a multidisciplinary team, and bring strong expertise in active travel, sustainable transport policy and stakeholder engagement.
Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:
· Support ATE in delivering its spatial planning priorities through its plan-making and development management roles.
· Lead and line-manage a team of four colleagues, supporting continuous professional development and ensuring new starters are effectively onboarded.
· Allocate new cases, oversee workloads and support the Head of Development Management in driving consistency and quality across outputs.
· Build productive relationships with key external stakeholders to position ATE as a centre of excellence and promote best practice.
· Provide professional advice to colleagues across ATE, as well as to local and combined authorities, developers, agents and other relevant stakeholders on development proposals.
· Contribute to ATE’s learning, development and capacity-building activities for local authorities and the development sector, including leading sessions where appropriate.
· Attend meetings with a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties as required.
Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.
For further information on the role, please read the role profile which is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
