Senior DCO Manager
About the role
This is the time for action – we need to move at pace and reform our energy system – to deliver energy security, to tackle climate change and to protect our people.
Lead and coordinate successful Development Consent Orders (DCO) for major National Grid Strategic Infrastructure projects, ensuring a right-first-time approach. Working as part of the project senior leadership team, this role manages a direct team of project managers, external partners, and a wider network of land, external affairs, legal, and consenting experts to deliver DCOs to agreed schedule, budget, and quality expectations.
Key responsibilities include driving understanding of the DCO process across the project team, embedding lessons learned at each stage, and sharing best practices across Strategic Infrastructure. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the Great Grid Upgrade, where National Grid is set to become one of the largest promoters of DCOs in England and Wales.
Location: Based at our Birmingham project office a few times a week, with occasional travel to project sites across England.
About You
What we do isn’t just important – it’s essential. That’s why we look to recruit experts in their field. In this case, we’re looking for someone who:
•Experience of working on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project Project(s) within an integrated project team and what it takes to deliver a successful submission and eventual consent.
•Understanding of the statutory requirements, guidance and advice associated with promoting a NSIP to ensure successful submission of a DCO application and examination.
•Proven track record in leading, managing and developing a high-performing integrated project team.
•Proven track record in developing effective business-wide networks and successful stakeholder relationships to drive the development and delivery of major infrastructure projects.
•Demonstrable willingness to find better ways of working, maximise efficiencies to improve quality, schedule certainty and accurate forecasting.
•Experience of Project Management within major project environment and awareness of commercial contracts.
•Awareness of regulatory mechanisms and the how National Grid works with Ofgem.
What you'll do
- Lead, develop and performance manage direct reports and effectively lead matrixed team members to deliver a successful DCO application and examination to time, cost and quality expectations.
- Manage coordination of key internal and external stakeholders to ensure timely delivery of DCO application and through examination leading to a successful consent.
- Coordinate delivery of the DCO products to a high degree of quality with a right first-time approach.
- Manage key project partners to ensure their contracts, programmes and deliverables align with expectations.
- Lead the production management and document control process and work collaboratively with the appointed supplier to ensure they support delivery of the DCO products to maintain schedule.
- Lead on an integrated DCO programme; maintaining control of milestones, dependencies and critical path to delivery agreed DCO outcomes and protect key delivery commitments. Coordinate on the wider project integration with the overall project programme.
- Work with discipline leads to ensure accurate and timely financial reporting and forecasting is provided by project partners.
- Work with integrated project team to coordinate technical inputs and outputs required for DCO submission.
- Drive understanding of the DCO process into the project team ensuring lessons learned from each stage are reviewed and shared across Strategic Infrastructure.
- Collaborate closely and effectively with other discipline leads, ensuring that the DCO programme accounts for all known risks and lessons learned from other DCO Projects.
- Lead and embed positive safety and wellbeing culture within team to improve collective safety performance ensuring adherence to company policy, aims and objectives.
- Be involved in defining and agreeing project consenting and communication strategies considering interfacing projects and dependencies in particular with the consents and external affairs teams working on the project.
- Coordination of project design change control process to ensure any design changes affecting the DCO products are captured, assessed and are tracked to mitigate any risk to schedule.
- Be involved in agreeing and implementing and coordinating consultation activities for the project with the Project Director authorities per the requirements of the Planning Act 2008 (as amended).
About us
The British Energy Security Strategy set out the Government's ambition to connect up to 50GW of offshore generation to the electricity network by 2030. Facilitating this ambition will require significant reinforcements to the onshore electricity transmission network. National Grid Strategic Infrastructure will make this happen.
Here at National Grid, we connect homes and businesses to power, making sure supply and demand match each other. We make sure the lights are on in schools, operating theatres, and sporting arenas; we’re thousands of people working on behalf of millions of people.
Our investment in Strategic Infrastructure via the Great Grid Upgrade will mean more home grown power, greater energy security and a cleaner future.
Whatever your role, wherever you work with us, you’ll help us hit stretching targets and achieve our far-reaching goal: to secure, clean energy that supports our world far into the future. Here, you will be at the heart of energy.
To fully integrate, optimize and manage an allocated programme of work and ensure delivery of capital projects to agreed plan, ensuring that all schemes are delivered in accordance with relevant National Grid practice and procedures and support the Delivery Vehicles in always operating to the highest Safety, Health and Environmental standards.
More Information
This role closes on 29th January 2026 at 23:59, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary.
We work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office.
We're committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.
Please note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points-based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points-based immigration system. However, in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and demonstrable need for specialist skills that cannot be sourced from the local labour market, National Grid may consider offering sponsorship. All applications are welcome from candidates who meet these requirements, regardless of race, nationality, or ethnic origin.
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