Strategic Director of Place
Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest
Salary: SD 1 £162,470.69 - £174,529.64 plus London Weighting
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
Working hours per week: 36
Application Deadline: 25/04/2025
Proposed Interview Date(s): to be confirmed
Reference:1698
About Us:
The London Borough of Waltham Forest is a vibrant outer London borough in north London, we have a thriving business district and close transport links to central London.
Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, Waltham Forest is a great place, benefiting from a blend of ages, heritage and local history where people want to live, work and visit.
Click here to find out more Waltham Forest: About Us
Please visit our Data Hub if you would like to find out more about the demographics in Waltham Forest, including data briefs, posters, Power BI dashboard, charts and ONS's tools.
The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method
About the role:
We are seeking a visionary Strategic Director to lead the Council's Place Directorate. This is an exciting opportunity to deliver innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing Waltham Forest. The role encompasses oversight of the following services:
- Regeneration & Planning
- Capital Strategy & Delivery
- Commercial Estate & Investment
- Housing (including both landlord and statutory homelessness services)
The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in implementing Mission Waltham Forest, which outlines the Council's vision for a fairer borough by 2030. Key to this will be leadership of Waltham Forest's Housing Service, the Council's capital programme (including schools) and effectively harnessing investment and external partnerships to deliver the homes and community infrastructure our borough needs.
About you
You will be a natural collaborator with extensive experience of delivering both place-based and resident-focused services in a local government setting and understand the benefits of cross-Council working to deliver the best possible outcomes.
Skilled in building strategic relationships and politically astute you will be able to influence across a broad spectrum of internal and external partners and be adept at leading strategic programmes of work.
As an active member of the Council's Senior Leadership Team (SLT), you will support the Cabinet and Chief Executive to achieve the aims of the Council. You will be supported in the role by a talented Senior Management Team (3 direct reports).
>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead, manage and take overall responsibility for the work of the Place directorate.
- To ensure the Council's statutory duties in respect to Place services are always met and that the Council is prepared for all new relevant legislation prior to its introduction.
- Provide strategic oversight, direct and lead a portfolio of services ensuring the development of strategies, policies, targets and objectives deliver Waltham Forest's strategic, operational and financial requirements.
- Oversee the quality of Council owned and managed social housing.
- Lead the place-shaping, regeneration and planning policies of the Council.
- Lead and manage the Council's capital assets, budget, and delivery.
- To manage external relationships, formally represent the Council, negotiate, partnership working and liaison with London wide and sub-regional agencies.
- Reporting to the Chief Executive.
- Direct supervision and management of 3 Corporate Directors and overall strategic leadership to a total number of staff across the Place directorate: c470 staff
- Budget Responsibilities: £36m Revenue net Budget
- Total Capital budget (including schools capital programme):circa £712m from 2024/25 to 2034/35
Qualifications and Requirements:
- Educated to degree level or equivalent standard.
- Relevant post-graduate / professional qualifications.
Terms and conditions:
The below terms and conditions apply to this role:
Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
Satisfactory declaration of interest;
This post is politically restricted therefore the post holder is disqualified from undertaking certain political activities under the Local Government Officers (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990.
As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
How to Apply:
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.
To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.
We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.
For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Lee Witham, Corporate Director of Culture and Workforce Development at Lee.Witham@walthamforest.gov.uk or Maria Matthews, Leadership Support Assistant at Maria.Matthews@walthamforest.gov.uk.
If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.
Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.