Senior Planner

One of two planning posts we're filling this autumn. We'll appoint at Planner or Senior Planner level depending on your experience, so if you're earlier in your career, look at the Planner role as well.

ET Planning is a town planning consultancy of around 20 people, based in Crowthorne, Berkshire. We help developers, landowners, businesses, councils and community groups with everything from small applications to major schemes.

ET Planning recently won ‘Property Business of the Year’ at the Thames Valley Property Awards 2026.

You'll work in one of our two planning teams, led by an Associate Director. You will take responsibility for project delivery, supervision and quality assurance, while developing strong consultant and client relationships. You will get involved in a range of planning work, which may include planning applications, appeals and plan promotion. You will help develop the planners and graduates around you, and also work with Principals and ADs on the more complex projects.

• Prepare and project-manage planning applications, appeals and plan promotion, with analysis that stands up and advice that is balanced and evidence-based.
• Supervise project work and sign off written reports.
• Take a lead role with at least three clients, and grow our relationships with architects and other consultants.
• Work in project teams: keep planners and graduates well utilised, and work with Principals on more complex projects.
• Deal diplomatically with council officers and other consultants, and attend planning committees and engagement meetings.
• Organise your own workload and keep your line manager clearly informed.
• Help win work: handle new enquiries, draft fee quotes, and take part in networking and business development.
• Contribute to our marketing (blogs and events) and keep accurate project records.

• A discretionary bonus scheme
• 24 days' holiday plus bank holidays, and 3 days' Christmas holiday gifted
• Flexible hours: at least half your hours between 9am and 5:30pm, the rest when it suits you
• Flexi-time: time off in lieu of additional hours, for example when you attend planning committee
• Company pension, with the option to pay bonuses into it
• Private medical insurance once you've passed probation
• Hybrid working including home working, pattern to be confirmed
• Regular one-to-ones with your line manager, a personal development plan, and a clear route to Principal

Please send us your CV, or your LinkedIn profile if it is up to date, and three examples of written work you have authored in your current or previous role, using the form below by the closing date. Please remove client names and anything confidential from your examples. There will be a short test as part of the interview process. You must have the right to work in the UK.

We are interviewing as we go along. If we find the right candidate we will make an offer before the closing date, and the role will then close early, so please apply as soon as you can rather than waiting for the deadline.

Our development guides are written for the person stepping up to each level. This is the one for the Senior step, and it is the standard we measure the role by.

Planners produce good work when the task is clear. The step to Senior is the shift from being given well-defined tasks to being trusted with a piece of work: picking it up, working out the approach, and bringing it back in good shape with less direction.

Planners are measured by the tasks they complete. Seniors are measured by how much can be handed to them and rely on coming back right.

1. From task to trust

You start needing less direction. Someone can give you an objective rather than a step-by-step, and trust you to spot the gaps, ask the right questions up front, and flag the risks early.

Question to ask: "Could this have been handed to me with less explanation than I needed, and if not, what would close that gap?"

2. Outcomes, not just task completion

Start describing what your work achieved, not just that it was done. "Wrote the heritage paragraph" is a task; "the heritage point is now watertight" is an outcome. It's the habit that carries you all the way up the ladder. Build it now.

Question to ask: "What did this actually achieve for the matter?"

3. Own your workload

Seniors manage their own time across several matters without being chased. You know what's due, you flag a clash before it becomes a problem, and you keep the people relying on you informed.

Question to ask: "Does my manager have to track my deadlines, or do I?"

4. Get reliable: be the safe pair of hands

The hallmark of a Senior is consistency: work that comes back right, on time, needing little rework. Reliability is what earns you more interesting work and more responsibility.

Question to ask: "Can people count on my work without double-checking it?"

5. Start handling clients and helping juniors

You begin to be a direct point of contact, clear, professional and reliable in your own communications, and you start being the person a Graduate asks when they're stuck. Both are part of stepping up.

Question to ask: "Am I someone a client is comfortable dealing with, and someone a junior learns from?"

6. Take initiative

Seniors don't wait to be told about the obvious next thing. You spot what needs doing and either do it or raise it. You bring the problem with a suggestion.

Question to ask: "What needs doing here that nobody has asked me to do yet?"

The Senior Test

Before presenting an achievement, ask:

• Level 1: What did I do?
• Level 2: What outcome did it create for the matter?
• Level 3: How much supervision did it need, and did it free my manager to focus elsewhere?

If you can answer all three, especially the third, you're working in a Senior-level way.

Speak the language of impact

Move from action to outcome. "I helped with the report" becomes "I drafted the report and it went out with only light review." Reach for delivered, drafted, resolved, improved, owned.

Final reflection

The step to Senior is about becoming a safe pair of hands: someone work can be handed to with confidence, who owns their own time, communicates well, and takes initiative. It's where you stop needing to be managed task-by-task.