Join Our Team!

To support our growing portfolio of complex, innovation-led projects, we are looking for an experienced Project Manager with a minimum of 5 years’ experience and a strong track record of delivering multi-stakeholder projects in a relevant field.

Our projects are not standard delivery programmes - they involve uncertainty, evolving priorities, and the development of new approaches. This role is therefore hands-on and dynamic, requiring someone who can provide structure, clarity, and leadership while adapting to change.

You will take ownership of 2-3 major projects at any one time (typically £200k-£800k in value, with teams of 10 to 20 people), acting as the central delivery lead and working closely with partners, technical specialists, clients, and subcontractors.

 Living Places is a not-for-profit consultancy whose sole purpose is to accelerate the net zero transition in a way that supports communities, places, and planet. Our mission is to establish repeatable and hugely scalable models for the delivery of fully funded and just local net zero transitions.

We started in July 2023 and are building a multi-disciplinary team with expertise across neighbourhood transition and climate resilience investment, including finance, energy systems, buildings and materials, housing, participation and engagement, governance, policy, and programme design and delivery.

We are building out a comprehensive programme of place-based Net Zero transition with a focus on domestic retrofit, and we are establishing cross-sector collaborations to design and deliver demonstrators. Our work includes developing finance and delivery mechanisms, blending public and private funding, and exploring cooperative and community benefit structures and asset ownership models in the context of project development and delivery. We are also increasingly working on the design and delivery of demonstrator projects, involving technical design teams and community engagement.

We have live projects with West Midlands Combined Authority, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, the Local Net Zero Accelerator Finance Support Service and the London Borough of Newham among others.

Your role will combine ownership of end-to-end project delivery (planning, coordinating teams, managing budgets, and ensuring timelines are met) with leadership across complex, innovation-driven projects (navigating uncertainty and aligning stakeholders). This includes the bidding/tendering stage and mobilisation including contracting.

You will work closely with the Partners and technical experts to ensure that projects are delivered effectively, teams are supported, and the organisation can scale its delivery capability.

The ideal candidate will be a proactive and adaptable problem solver with strong communication skills, the ability to manage complexity, and the confidence to challenge stakeholders and make decisions in uncertain environments.

• Projects are well-structured, with clear plans, milestones, and accountability across teams
• Budgets, timelines, and risks are actively managed, with no surprises
• Teams are motivated, supported, and able to deliver sustainably
• Clients and stakeholders are engaged, informed, and confident in delivery
• Complex and uncertain projects are navigated effectively, with priorities adapted as needed
• Issues are identified early and resolved proactively
• Communication across projects is clear, consistent, and well-coordinated
• You engage confidently in project discussions, applying relevant experience to shape direction and outcomes.
• Delivery aligns not only with time and budget, but also with organisational mission and impact goals
• You confidently challenge clients, subcontractors or senior team members and escalate where necessary to maintain project integrity
• Opportunities to improve delivery processes and ways of working are identified and implemented to ensure project management tools are responsive and easy to implement

• Lead delivery of 2–3 major projects, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and mission
• Establish and manage project structures, including planning, governance, reporting, and stakeholder engagement
• Oversee budgets, timelines, risks, and dependencies across multiple concurrent projects
• Coordinate multidisciplinary teams to ensure effective collaboration and delivery
• Support stakeholders (internal and external) to stay aligned, informed, and engaged
• Drive high-quality outputs that balance technical delivery with broader strategic goals
• Continuously improve project delivery practices, tools, and processes across the organisation

• Leading the end-to-end delivery of multiple complex projects, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives and mission
• Coordinating multidisciplinary teams, including internal staff and external subcontractors, to ensure effective collaboration and delivery
• Developing and maintaining structured project plans, milestones, and delivery frameworks across multiple workstreams
• Identifying, assessing, and actively managing risks, issues, and dependencies throughout the project lifecycle
• Establishing clear governance, decision-making processes, and project reporting mechanisms
• Acting as the key point of contact for clients and stakeholders, building strong and trusted relationships
• Facilitating effective communication and alignment across stakeholders with differing priorities and perspectives
• Contributing to project content and discussions, drawing on relevant sector experience or specialism to add value beyond project coordination
• Capturing lessons learned and contributing to continuous improvement of project delivery practices
• Balancing competing priorities and resources across concurrent projects to optimise delivery outcomes
• Supporting team wellbeing and fostering a motivated, sustainable working environment

• 5+ years experience delivering projects in environmental, built environment, infrastructure, local authority, consultancy, or fund design settings
• Degree or equivalent professional experience
• Proven track record delivering complex, multi-stakeholder projects
• Experience leading and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams, with the ability to contribute to project content as well as delivery
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, including confidence engaging, influencing, and constructively challenging clients and senior stakeholders
• Solid commercial awareness, with experience managing contracting, budgets, risks, and project performance
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills across multiple concurrent projects
• High level of resilience, adaptability, and comfort working in ambiguous or evolving environments
• Effective conflict resolution and negotiation skills in complex stakeholder settings

• Knowledge of decarbonisation, retrofit, or innovative finance
• Familiarity with project management methodologies (e.g. PRINCE2, Agile)

Candidates should bring relevant sector experience and/or a specialism aligned to environmental, built environment, or public-sector projects - this role is not suited to purely generalist PM backgrounds.

As a small company consisting of five partners and associate partners plus a small business support function, we operate a very flat structure, so you’ll be an integral part of the team and often work across multiple aspects of several projects.

While this makes the job dynamic and always interesting, it means you’ll thrive if you're adaptable, curious, and open to working across a range of challenges - sometimes beyond your formal role.

You should come prepared to learn continuously, to bring your insight and experience to bear on a variety of different questions and challenges, and to work on things that may sometimes feel above your pay grade and other times below. We work laterally rather than hierarchically and, as we don’t have a big support team, taking initiative and taking responsibility are key qualities you’ll need to demonstrate.

We all work remotely and get together in person once or twice a quarter to co-work and for project deep dives. The core team is spread across London, Bristol, Oxford, and Scotland, and we’re keen to have more parts of the country represented.

Our normal working week is 40 hours but we recognise the pressures of modern life and the desire many have to work flexibly. Colleagues are welcome to work flexibly outside our core hours (10am-3pm), and we are also happy to consider applications from people wishing to work less than full time, subject to an average minimum of 32 hours per week.

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. If you meet most but not all of the criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

• A salary of between £50k and £65k (depending on experience)
• 28 days holiday per year plus public holidays
• Additional 3 days off between Christmas and New Year
• Flexible working outside core hours
• A company pension scheme with an employer contribution of up to 8%
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (partner and children)

We are unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time and can only consider applicants with an existing permanent right to work in the UK.

Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis until 30 June 2026 – please send a CV of no more than two pages and cover letter of no more than one page by this deadline to people@livingplaces.earth.

Online interviews of shortlisted candidates will take place with two of the partners at Living Places.

You can expect the online interview to last no more than one hour and we will ask you to talk through your relevant experience in relation to the role as set out above. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the partners.

If you have any queries about the role, please send them to people@livingplaces.earth and we will endeavour to respond within five working days.

We’re excited to welcome someone who shares our commitment to a just Net Zero transition and is ready to help shape the future of neighbourhood-scale investment in the UK and beyond.