Wayleave Officer

About the Role

Base Location: Highlands & Islands - we need your base location to be close to one of our offices at Inverness, Wick, Kyle of Lochalsh, Kirkwall or Stornoway

Salary: £38,073 - £49,626 depending on skills and experience + car allowance + a range of benefits to support your family, finances and wellbeing.

Working Pattern: Permanent | Full Time | Flexible working options available

Our Wayleave Officers are a pivotal resource to help us create a net zero world for tomorrow, while delivering a safe, resilient and responsive electricity distribution network for all our customers. In this role you'll be responsible for securing, maintaining and managing robust land and property rights for under ground cables, overhead lines and ground mounted plant on both public and privately-owned land.

The Wayleave Officer will negotiate with customers, private landowners and their representatives on a variety of projects to secure legal agreements for the installation of Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD) plant and equipment on third party land including:

• Agreeing the purchase or transfer of land for operational purposes.
• Resolving disputes between landowners and SHEPD regarding aged and lapsed agreements.
• Liaising with customers, land agents, legal representatives, planning authorities, key stakeholders, contractors and SHEPD colleagues to prepare consent documents.
• Resolving any disputes over wayleave rights or landownership.

What do I need?

To be considered for this role, we would love you to have:

• Experience of negotiating with landowners and knowledge of the legal processes for the acquisition of wayleaves/servitudes.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, being skillful in building lasting relationships with stakeholders internal, external and at all levels and first class communication skills, both verbal and written.
• It would be advantageous to have an understanding of possible statutory and environmental constraints and a willingness to develop into being fully conversant with the appropriate legislation.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to work quickly, accurately and independently whilst under pressure.
• Well-honed negotiation and influencing skills.

It is an essential requirement for this role that you have a full, current driving licence

SSEN Distribution powers 3.8 million homes and businesses in communities across central southern England and the north of Scotland. Our team of more than 3,500 people keep customers connected to a safe and reliable supply of electricity whilst developing the flexible networks that are vital to achieving net zero. By enabling a smarter, more resilient electricity network we're ensuring our local communities continue to receive the power they need, both now and in the future. We are consistently investing and innovating to improve network resilience and future-proof power supplies for life's changing demands, from rolling out large scale EV charging schemes to supporting small community generation projects.

We offer an excellent package with 34 days annual leave entitlement. Enhanced maternity/paternity leave, discounted healthcare, salary sacrifice car leasing and much more, view our full benefits package on our careers site.

As an equal opportunity employer we encourage diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage applicants from all protected characteristics and commit to providing any reasonable adjustments you need during the application, assessment and upon joining SSE. Search for 'Inclusion & Diversity at SSE' to find out more.

All applications should be made online, and I'll be back in touch after the vacancy closing date to let you know the outcome.

If you would like to discuss any working flexibly requirements or adjustments you may require throughout the recruitment and selection process, please contact / 01738 342529.

Before commencing employment with SSE, you'll be required to fully complete our pre-employment screening process consisting of a basic criminal records and credit check.