Senior Sustainability Manager

| Barking & Dagenham Council

Location: Barking 

Salary: £69,984 – £76, 005

Full Time: Permanent

Closing Date: 13/02/2026

Job Description

If you are bored of working for an organisation that talks big on sustainability, but is still stuck in the slow lane, or where the sprint towards retrofitting thousands of homes and buildings has become a crawl, or where tree-planting is a sorry story of a few whips rather than a burgeoning forest, then the mission behind this vacancy at Barking & Dagenham could be right up your street.

The London Borough of Barking & Dagenham adopted its Zero Carbon Roadmap and Delivery Framework in 2023 and has worked at being at the cutting-edge of retrofit delivery, district heat network development, habitat restoration, nature-based carbon sequestration, EV charging solutions and active travel, ensuring it remains at the top of the tree by having the lowest greenhouse gas footprint of any local authority in the capital. Such is the progress, we require a proactive senior manager, working alongside a small and nimble team, who can work at pace and passion on projects such as

• The reintroduction of the beaver and white stork to conservation sites, or
• Revolutionising the process of retrofitting thousands of homes with our industrial partners, colleges and our Freeport, or
• Doubling our tree canopy across parks and open spaces to 250,000 by 2030, or
• Connecting hundreds of homes and businesses to a growing low-carbon district heat network, or
• Designing our carbon in new-build, working with developers to construct a net zero built environment

With responsibility for monitoring performance against the zero-carbon roadmap trajectory and supporting services across the Council in understanding and embedding net zero requirements into their business planning, the post holder will use their demonstratable experience in initiating and managing sustainability projects and will lead on, bid for and manage a wide portfolio of sustainability schemes, including the delivery of hundreds of retrofit installations, provide additional support on electric vehicle infrastructure; be on the front foot of local area energy planning, have a general understanding of heat networks, as well as prioritise the role of nature-based projects in carbon sequestration.

Critically, you will also be tasked with assisting the Council in devising procurement policies and standards to get its supply chains and contractors – which currently account for 54% of the authority’s carbon emissions – onto a long-term net zero trajectory. The post holder will be expected to establish effective working relationships with strategic lead commissioners, with the Council’s arms-length Companies, as well as external bodies and other local authorities.

Having a clear understanding of carbon reduction in a local government context, the manager and will lead the development of general net zero and sustainability policy, reporting back to the Head of Sustainability, Net Zero & Parks Commissioning on all matters pertaining to the strategic delivery and outcomes of achieving net zero and co-ordinating carbon management workstreams.

About you

If you’re driven, think outside of the box, and prefer to be in the thick of delivery rather than watching from the sidelines, then this will be the senior sustainability manager job for you.

The post holder will be a subject matter expert in carbon reduction projects across both the built and natural environment, with demonstratable experience in initiating, bidding for and managing a diverse range of sustainability projects in a local government environment.

This is a senior leadership role, and you will have a proven background in an environmental, built environment or sustainability discipline. You will have a strong track record of delivering complex projects to budget and providing insights for senior managers and elected Members, enabling informed decision-making and driving service performance. You will be a confident and credible communicator, capable of building trusted relationships across all stakeholders and this is particularly crucial considering the funding of many of the Council’s sustainability projects is dependent on robust strategic partnerships with internal and external funders . You will act as a strategic partner, challenging assumptions, holding others to account and influencing outcomes to deliver meaningful improvements in service delivery.

You will be expected to have a high level of personal self-supervision and be able to explain with clarity and cogency complex net zero matters in reports and presentations to colleagues, external stakeholders and members.

How To Apply

To apply, please follow the link below. Good luck!