Principal City Planner

Key Information

Job title: Principal City Planner

Salary: Circa £57,000.00     Grade: Pay band 3

Contract type: TfL     Reference: 1428

Team: Spatial Planning     Directorate: Chief Customer & Strategy Officer

Contract details: Full-time     Location: London, with hybrid working
Hybrid working within this role enables a balance of 50 per cent of time split between the office and home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements can evolve subject to business requirements

Application closing date: 11 June 2025 @ 2359

London is always evolving—and so is the way we plan it

TfL’s Spatial Planning Growth and Master planning team sits at the heart of how the city grows, ensuring that new developments are well-connected, inclusive, and sustainable. We work with boroughs and partners to deliver the ‘Good Growth’ objectives set out in the London Plan and Mayor’s Transport Strategy as part of the GLA family Place Unit. Supporting sustainable development and integrating transport and land use planning. We do this holistically through coordination, masterplanning, developing interchanges, securing funding and case making for schemes led by TfL or partner organisations. Our work helps make London a better place to live, work and move through.

We now have an opportunity to join us as a Principal City Planner.

Overview of Role

You’ll play a key role in shaping our work supporting Good Growth in London. London’s transport system has a key role in unlocking growth and you’ll be leading a portion of the team’s work in this area. Your work will involve working flexibly across several programmes and activities of the Growth and Masterplanning team. You’ll be leading projects and programmes that explore how the city can grow in smarter, more sustainable ways. From developing area plans to shaping policies around specific transport modes or themes, working closely with colleagues across TfL, GLA family, Place Unit and beyond.

You’ll manage studies and project teams, define goals, guide analysis, and help identify practical, evidence-based solutions that support London’s evolving needs.

Key Accountabilities

Your duties will include, but not be limited to:

• Shape policy and plans by developing evidence-based strategies, area plans, and projects—drawing on research, best practice, stakeholder input, and operational insight
• Build and manage relationships with internal and external stakeholders, representing TfL and the team on important working groups, at meetings, seminars, events and conferences, and providing expert advice on their specific area of focus
• Manage complex modal, area, corridor or other studies to understand the transport challenges and develop potential options to address them, including the appraisal of schemes and policies, and development of robust business cases
• Act as the principal lead for assigned projects, managing inputs from across TfL and beyond, balancing competing priorities, negotiating key outcomes with external parties and providing advice to senior colleagues
• Be able to work flexibly in a matrix environment and manage a diverse range of projects to support TfL priorities, including resource planning, commissioning of work, management of virtual cross-functional teams, and give guidance to less experienced colleagues
• Draft briefings, reports, presentations for senior internal/external stakeholders to influence and support decisions around the development and promotion of policies / area plans / projects, and build alliances and resolve issues to secure wider buy-in
• Work with the delivery businesses to develop, test and progress particular schemes, actions and programmes to support defined Mayor’s Transport Strategy and modal outcomes / targets / the needs of particular areas of London and manage key interfaces and TfL project processes and governance, e.g. project handover to relevant Sponsor Team, support towards powers and consents
• Work with the GLA, boroughs and others to shape their strategies and plans to ensure transport priorities are fully understood and reflected and to develop and promote best practice and innovative solutions to address the challenges facing London

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Skills

• Initiation and Feasibility of transport schemes in line with policies & other requirements - Experience (Essential)
• The relationship between data and its intended application - Experience (Essential)
• Developing or assessing transport policies and procedure s- Experience (Essential)
• Developing work plans - Experience (Essential)
• Good standard of verbal, visual and written communication, including producing high quality reports and presentations (Essential)

Knowledge

• Relevant qualification at degree level or higher and/or professional membership / qualification of a recognised professional Institution (e.g. ICE; IHT; CILT; RTPI) or equivalent experience (Essential)
• In depth knowledge and practical application of emerging best practices in some of the following areas: transport, economics, appraisal, land use planning, environment, public health and urban design (Essential)
• Detailed understanding of cities from the perspective of transport systems, health and environment, particularly London and its governance (Essential)
• Detailed understanding of transport planning and the wider context to the development of projects and proposals (Essential)
• Detailed understanding of project management processes including their strategic transport context (Desirable)
• Comprehensive understanding TfL's financial, legal, political and regulatory environment (Desirable)

Experience

• Experience of specifying, producing presenting and reviewing complex information in a simple way material for key stakeholders (internal and external) (Essential)
• Experience of working in a flexible, multi-disciplinary teams, including managing specific resources (cost and people) within this environment (Highly desirable)
• Experience of managing elements of the development of project, programme, planning or policy (Desirable)
• Experience of managing resources, including cost and people, to meet an objective (Desirable)

Application Process

• Please apply using your CV and a one-page covering letter
• Think carefully about the skills, knowledge and experience in the advert and cover this in your CV and cover letter
• PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to represent the city we serve, which will help us become a more innovative and efficient organisation. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. We are a disability confident employer who guarantee an interview to any disabled candidate who meets all of the essential criteria. We also use anonymising software that removes identifying information from CVs and cover letters to make the process fair.

Benefits

In return for your commitment and expertise, you will enjoy excellent benefits and scope to grow.  Rewards vary according to the level of role but mostly include the below:

• Final salary pension scheme
• Free travel for you on the TfL network
• Reimbursement of 75% of the cost of a standard class Ticket for National Rail travel from home or 75% reimbursement on a 28-day flexi ticket
• 30 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays
• TfL is committed to work-life balance, operating a hybrid working approach where business and role requirements allow
• Private healthcare discounted scheme (optional)
• Tax-efficient cycle-to-work programme
• Retail, health, leisure and travel offers
• Discounted Eurostar travel

We will make every effort to give you as much notice as possible, however some interviews/assessments could be organised at short notice.