Head of Environmental Planning, Southern Europe

Job Title: Head of Environmental Planning, Southern Europe

Department: Environmental & Social Affairs

Reporting to: Director of Environmental & Social Affairs, EMEA

Location: Lisbon, Madrid or London

About Lightsource bp

We are Lightsource bp – and we’re on a mission to become a global leader in onshore renewables, anchored by our proven track record in solar development.

For over a decade we’ve been actively working to diversify the way our world is powered with sustainable and responsible renewable power. We work to safely deliver affordable, reliable, large-scale onshore renewable and energy storage solutions to help the world decarbonise.

Our growing business is constantly innovating and investing to help drive the energy transition. Our people and projects are focused on supporting long-term sustainable growth and energy security.

Lightsource bp was fully acquired by bp in 2024.

What you’ll do (the role)

Summary

As Head of Environmental Planning for our Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), you will drive best practices, process improvements, people management, talent development and operational excellence with respect to the environmental planning aspects of project development, construction and operation.

You will play a pivotal role in the successful achievement of our ambitious pipeline development targets. Your expertise will be instrumental in guiding efficient and effective processes and ensuring the integration of environmental considerations into project development, permitting and implementation, while fostering collaboration and alignment with other key internal teams.

Duties and responsibilities

• Foster and support a collaborate and high performing team environment
• Support the establishment and development of new teams and leaders within the region, ensuring alignment with Lightsource bp best practice and ways of working, whilst considering differences between country planning systems and adapting to their needs.
• Tracking progress on key KPIs for Lightsource bp’s Southern European countries and appropriately escalating any key risks or blockers
• Work with in-country teams to promote Department profile and ensure accurate representation/reporting/responses of key technical environmental, social and permitting risks and opportunities.
• Working with Head of Environmental Planning for Northern Europe to develop and implement standard onboarding and integration procedures and support to bring new joiners up to speed on Lightsource bp ways of working
• Working with Head of Environmental Planning for Northern Europe to implement lessons learnt practices (both positive and negative lessons) and identification of gaps / improvement areas in our current process and ways of working at both a country and regional level
• Work with Director of Environmental and Social Affairs for EMEA on department level initiatives, leading and supporting as agreed
• Work with Director of Development, Southern Europe and relevant Heads of Country/Business Development on execution of business strategy, delivering on project pipelines and resourcing/team building.
• Support Head of Community Engagement, EMEA in the implementation of community engagement guidance, policies and tools within the Southern European countries.
• Collaborate closely with the EMEA Business Operations and Portfolio Planning Team who support the development, execution and management of the Regional strategy
• Work with in-country teams to deliver and promote key company policies such as Lightsource bp’s Biodiversity Policy
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve processes and address gaps, and ensure the importance of environmental planning considerations are understood in the development, construction and operation of our projects
• Work with Government Affairs colleagues in tracking and responding to key planning legislation changes

Who we’re looking for

Knowledge

• Comprehensive knowledge of at least one Southern European planning system (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain)
• Fluent English essential

Experience & Education

• Extensive experience in the planning profession (10+ years) – ideally with in house experience
• Strong experience with respect to environmental and social planning across the whole project lifecycle for solar projects (development, construction and operation)
• Extensive firsthand experience of community engagement planning and activities
• Experience working with internal communications teams and external agencies
• Experience working with and within cross-jurisdictional teams
• Experience building internal networks within an organization to ensure alignment with other departments
• Experience in people management and team leadership
• Awareness of the key challenges facing renewable development in Europe from an environmental and social planning perspective
• Experience onboarding new staff / teams and aligning them with company ways of working

Why you’ll make a great member of the team

Work & General skills

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, an the ability to build relationships and trust with a variety of stakeholders
• Ability to motivate and lead a team
• Driven with a hands-on proactive approach to business, and the ability to be flexible and adapt rapidly.
• Ability to identify, evaluate and communicate risks in an effective manner
• An ability to see opportunities for improvement and execute on these

Why you’ll want to work for us

Our company is a place where you can be yourself and grow; a place where your ideas and opinions matter.

Be you

We pride ourselves on being an inclusive community, where every individual is valued and treated with respect.

Be responsible

Our culture is driven by our core values. From operating safely to ensuring our solar projects are responsible and promote biodiversity. 

Be recognized

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a variety of benefits including annual bonus, retention bank, health insurance, pension and other local benefits.

Be inspired

Beyond your day-to-day working life at Lightsource bp, there’s a variety of initiatives that will contribute to your own personal development. Initiatives to get involved with including our charitable causes, supporting our solar honey project or our sustainability initiatives.

Our Core Values

Lightsource bp truly cares about creating a sustainable future through safe, responsible and meaningful low carbon energy projects. Our core values of Safety, Integrity, Respect, Sustainability and Drive are the guiding principles for everything we do. 

https://www.lightsourcebp.com/careers/