Senior Project Manager, DCO

Senior Legal Project Manager, DCO

Any UK Office

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Senior Legal Project Manager (DCO) to join our Legal Project Management (LPM) team, working closely with our market-leading Infrastructure Planning practice on complex Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

This role focuses on the end-to-end project management of the Development Consent Order (DCO) lifecycle, from pre-application through examination and, where required, post-examination activity. You’ll play a critical role in guiding clients and internal teams through the Planning Act 2008 regime, ensuring delivery is structured, compliant and well-governed throughout.

As part of Pinsent Masons Vario, our LPM team partners with legal teams and clients to deliver strategically important, high-value projects to target margins, while improving efficiency, quality and client experience. The team also supports Vario’s wider mission to deliver commercially and legally sustainable solutions that promote flexible and inclusive ways of working.

What You’ll Do

Project Coordination & Delivery

• Support the strategic planning and day-to-day coordination of DCO/NSIP matters, ensuring that timelines, examination deadlines, key activities and dependencies are accurately maintained and communicated
• Facilitate the delivery of all workstreams by organising inputs, monitoring progress, and ensuring legal teams and workstreams remain aligned to the agreed programme
• Maintain robust control, including project plans, action logs, risk and issue registers, and specifically designed DCO-reporting tools
• Track changes in project timelines, resource needs, risks and deliverables, escalating impacts to client

Governance, Meetings & Communication

• Arrange and manage governance forums including Kick-Off Meetings, Project Team Meetings and various Workshops as needed
• Prepare agendas and ensure actions are captured, assigned and followed through
• Provide clear, consistent communication across project teams, clients, Counsel, and external consultants -ensuring all parties understand what is required and by when

Stakeholder Management & Process Navigation

• Apply advanced stakeholder management skills to coordinate complex interactions across legal teams, planning specialists, environmental consultants, and client organisations
• Guide project teams through the procedural demands of the Planning Act 2008 and the DCO examination process, ensuring deadlines and statutory requirements remain front-of-mind
• Promote collaboration between all workstreams and support issue resolution through proactive engagement and cross-team communication

Risk, Issues & Programme Assurance

• Identify programme-level risks and issues, ensuring they are captured, assessed, monitored and escalated appropriately
• Contribute to post-project reviews and lessons learned exercises, feeding improvements back into the DCO PMO and wider LPM processes

Tools, Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Support the development and enhancement of project templates, trackers, tools and standard operating procedures for DCO matters
• Promote lean working practices and process efficiencies to improve the consistency and quality of DCO project delivery
• Identify improvement opportunities and support ongoing innovation within the Infrastructure Planning team

Broader Team & Organisational Support

• Collaborate with pricing and legal teams by providing delivery insights needed to support client proposals and matter initiation
• Support large bids, and tenders where DCO project management expertise is required
• Mentor more junior project managers
• Provide general project management support across other teams/matters where required, while maintaining a primary focus on the DCO portfolio

About You

• Demonstrable experience delivering key stages of Development Consent Orders
• Experience coordinating complex, multi-workstream and multi-organisation projects]
• A strong understanding of the Planning Act 2008, the NSIP regime and DCO process
• A project management qualification (desirable)
• Excellent planning, coordination, communication and stakeholder management skills
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage competing priorities
• Confidence using Microsoft Office tools including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, SharePoint and Copilot
• Commercial awareness, sound judgement and a proactive, problem-solving mindset
• The ability to challenge constructively and question assumptions
• Resilience, flexibility and comfort working with limited supervision
• Sensitivity to cultural differences across project teams

What We Offer

• Agile working options, including home working
• Carers’ leave of up to five paid days
• 25 days’ annual leave, with the option to buy or carry over up to five additional days
• Contributory pension (up to 5%)
• Private healthcare and death-in-service cover (4x salary)
• Access to benefits including an electric car scheme, cycle-to-work scheme, and interest-free loans for season tickets, gym membership, or rental deposits

Next Steps

Once you apply, our Recruitment team will review your application and keep you updated by email. The interview process typically consists of two stages.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident employer, a top Stonewall employer, and a signatory to multiple inclusion charters. We value diverse perspectives and encourage everyone to bring their authentic selves to work.

If you’d like an informal conversation about the role, an alternative format of this advert, or to discuss reasonable adjustments, please contact Victoria Greaves at [email protected].

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