Location: Reading, Theale

This is an exciting opportunity for anyone who has a passion for learning and creating high-quality, lasting places that foster a sense of community and healthy living.

As part of the Urban Design team, you will work on a variety of landscape masterplans, and urban design projects, outline applications and design codes, and carry out and oversee the preparation of supporting drawings, character assessments, conceptual and feasibility studies, development briefs and detailed design guidance.

Working with a wider team, you will support/manage small/middle-size projects while mentoring junior team members and be a key player in delivering large strategic masterplans.

• Working on masterplans detailed design throughout the South and home counties.
• Producing masterplans at the early stages of design including feasibility reports, full detail design, access statements and outline masterplanning documents
• Providing architectural, regeneration, masterplanning and urban design services to a variety of clients across the home counties
• Look at the overall designs and reviews to improve any existing development and give advice on ongoing projects
• Produce hand-drawn and digital designs for client presentations
• Supporting the wider team and review any existing developments
• Regularly communicate and liaise with different stakeholders of projects and clients

• Degree or professional qualification in Planning and/or Urban Design
• Recent and relevant planning / urban design experience
• Sound technical ability in planning / urban design work
• Experience in dealing with local planning
• A good feel and flair for landscape as well as architectural design and masterplanning skills

To be successful in this role, you will need to be an excellent communicator who can articulate complicated issues between our clients and our highly skilled project teams. You will also need to show ambition and a willingness to learn whilst demonstrating a high-level diligence and organisational skills.

What's in it for you? 

Our people are our business – our vision is to be ever progressive, expanding our expertise and nurturing our talent through Quality, Innovation & Growth, to achieve our strategic outcomes:

• Growth which fuels ideas and opportunity for all
• Purposeful and meaningful work
• Continual development and mentoring
• Empowerment, inclusivity and respect
• Happiness and enjoyment
• Openness, honesty and integrity
• Acting as one team

Your reward is focused on your total wellbeing, with a package to support all aspects of life. In addition to your salary, you can expect:

• A healthy holiday balance of 25 days, plus bank holidays & the ability to buy / sell to suit you
• 3 days a year to give your time to others, volunteering for great causes
• An inclusive wellbeing offer:
• Financial – Life Assurance, Pension Scheme (3% Employee, 6% Employer), Income Protection, Salary Sacrifice Car Scheme, flexible choice of Critical Illness Insurance
• Physical – Free Private Medical Insurance, Doctor at Hand Private GP, Best Doctors, flexible choice of Dental Plan, Cycle to Work Scheme, GymFlex & Healthcare Cash Plan
• Mental – Mental Health First Aiders, Help@Hand by Unum
• A flexible approach to hybrid working, to suit both you & your team
• Tailored career development – focused on professional, personal and/or educational
• The opportunity to learn and develop skills as part of a dynamic team within a modern, high quality and wellbeing aligned office space

We believe that everyone performs their best when they feel like they belong and can be their true selves at work. As an equal opportunities’ employer, we will support you to ensure you have everything you need to be successful and achieve your best in your career at Ridge. If you’d like to discuss accessibility, accommodations or adjustments during your application & selection process, please contact us at workwithus@ridge.co.uk and we will work with you to ensure you feel included and supported.

A polite note to Recruitment Agencies

We enjoy great relationships with our agency partners within our framework, and fully believe in the value of a blended approach to finding the best talent. However, we are recruiting for this role directly and aren’t seeking support from agency partners at this time – any unsolicited CV introductions won’t be honoured, and we won’t grant candidate ownerships on any introduction that you make for roles that haven’t been briefed & released to you by our Talent Acquisition team.

We are committed to nurturing strong partnerships within our agency framework, but there are occasions where we looking to enlist the help of others. If you would be interested in working with us in the future, please send a message to workwithus@ridge.co.uk, and we’ll reach out to you should there be an opportunity.