Graduate Town Planner - Manchester -

Stantec • Contract • England, GB • 2d ago

With every community, Stantec redefines what’s possible.

Application Deadline: Recruitment is ongoing. Please apply as soon as possible as the advert may close once we have sufficient applicants.

Your role:

We are looking for a Graduate Town Planner to be based in Manchester , joining our 2026 Graduate Programme.

As a Stantec graduate, you will collaborate with your team and wider cohort, developing your town planning expertise within an exciting and creative interdisciplinary environment.

You will be based in our Manchester city centre office, part of our wider award-winning Northern planning team. You will gain client facing experience from an early stage and benefit from outstanding professional development opportunities within an innovative and exciting multi-disciplinary community.

As a Graduate Planner, you will develop your planning knowledge and skills by supporting the wider team on a range of projects. You will build close working relationships with a variety of clients including local authorities, property developers and private landowners.

Assisting with a broad variety of projects, your duties could include:

Appraising sites to determine their suitability for proposed developmentschemes.
Assisting in the preparation and submission of planning applications and monitoring the progress of applications post-submission.
Liaising with and seeking advice from other technical disciplines such as transport, acoustics, and ecology.
Demonstrating that a proposed development is policy compliant / researching whether a proposal could benefit from permitted development rights.
Working on evidence-based projects such as retail and leisure studies.
Developing strategies for securing planning permission and drafting advice notes for clients.
Undertaking site assessments as part of Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessments and Sequential Assessments.
Assisting colleagues with planning enquiries from other technical disciplines.

You will join a supportive and successful team with exciting career opportunities, have great client exposure and professional development and work in an innovative and exciting inter-disciplinary environment.

Take a look at our Town Planning business line:- Town Planning (stantec.com), and review the career journey of one of our Town Planners:- My Stantec Story: Building a career in planning with Joseph Lynch

About you:

At Stantec, we value your potential over past experience. Along with your Bachelor’s degree in Town Planning or Geography, we’d love to receive your application if you are:-

A Perseverer - You stay composed in the face of setbacks, approaching challenges with confidence and determination.
An Adapter - You’re able to remain calm in new and changing situations, comfortably switching between a variety of dynamic and exciting tasks.
A Focused Individual - You focus on what matters, tuning out distractions to perform effectively in any situation.
A Collaborator - You work effectively with lots of different people, considering others’ perspectives to shape better outcomes.
An Eager Learner - You learn from your experiences and the world around you, using this knowledge to anticipate how situations may unfold.

Please note, we ask our graduates to come into the office 4 days per week, to ensure that you receive sufficient time with your team and receive the appropriate level of support.

What we can offer you:

A competitive salary
Private medical insurance
A range of benefits, including holiday buy and sell, group income protection and life assurance
Permanent employment contract to demonstrate our commitment to your long-term career at Stantec
Professional progression plan, supporting you to gain professional chartership

A supportive and collaborative team environment and Early Careers peer group and wider ERG network (see more on our ERGs here: Stantec Employee Resource Groups)

Applicants must have an unconditional right to live and work in the UK for an indefinite period without limitation.

Please take a look at our Graduate FAQs ( Graduate Application FAQs ) if you have any questions. We look forward to receiving your application!

#StantecNextGen #StantecCareers #UKGraduate

About Stantec

The Stantec community unites more than 32,000 employees working in over 450 locations across 6 continents. We have been working with our clients and communities in the UK for over 150 years. We plan, design, deliver and manage the development and infrastructure needed to support the creation of sustainable, healthy and prosperous communities.

Our teams provide effective and relevant solutions, translating our clients’ vision into valued consents, deliverable plans for projects and programmes, and efficient designs for delivery, based on technical excellence and deep market insights. We deal with today’s challenges, but also keep a fairer, better tomorrow in sight, looking at how we deliver clean growth, support radical changes in our economy and meet the needs of future communities.

Stantec provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants for future and current employment and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. We prohibit discrimination in decisions concerning recruitment, hiring, referral, promotion, compensation, fringe benefits, job training, terminations or any other condition of employment. Stantec is in compliance with laws and regulations and ensures equitable opportunities in all aspects of employment.

Building an inspired, inclusive work environment that attracts, supports, and develops world-class talent is a crucial key to our success. If you are excited by this role but worry that your experience doesn’t exactly align, we encourage you to apply.

At Stantec we are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to all. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the recruitment process then please inform a member of our Talent Acquisition team.