Description
This role leads Heathrow’s highly complex commercial and industrial land acquisition programme in support of a nationally significant infrastructure project. With responsibility for approximately £2bn in acquisition spend, it provides strategic leadership, strong commercial judgement, and operational delivery oversight across one of the airport’s largest and most sensitive investment portfolios. The role shapes acquisition strategy, leads high‑stakes negotiations, and ensures land interests are secured in a way that optimises long‑term commercial value, meets programme milestones, and complies with statutory, regulatory, and planning requirements. Operating in a politically sensitive environment, the postholder acts as a senior representative for Heathrow with landowners, businesses, agents, local authorities, and statutory bodies.
Leading a specialist acquisition team and overseeing a network of external advisors, the role embeds a culture of robust governance, commercial excellence, and proactive risk management. It is a senior leadership position with broad influence across programme, legal, planning, finance, and technical functions, playing a critical role in enabling the successful delivery of Heathrow’s expansion ambitions.
Responsibilities
- Lead Heathrow’s multi‑year land acquisition strategy across commercial, industrial, and strategic assets, ensuring alignment with programme timelines, planning requirements, capital governance, and long‑term strategic priorities.
- Provide senior oversight and challenge on acquisition pathways, valuations, due diligence, negotiation strategies, and funding assumptions, advising leadership on market timing, risk exposure, and long‑horizon value.
- Lead the negotiation and completion of complex, high‑value, and politically sensitive transactions, including both consensual and compulsory purchase routes, ensuring outcomes are legally robust and commercially defensible.
- Direct and assure the performance of external specialist property advisers, commissioning and reviewing legal, technical, and commercial diligence, and embedding strong frameworks for valuation, compensation, relocation, and cost mitigation.
- Identify, assess, and manage strategic, legal, operational, and financial risks across the acquisition portfolio, including dispute resolution, valuation challenges, CPO‑related risks, and preparation of evidence for examinations, hearings, and inquiries.
- Act as a senior representative and trusted advisor, building strong relationships with landowners, local authorities, regulators, and impacted businesses, producing high‑quality executive and board reporting, and upholding the highest standards of auditability, transparency, and public accountability.
Qualifications
- Significant experience leading large‑scale, high‑value land acquisition, development, or major infrastructure programmes within complex environments.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and coordinate multidisciplinary teams, maintaining effective delivery under pressure and across competing priorities.
- Strong applied knowledge of compulsory purchase processes, compensation frameworks, and planning regimes for major infrastructure projects.
- Proven commercial negotiation expertise across high‑value, sensitive, or contentious property and development transactions.
- Experience operating within politically sensitive, regulated, or nationally significant contexts, balancing stakeholder, legal, and public considerations.
- Strong financial and strategic acumen, with experience managing large‑scale budgets and the ability to integrate commercial, legal, technical, and political factors into sound executive decision‑making.
Ideally, you will also have
- Relevant degree in Real Estate, Law, Economics, Planning, Development or related field.
- RICS, RTPI or equivalent professional accreditation.
- Experience within aviation, transport, utilities, defence, energy, or other major infrastructure sectors.
- Experience preparing evidence for examinations, inquiries or judicial processes.
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