Planning Policy Data and Spatial Technician

Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils  are looking to recruit a Planning Policy Data and Spatial Technician  to join our teambased in Ipswich, Suffolk. You will join us on a full-time,  permanent basis. The successful candidate will earn a competitive salary of £31,537 - £36,363 per annum (pro rata for part time).

This role is open to full time, part time, and job share applications, all of which will be assessed equally.

Join our team

We are looking for a Planning Policy Data and Spatial Technician  to join our Strategic Planning team.If you share our values and our motivation to make a difference for our residents, clients, and communities, we would love to hear from you.

About the role

Would you like the opportunity to work with data and mapping to help shape the future of places over the next 20 years?

You will be joining our Strategic Planning team who are responsible for developing the Councils’ Local Development Plan policies and monitoring their implementation. 

The team also support Neighbourhood Planning groups develop their Neighbourhood Development Plans.

We are looking for a proactive and well organised team player to be able to expertly lead and manage data entry, understanding the data in order to be able to retrieve, manipulate and report on findings to support the Councils’ Joint Local Plan, associated evidence documents and annual monitoring. 

The data held will also be presented in innovative ways to a variety of audiences, and high-quality GIS mapping skills will be required. 

Information including new development build progress, Local Plan settlement boundaries and site boundaries for proposed land-use allocations will need to be kept up to date, as well as, maintaining constraint layers, and policies maps showing visually how the policies will be implemented. 

About you

A GIS qualification or extensive GIS experience is essential. You should be able to demonstrate how you have used creative skills to design and prepare maps for a variety of different purposes to convey complex information clearly.

This is an opportunity to build on your experience in data handling, producing public friendly documents and applying processes to be able to understand situations and develop solutions to issues that arise, using your own initiative with accuracy.

We are looking for:

• Experience of producing high-quality reports for internal and external use, accurately analysing, interpreting and collating evidence. 
• Knowledge of Planning, handling planning datasets and plan making public consultation is desirable.
• Excellent IT skills and extensive experience with Microsoft products, you will be used to using a variety of software to input, query and extract data. 
• Good communication skills for a variety of audiences.
• Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines.
• A team player who thrives within a collaborative team environment.

Now is an exciting time as we look to update and develop the software, we use with innovative packages to present information in different ways.

About us

At Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils we are passionate about building communities that people want to live, work, visit and invest in.

We serve around 200,000 residents across our two districts and are well known for our collaboration and partnership working across public, private and voluntary sectors.

We believe that the heart of Suffolk is an incredibly special place to live and work, with:

• 60 conservation areas
• two National Landscapes
• many picturesque market towns.

It is no surprise we are ranked among the top 50 places to live in the UK (United Kingdom).

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Generous leave entitlement (26 days a year, rising to 31 days after 5 years).
• Competitive Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Wellbeing Support and Employee Assistance Programs.
• Private Health Care Options.
• Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
• Paid volunteering days.
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements (Business needs permitting).
• Great learning and development opportunities.

Our ways of working

We believe work is what we do, not just where we go.

We work in a hybrid way, with a mix of office, home, and remote based working (Business need permitting). Our hybrid working arrangements support flexibility and collaboration, helping our teams to thrive.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, providing opportunity and ambition for all, supporting and enabling our people to deliver the best possible services for our residents.

Closing date: 5pm, Monday 24 November 2025.

If you think you have what it takes to be successful in this Planning Policy Data and Spatial Technician  role, even if you don’t meet all the requirements, please apply. We would appreciate the opportunity to consider your application.