Title:  Geospatial Lead

About the role

National Energy System Operator (NESO) recognises the potential of bright and talented individuals, and we encourage you to join us as Great Britain’s energy system undergoes an ambitious, exciting, and vital transformation. Together with industry, we are creating a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.

We are recruiting for two Geospatial Lead roles in our RESP and SSEP teams. As a Geospatial Lead, you will play a crucial role shaping the foundational approaches to data management, analysis and exchange required for the new RESP/SSEP processes. You will help create end-to-end data processes to ensure data inputs and outputs are reliable, high quality, and transparent to support the RESP/ SSEP process. You will help shape our approaches to spatial data analysis and work with a wide range of stakeholders to agree data formats to enable effective data exchange. This role will provide you the opportunity to shape and pioneer some new approaches leveraging Data Best Practice.

NESO have been commissioned by the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments to deliver GB’s first Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP), shaping the future of GB’s energy system. The SSEP will set out a government-endorsed view of where and when energy generation and storage assets are most optimally located. It will provide greater confidence on the direction of travel for the energy sector, resulting in the acceleration of the roll out of generation and storage assets. NESO has also been given an exciting new role of Regional Energy Strategic Planner (RESP) for GB. RESP will support coordinated development of the distribution energy system and enable long-term investment to be made with confidence and ahead of need.

This role can be based from Wokingham, Warwick, Glasgow, and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home. We are open to full time and part time applicants, as well as flexible working arrangements.

About us

The creation of National Energy System Operator (NESO) is driven by an urgent need to unify and optimise our approach to energy. A more integrated and coordinated strategy is needed to meet the unprecedented challenges of climate change, ensuring secure energy supply, and keeping costs manageable for consumers.

Join us and empower your potential, energise our team, and be part of something bigger.

Your energy, our future, together.

About the National Energy System Operator (NESO)

In Autumn of 2024, the ESO transitioned to National Energy System Operator, or NESO for short. Previously denoted as the Future System Operator (or FSO), the new National Energy System Operator is the independent body responsible for planning Great Britain’s electricity and gas networks and operating the electricity system.  

The ESO, including all of its existing roles, are now at the heart of the new National Energy System Operator. As NESO, we will build on our existing roles, capabilities, and ways of working significantly to create an organisation the energy system and its users’ need. Our new capabilities will enable us to look across vectors, including electricity, natural gas and hydrogen, and crucially consider the trade-offs between them.

The organisation is set up as a public corporation with its own Board of independent directors, with complete operational independence from government, the regulator and any and all commercial interest. As was the ESO, NESO will be licenced and regulated by Ofgem through price control agreements and obligated to identify optimal solutions to system operations and planning in the most sustainable, affordable and secure way for all.

The time to deliver is now. As part of our team, you won’t just be touching the lives of almost everyone in Great Britain – you’ll be shaping the way we use and consume energy for generations to come.

Key Accountabilities

The Geospatial Lead will have the following key responsibilities:

• Geographical Information Systems (GIS) / geospatial solutions – provide technical input to tactical and enduring geospatial solutions; build and maintain working relationships with Digital, Data and Technology colleagues.
• Geospatial approach - input to the development and application of appropriate methodology to convert geospatial outputs to economic modelling inputs and vice-versa; QC of any automation/tools scripted as part of geospatial approach, integration of those tools into NESO technical domain; proactive development of in-house tools/APIs; ensure interoperability of SSEP geospatial analysis with other plans.
• Lead on the development and delivery of geospatial processes and analyses to identify suitability of areas for energy infrastructure development and other ad-hoc requests from wider teams.
• Visualisation / communication - input to the development and application of internal and external interactive maps and webapps meeting requirements of multiple stakeholders (including for information sharing across RESP, SSEP & SEP)
• Planning and Reporting – adhere to project management guidelines to ensure that geospatial workflows are undertaken in a consistent and robust approach; produce and/or provide input to documentation of geospatial approach and analysis for internal (comprehensive + user guides) and external audiences.
• Stakeholder engagement and industry trends - build and maintain trusted relationships across the organisation and externally in spatial data, GIS and geospatial communities; stay abreast of latest trends in geospatial analysis / GIS

• Strategy Development – support wider RESP, SSEP & SEP strategic initiatives and complex problem solving, developing solutions to the root causes of strategic problems within RESP or SSEP.
• RESP: Work with granular forecast data for the electricity and gas systems and compare NESO data with data produced by other network companies. This will lead to a comparison between the top-down national dataset, disaggregation to RESP regions based on NESO data and a bottom-up regional dataset aggregation to RESP regions based on DNO (electricity) and GDN (gas) data. This will also require you to review and agreeing disaggregation / aggregation approaches with stakeholders.
• SSEP: Work with stakeholders, delivery partners, colleagues and senior management across Policy, Strategy, Environment, Technical and Modelling teams to identify and evaluate spatial factors that limit or support in-scope infrastructure development. Contribute to refinement of the design and implementation of an analytical approach to balance spatial and economic factors in optimising generation and storage technology mix and strategic locations GB wide.
• Undertake ad hoc projects and initiatives relevant to data management, data handling, data cleansing, high-volume analytics, and insight generation as requested.
• Identifying areas of improvement and sharing best practice both within the team and externally.

About you

We’re forging the path, and we know we can’t do it alone. That’s why we need visionary minds like yours to join us on this transformative journey. In this case, we’re looking for someone who has:

• Ability to work at pace and independently, proactively driving forward work that matters and adds value.
• Strong communication skills – ability to translate often complex information into compelling and meaningful insight to influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience using SQL in a spatial database, including DDL and an understanding of indexing techniques.  
• Experience and knowledge in UK energy industry.
• Experience of working with large datasets including knowledge of data management standards, data cleansing techniques and maintenance of modelling outputs.
• Knowledge of the UK data landscape (i.e. OS products, data.gov, ONS etc…)
• Experience using GIS software to visualise and analyse data and provide cartographic outputs.
• An understanding of relevant spatial reference systems and their interactions.
• Experience using Python for spatial data manipulation and analysis, including data ingestion from diverse sources.
• Experience of leading complex projects.

About what you'll get

A competitive salary between £59,000 - £70,000 per annum – dependent on experience and capability. As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus based on company performance, 26 days annual leave as standard and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.

As we work towards creating a cleaner, greener, and more affordable future for all, we also work towards creating a place for our teammates to belong, with professional and personal growth and positive well-being.

• Full support and career-development resources to expand your skills, enhance your expertise, and maximise your potential along your career journey.
• A diverse and inclusive community of belonging, where teammates are empowered to bring ideas to the table.
• Generous Total Rewards Plan – comprising of health, finance and wealth, work/life balance, and career benefits.

More information

This role closes on 30th April 2025 at 23:59, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary.

We work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office. 

We're committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.

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