Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Wayleave Field Account Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Wayleave Field Account Manager is the primary field-based representative responsible for securing access agreements, managing landowner and stakeholder relationships, and delivering site surveys and legal wayleave documentation to support the successful deployment of telecommunications and utility network infrastructure. This role ensures the timely acquisition of wayleaves, easements and consents while protecting the business from contractual and statutory risk. The ideal candidate blends practical field surveying, strong negotiation skills, land and property knowledge, and strict adherence to health & safety and compliance processes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Wayleave Coordinator / Assistant Wayleave Officer
Land Access Assistant or Field Surveyor
Utilities or Telecoms Field Operative

Advancement To:

Senior Wayleave Manager
Land Rights & Consents Manager
Programme or Delivery Manager (Telecoms/Utilities)

Lateral Moves:

Planning & Permitting Specialist
Property & Estates Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end wayleave acquisition activities across assigned routes and projects, from initial landowner contact through to signed agreements and full handover to delivery teams, ensuring milestones are met to programme timelines.
Conduct detailed on-site route and property surveys, accurately recording physical constraints, infrastructure interfaces, boundary features and site access requirements using GPS, GIS and mobile data capture tools.
Negotiate commercial and statutory wayleave agreements, easements and access licences with private landowners, tenants, local authorities and statutory undertakers, securing mutually acceptable terms while protecting company interests.
Prepare, review and issue legally compliant wayleave documentation and supporting exhibits (site plans, schedules, deed packages) for signature, liaising with in-house or external legal teams to resolve complex legal or title issues.
Maintain an accurate pipeline and status reporting of all wayleave activities using CRM, GIS and project management systems; produce weekly progress reports and escalation to route managers to mitigate delivery risks.
Manage stakeholder engagement programmes with landowners, farmers, occupiers and community representatives, delivering clear communications, setting expectations and resolving concerns proactively to maintain consent rates.
Identify and escalate title or third-party rights issues, covenant restrictions, easement conflicts or planning constraints early, proposing pragmatic commercial or technical mitigations to enable delivery.
Coordinate with design, planning and construction teams to translate wayleave terms into safe site access arrangements, installation windows, working methods and reinstatement obligations.
Obtain necessary consents and permits from highways authorities, local authorities and statutory bodies for temporary site access, highway works, vegetation clearance and crossing agreements in line with local regulations.
Carry out statutory due diligence searches (land registry, planning history, rights of way) and compile landowner contact records, occupancy status and any ongoing disputes that may affect access.
Manage payments and compensation offers for land access, easements and disturbance claims, ensuring accurate budgeting, timely payment and reconciliation with commercial teams.
Facilitate agricultural access arrangements including crop management windows, livestock safety plans and arrangements to minimise disruption to farming operations.
Act as the escalation point for on-site disputes or refusals, employing mediation, relationship building and escalation protocols to protect project delivery and minimise legal interventions.
Ensure full compliance with company health, safety and environmental policies on site, conducting risk assessments, documenting method statements and ensuring contractors and landowners understand safety requirements.
Work collaboratively with the survey, civils and wayleave delivery teams to ensure installation works are compliant with the terms of wayleave agreements and reinstatement obligations are met post-works.
Produce and maintain accurate maps, plan exhibits and geospatial records in GIS, ensuring all agreements are correctly referenced to parcel and asset locations for future maintenance and emergency access.
Support the legal team with evidence gathering for disputed wayleaves or if formal statutory powers (e.g., Compulsory Purchase or statutory crossing agreements) are being considered.
Drive continuous improvement by identifying recurring negotiation bottlenecks, contract template improvements and process efficiency gains to increase wayleave acquisition success rates.
Provide mentorship and on-the-job training to junior field staff and contractors on best practice for landowner engagement, surveying, documentation and H&S compliance.
Liaise with planning officers, highways teams and environmental officers to align wayleave activity with planning consents, protected species considerations and protected land designations.
Monitor local market rates and precedent agreements to ensure compensation packages are competitive, transparent and compliant with company policies and regulatory expectations.
Maintain a high standard of record-keeping for audit, regulatory and contractual purposes, ensuring that all signed agreements, correspondence and site notes are stored in the corporate repository.

Secondary Functions

Support programme-level reporting by contributing route-level risk assessments, schedule forecasts and resource requirements to project leadership.
Assist commercial and legal teams with ad-hoc data requests, such as historical agreement searches, claim evidence collation and mapping extracts.
Provide input to route design discussions early in project lifecycles to identify wayleave obstacles and propose alternative routing or access strategies that reduce cost and delay.
Support community liaison activities where required, attending public meetings or resident drop-ins to explain works, access needs and compensation processes.
Help co-ordinate vegetation clearance and ecological surveys by scheduling alongside landowner availability and environmental seasonality constraints.
Participate in continuous improvement initiatives including template updates, training package development and lessons-learned workshops post-delivery.
Act as the field representative for health & safety audits and assurance visits, ensuring contractor compliance with site-specific safety plans and permit-to-work systems.
Undertake reasonable additional duties related to land access, site compliance and stakeholder management as required by the line manager.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven wayleave and easement negotiation experience for telecoms, utilities or infrastructure projects with demonstrable signed agreement outcomes.
Landowner liaison and stakeholder management across private land, agricultural holdings and public sector stakeholders.
Proficient in site surveying techniques including GPS, mobile GIS data capture and producing accurate plan exhibits for legal documentation.
Strong working knowledge of land law basics including easements, licenses, rights of way, covenants and land registration processes.
Competent with mapping and GIS tools (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, MapInfo) and familiarity with Ordnance Survey mapping products.
Experience using CRM or project management systems to track pipeline, milestones and obligations (e.g., Salesforce, SharePoint, MS Project, Smartsheet).
Ability to prepare clear legal exhibits, schedules and technical appendices to support wayleave deeds and licence documentation.
Familiarity with highways, planning and environmental consent processes relevant to site access and temporary works.
Competency in negotiating commercial compensation, disturbance payments and managing budgetary approvals and records.
Strong IT skills including Microsoft Office suite (Excel for trackers, Word for deed preparation, PowerPoint for stakeholder briefings).
Experience interpreting title documents, land registry entries and conducting basic due diligence searches.
Knowledge of health & safety legislation and ability to implement site-specific risk assessments and method statements.

Soft Skills

Exceptional negotiation and persuasive communication skills with the ability to secure agreements while maintaining positive landowner relationships.
High level stakeholder engagement and diplomacy; able to build trust quickly with farmers, landowners, local authorities and internal teams.
Resilient problem solver who remains calm under pressure and can de-escalate conflicts in the field.
Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple routes, complex diaries and competing priorities.
Attention to detail in legal documentation, mapping accuracy and record-keeping.
Commercial awareness to balance cost control with pragmatic agreement outcomes that support delivery.
Influencing skills across multi-disciplinary teams including legal, commercial, design and construction.
Initiative and self-motivation to work autonomously in a field environment with minimal supervision.
Customer-focused approach with a commitment to delivering a professional and courteous landowner experience.
Adaptability to changing project priorities, seasonal working conditions and varied geographic locations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

A-levels or equivalent; evidence of practical field experience or vocational qualifications in land, surveying or utilities.

Preferred Education:

Degree or HND in Land Management, Property/Real Estate, Surveying, Geography, Rural Business, Construction Management or a related technical discipline.
Professional training or certification in negotiation, land law or wayleave processes is advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Land Management / Estate Management
Surveying / Geomatics / GIS
Property Law / Real Estate
Agriculture / Rural Studies
Construction / Civil Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7 years working in wayleave acquisition, land access, utilities or telecoms delivery, or a combination of field surveying and landowner negotiation roles.

Preferred: 3–5+ years demonstrable experience securing wayleaves and access agreements for utility or telecommunications infrastructure projects, with a proven track record of delivering to programme, preparing legal exhibits and managing landowner compensation.