Technical Lead (National Concrete Roads Programme)

National Highways have an excellent opportunity for a Technical Lead to join our Operations team within the East region. The Technical Lead for the National Concrete Roads Programme is a National Programme role and will play a key role in managing the wider interfaces between regional delivery teams, SES and Central Ops. The role of the programme is to deliver a long-term pipeline of interventions aimed at keeping our concrete road assets safe and operational while we take a phased approach to the full reconstruction of these assets. This will involve collecting and managing asset intelligence which is used to inform the prioritisation of interventions within available budgets. As such an understanding of pavement design and construction as related to concrete roads is essential as well as the ability to undertake planning and development activities such as costing and optioneering which will be needed to inform programme planning as well as scheme level delivery acting as a national governance and assurance function to oversee and optimise delivery across all regions. The role will report directly into the Head of the National Concrete Roads Programme. The National Concrete Roads Programme has been established to manage the £393m of funding allocated in Road Period 2 to the delivery of Concrete Pavement life extension and reconstruction schemes as well as plan for and deliver the continuation of the national programme into Roads Period 3. The core of the National Concrete Roads Team are based in the Bedford office but there is flexibility in terms of the office base for this role however regular travel to the Bedford office and to scheme locations and other areas of the concrete road network will be a requirement of the role. What you'll be working on:

• Contribute to the leadership and management of the Programme supporting the Programme lead on setting the overall strategy and direction.
• Development of a pipeline of interventions aimed at ensuring the successful delivery of the concrete roads programme utilising specific asset intelligence and liaising with SES to determine the current and future state of the assets while balancing funding availability against cost estimates for each intervention
• Working with central cost estimating to improve cost intelligence and develop relevant cost models to support better planning and budget setting for the programme
• The delivery of scheme identification and optioneering studies as per the operations 3D stage gate process (stages 0&1) and the hand off of scheme to regions for design and construction with continued support to the schemes
• Management of a team dedicated to the delivery of the pipeline of the interventions defined as needed in order to deliver the overarching programme goals
• Management of surveys required to support early scheme option studies as well as national level asset intelligence of the concrete roads assets
• Undertake horizon scanning and targeted R&D activities which have been demonstrated to show high potential in terms of delivering near to medium term programme objectives including reducing carbon and environmental impacts, reducing costs and reducing customer and stakeholder impacts
• Ensure the collation and effective dissemination of research project outputs through the National Delivery Assurance function and interfacing with the SES directorate to influence the update of corporate standards.
  
  Recognised qualification in relevant engineering discipline or extensive experience in delivery of civil engineering projects and programmes (essential)
• Extensive track record of managing complex relationships with multiple stakeholders and evidence of skills to influence relationships for positive outcomes
• Excellent understanding of relevant technical asset policies and standards
• Excellent commercial and contractual acumen, with in-depth understanding of the relevant supply chain contracts to deliver outcomes and drive value for money, including budget planning and management
• Good knowledge and understanding of CDM and health and safety regulations
• Experience in pavement design/construction which is relevant to concrete roads / awareness of current research activities relevant to Concrete Pavement (desirable), Making sure our customers have safe and reliable journeys is at the heart of everything we do in Operations. We keep the roads open for business and play a key role in making sure the network we manage is fit for purpose today and for the future.