Highways Operations Team Manager

The Royal Borough of Kingston and The London Borough of Sutton operate a shared Highways and Transport service and this role covers delivery across both boroughs.

Located in South West London Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of the district town centres have something unique to offer. In Sutton looking ahead, there are plans for the delivery of new homes and new schools and the London Cancer Hub is being developed. Both councils are seen as a driving force within the South London Partnership of five outer south west London boroughs focused on strategic growth, regeneration and investment.

Both councils are ambitious for their future and it is an exciting time to join our newly re-organised Highways and Transport team as we lead the way in South-west London in delivering sustainable transport infrastructure, regeneration and rise to the zero carbon challenge.

Embedded in the new Royal Borough of Kingston and London Borough of Sutton Shared Service structure, you will ensure that the operational teams (Reactive Maintenance and Streetworks) have unified processes and systems across both boroughs. You will also embed efficient ways of working, and establish an effective Highways Asset Management function and plan, integrated with the rest of the Highways and Transport service.

The Highways Operations Team Manager will provide inspirational leadership and create an environment where their teams can achieve and thrive. The post holder will be managing around 28 staff, with 4 direct reports, covering Asset Management, Structures, Reactive Maintenance and Streetworks.

As a service, we are committed to a hybrid working future. The postholder will have to attend the office 'as required' - the current expectation is around 2 days a week.

If you wish to have an informal discussion about this role, please contact:

• Cathy Daly, Recruitment Campaign Manager - catherine.daly@kingston.gov.uk 
• Matthew Hill, Assistant Director of Highways, Transportation, and Regulatory Services - matthew.hill.@kingston.gov.uk
• Sarah Rye, Assistant Director of Highways, Transportation and Regulatory Services - sarah.rye@sutton.gov.uk

The service has a vision to be an exemplar shared service locally and nationally, striving for excellence in delivering the corporate aims of both Sutton and Kingston, tackling the climate emergency and ensuring a high quality environment for our residents.

We have ambitious plans and are looking for ambitious people to embody our high performing inclusive organisational culture, where everyone can thrive and be their authentic self whilst making a real difference to our local communities. We want to nurture all our people in their professional development and we will empower everyone to work in a distributed leadership model giving individuals ownership, responsibility and accountability.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Highways or Transport, be an experienced Team Manager and preferably would have experience in operational management, Streetworks and/or asset management. 

To be successful in this role, other essential skills, knowledge and competencies include:

• Degree in Highways, Transport, Engineering or other relevant discipline, or equivalent experience
• Leadership experience which promotes distributed leadership, empowering others to take ownership and accountability for outcomes
• Is competent with IT and Digital processes, seeking to drive digitisation
• Ability to analyse data and intelligence to drive improvements and collaborate with partners and communities
• Ability to apply effective budget management techniques to achieve maximum value for money from Highways & Transport
• Communicates clearly and effectively with a team to promote corporate vision, plan and activities, keeping the team informed of information which impacts them
• Experience of driving a service to deliver the zero-carbon agenda
• Creates a learning environment where innovation and creativity is celebrated and risks are managed
• Works collaboratively with others, leading by example

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.   

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.