Senior/Principal Engineer - Highways Improvements

The Opportunity

Salary: £39,862- £47,181 per annum
Contract Type: Permanent
Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week
Location: Based at Chichester, County Hall minimum 2 days a week, hybrid working
Interviews: 20 and 21 November 2025

Looking for a role where your engineering expertise drives real change in our communities?

Are you an experienced highway engineer looking to make a real difference in your community? Do you thrive on turning ideas into deliverable schemes that improve safety, accessibility, and sustainability?

We're looking for a Senior or Principal Engineer to join our Highways Projects & Improvements Team at West Sussex County Council. This newly created role will act as a vital link between our internal clients and the delivery team - helping shape early concepts into feasible, impactful schemes.

What you'll be doing:

• Leading the development of schemes from concept to implementation - including cycling infrastructure, safer routes to school, and traffic management improvements.
• Advising internal clients on scheme feasibility and programme fit.
• You will be responsible for investigating, designing and recommending projects that should be transferred onto our works programme, but on occasion may require managing internal design teams, consultants, contractors, and stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.
• Overseeing consultation, contract administration, and technical delivery.
• Supporting a diverse programme of works, from small-scale improvements to strategic public realm and safety schemes.

What we're looking for:

A confident, independent professional with a strong background in highway engineering.

Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Proven experience in managing projects and delivering results.

A passion for improving transport infrastructure and making communities safer and more accessible.

Additional Info:

This role involves independent travel across West Sussex, including site visits and inspections in varied conditions including remote locations. Surveys and walked site inspections may be required including next to busy highways and in full personal protective equipment.

About You

Some of the key skills and experience required for this role include:

• Extensive experience in a highway discipline.
• Relevant advanced knowledge of systems, procedures and policies associated with operating a demanding and customer focussed service.
• Ability to identify and resolve issues independently, whilst attending site inspections or investigations, while being aware of the impact on the service.
• Excellent customer service skills, with a continuous improvement mindset, to improve the service for all.
• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills enabling you to prepare reports, briefs, programmes of work, maintain budgets and accounts as well as undertake research.
• Sound analytical and judgemental skills to analyse and interpret varied and complex technical data, information, situations and surveys and develop solutions.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills enabling you to provide complex, technical specialist advice and guidance to a range of audiences, including non-specialists.
• Political awareness when working with Members and senior management.
• Sound and accurate IT knowledge to carry out service-related processes e.g. specialist engineering databases/software, Microsoft Office.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

About us

Highways and Transport delivers safe and effective transport that offers choice, is convenient to use, enhances the environment and enables economic growth. The service is based on the following principles:

• We will deliver services in line with the West Sussex Plan and our statutory responsibilities
• Our services support community resilience
• We will use our resources wisely to ensure value for money
• We will put the customer at the heart of everything we do

For more information about West Sussex County Council, please visit our WSCC About Us page.

Rewards and benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do. Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

The reference number for this role is EIE01469.

To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.

Note for Recruitment Agencies: We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!

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