Community Engagement Officer

Role Responsibility

The KCC Transportation Department has recently been restructured and this has opened up exciting opportunities to work within the Road Safety and Active Travel Team.  We are looking for Community Engagement Officers to work within the East and West Highway Improvement Teams within Kent.  You will be representing KCC in the community and will be expected to deliver excellent customer service to the residents of Kent. The Highway Improvements Team has three groups of interconnected work streams; Community and Engagement, Planning and Advice and Design and Delivery.  The Community Engagement Officers will work within the Community & Engagement Team.

Using excellent presentation, negotiation and people skills you will assist the team to deliver a common sense approach to high quality and cost effective highway improvement schemes across Kent.  This will include (but not be limited to) undertaking engagement with the local elected Members in identifying and shaping highway improvements.  Engagement with Parish and Town Councils to develop their Highway Improvement Plan, develop and seek support across the wider team when needed and undertake site and parish visits within an operational area to highlight and resolve highway issues.  You will also be required to implement small Parish Council schemes in an efficient and cost effective way.  You will support the successful delivery of improvements through community engagement before, during and after scheme delivery or implementation of any other road safety initiatives.  You will be required to provide (if needed through liaison with colleagues) professional and technical advice which may not always be well received.

The role requires excellent communication and inter personal skills, with the ability to deal with the public in difficult circumstances, be self motivated, willing to learn and have the ability to manage workloads.  

You will be required to present the road safety and active travel group in a positive light to the public and of course our internal customers and elected members. The role requires strong communication skills, a high level of professionalism and the ability to work closely with other team members to ensure customer response deadlines are met.

The role(s) will be a full-time position on a 37 hours per week contract (Mon-Fri).  Candidates would be able to utilise hybrid working with a mixture of working from home and the office. The office base would be either the Ashford or Aylesford KCC Depot which can be agreed with the successful candidate(s). Candidates will need to have a full UK driving licence.

Interviews will take place on Thursday 25th August.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification. 

Contact Details

If you would like to speak to someone about the role then please contact either Wendy Boorman (03000 413539), Ryan Shiel (03000 413799) or Jennie Watson (03000 413863)

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds and faiths, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note – if you are interested, please apply as soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.