Principal Structures Engineer

Highway Structures – Principal Engineer  

An opportunity has arisen in the KCC Highway Structures team for an ambitious, talented and experienced Chartered Civil/Structural Engineer who is keen to demonstrate their leadership and project delivery skills. You will need to have experience with highway structures such as bridges, culverts, retaining walls and reinforced earthworks and a desire to pass this knowledge on to others.  

Kent County Council is responsible for a highway network of 8700km, with our highway network being the most valuable asset we own as an authority. The Highway Structures in our care represent a significant proportion of the value of the highway network and as a team we take great pride in managing those assets effectively for both current and future generations. We are responsible for approximately 1,100 bridges and viaducts, 570 large culverts, 450 other structures (such as retaining walls, underpasses and gantries) and 2 tunnels. We are also responsible for over 250km of safety barriers on the network as a team.   

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of the schemes within timeframes, budgets and to a good quality by working with our supply chain. You will be able to use a risk-based approach to prioritise competing demands and will be open to innovative ways of delivering the service. 

The role will be challenging and varied and will offer the successful applicant an opportunity to develop their career with a client organisation in the Civil Engineering sector 

About you 

The Principal Engineer role is a KR12 grade. We are looking to recruit to a full-time post, but will consider applications for flexible working patterns including job shares, term time only, staggered start times and finishes and hybrid working. Please indicate in your supporting statement (within the application form) your preferred working pattern. The role will be based in Ashford, Kent, although staff are working from home when they are not required in the office or on site.  

The post holder will provide technical advice and general project management of schemes, including: 

• Reviewing designs for compliance with standards, legislation and stakeholder requirements; 

• Ensuring compliance with current legislation such as Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015; 

• Supporting junior team members to improve their technical skills to increase the intelligent client role within structures.  

• Undertaking construction audits and reviewing for compliance with prepared designs 

• Preparing briefs for NEC3 framework consultants and other service providers and project managing these work packages; 

• Deputising as required for your Team Leader; 

• Identifying best practice and collaborating with others to develop KCC policies and make the most of innovative and sustainable practices. 

In return we offer a generous pension, extensive training opportunities and a flexible approach to working with a focus on the people in the organisation as individuals.  

About us 

Kent County Council is passionate about diversity and offer a generous pension, extensive training opportunities and a flexible approach to working with a focus on the people in the organisation as individuals. Staff are supported to work flexibly with a mixture of home working, site working and office based working.   

Due to the variety of locations in Kent of our structures, this role is subject to holding a Full UK Driving Licence. The Council is committed to making reasonable adjustments so whilst this job requires the jobholder to drive your application will still be considered if you are unable to drive due to a disability.   

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.  

KCC flexible deployment policy may apply to this role.  

This post may benefit from a market premium payment in accordance with the Council's market premium policy.