Director of Highways & Parking

About us

Southwark is a borough that’s always moving forward. We’re proud of our communities and ambitious about our future. Our Southwark 2030 vision sets out our commitment to creating a fair, green, and more connected borough, one where everyone can thrive. This means taking bold action on climate change, championing sustainable transport, and reshaping public spaces.

At the heart of our Highways and Parking service is the Streets for People strategy, which aims to transform the borough’s streets into safer, greener, and more welcoming spaces. This includes investment in active travel, low traffic neighbourhoods, school streets, and innovative public realm schemes that support health, sustainability, and social inclusion.

About the role

As Director of Highways and Parking, you’ll lead a critical division responsible for the planning, management and delivery of Southwark’s highways, parking, transport and street-based services. This is a senior leadership role with wide reach and influence, from shaping future infrastructure and overseeing complex capital programmes, to ensuring our public spaces are safe, inclusive and designed around the needs of our residents.

You’ll drive forward our Streets for People strategy, ensuring Southwark’s streets support active travel, reduce car dependency and contribute to our climate and health ambitions. You’ll lead a mix of in-house delivery and contracted services, manage significant budgets, and collaborate across the council and beyond to achieve borough-wide outcomes. Your work will help us create a more sustainable, accessible and people-centred borough.

Key responsibilities include:
• Delivering the Streets for People strategy, embedding active travel, cleaner air, and safer neighbourhoods through targeted infrastructure and policy interventions
• Leading the development and delivery of highways, parking and public realm programmes, including long-term capital investments planning and strategic asset management.
• Providing clear direction and leadership to staff, fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing culture across the service
• Managing key partnerships and stakeholder relationships, including TfL, London boroughs, and national bodies, to influence and secure support for Southwark’s transport agenda.
• Providing expert advice to members and senior officers on transport strategy, infrastructure planning, parking services and future mobility challenges.

About you

We’re looking for a strategic and experienced senior leader who can navigate the complexities of transport, highways and parking, in a fast paced, diverse, and politically led environment. You’ll bring a strong knowledge of the legal, operational and financial frameworks that shape service delivery in local government, along with a deep understanding of the role public infrastructure plays in shaping healthier, safer and more sustainable communities.

You’ll be confident working at pace, delivering at scale, and leading multi-disciplinary teams through change. You’ll know how to manage risk, balance competing priorities and build consensus across a wide range of stakeholders, from elected members and senior officers to partners and local communities. Most importantly, you’ll be driven by public value and committed to improving the way people move and experience our borough.

To be shortlisted, you’ll need to clearly demonstrate:
• Significant experience of leading large-scale services or programmes in a complex organisation, including responsibility for budgets, people and performance.
• A strong understanding of the legislation, risks, financial pressures and strategic challenges facing local government, particularly in transport, highways and the wider public realm.
• The ability to analyse complex issues, anticipate future trends, and develop forward-thinking strategies that respond to changing needs.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence across political, technical and community contexts.
• A degree-level qualification (or equivalent experience), with a commitment to continued professional development.

Please refer to the Person Specification for the full list of shortlisting criteria.

Additional Information

Advert close: 11:59pm on 04.08.2025
Shortlisting: 07.08.2025
Stakeholder Panel: w/c 18.08.2025
Interview: w/c 18.08.2025

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme: As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:
• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to have a disability or if a long-term health condition

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme.

We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

Attachments

• Director of Highways & Parking - Job Description.docx