Highway Inspector Role B

Do you have experience working in a highways, highways maintenance or street works environment?

Are you confident making decisions independently while managing competing priorities and responding to incidents?

Do you enjoy working collaboratively to keep road users safe and minimise disruption across a busy highway network?

Would you like to play a key role in maintaining and improving Brighton & Hove's highways while developing specialist skills in highway inspections, winter maintenance and network management?

Contract type: Permanent

Interviews to be held: week commencing monday 9th November

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Doug Paddick - highway inspection manageron 07395283645 or email doug.paddick@brighton-hove.gov.uk

About the role

As a Highway Inspector, you will be responsible for inspecting and monitoring the condition of the public highway to ensure it remains safe for all users. You will carry out scheduled inspections, identify defects, arrange repairs and monitor works completed by contractors and utility companies.

The role combines technical inspection work, problem solving and customer service. You will investigate highway maintenance complaints, assess risks, gather evidence for insurance claims and work with contractors to ensure required standards are achieved. You will also support emergency responses to incidents such as flooding, highway defects and severe weather events.

A key aspect of the role is working closely with colleagues across the council, utility companies, contractors and residents to coordinate highway activities and minimise disruption to the city's transport network.

For candidates appointed at the higher grade, additional responsibilities include coordinating winter maintenance operations, acting as a Duty Officer, managing more complex highway maintenance schemes and contributing to contractor performance management.

What we're looking for

You will have experience working in a highways or engineering environment and be able to demonstrate an understanding of relevant highways legislation and industry standards.

You will bring:

• Experience of working within a highways maintenance, street works, highway inspection or engineering environment.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to deal confidently and professionally with members of the public, contractors and stakeholders.
• The ability to make sound decisions, prioritise workloads and work independently with minimal supervision.
• Good IT, record-keeping and report-writing skills.
• An understanding of relevant legislation including the Highways Act, New Roads and Street Works Act and Traffic Management Act, or the ability to quickly develop this knowledge.
• A practical and organised approach, with strong attention to detail when assessing defects and gathering evidence.
• A commitment to delivering excellent public services and ensuring the safety of all highway users.

For progression within the role, opportunities are available to develop specialist knowledge and qualifications in highway inspections, winter maintenance, project delivery and traffic management.

Why join our team?

This is an excellent opportunity to develop a rewarding career in highway asset management and network safety. You will be supported through training, professional development and nationally recognised qualifications including highway inspection and winter maintenance training.

Our team works across a diverse city environment, helping communities remain connected and ensuring roads, footways and transport infrastructure are safe and accessible. We pride ourselves on collaborative working, knowledge sharing and supporting colleagues to develop their careers.

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Develop technical expertise in highway inspections, asset management and winter maintenance.
• Work on a varied portfolio of inspections, investigations and maintenance schemes.
• Contribute to the council's emergency response and resilience planning.
• Access training and development opportunities that support career progression.
• Be part of a team that directly improves safety and accessibility for residents, businesses and visitors.

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

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