Street Lighting Area Engineer

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dedicated and experienced street lighting design engineer to join the Street Lighting team at Staffordshire County Council.

The team looks after approximately 108,000 street lighting assets across Staffordshire to ensure that roads and footways are safe and accessible for road users and communities. The assets include street lighting columns, subway lighting, illuminated road signs and bollards, 20mph school signs and other related equipment upon the highway. The team are involved in ensuring that new street lighting assets on developments and road improvements meet the correct standards and are properly installed.

The County Council are currently investing in changing approximately 14,000 existing street lighting heads to LED heads. This will generate significant savings in energy consumption and carbon emissions, reduce maintenance requirements, and provide improved lighting for road users and communities.

The team delivers maintenance through its PFI contract with E.ON, which ends in May 2028, making this an exciting time to help shape what the future street lighting contract looks like. The team also works closely with Amey LG, the highway department’s strategic delivery partner.

You will be part of a supportive and experienced team, working closely with contractors, developers and local communities. There is a strong focus on improving our network, reducing carbon, and delivering high-quality services for our residents.

This is a great opportunity to build your career in highway lighting, with training and development available, and the chance to work on both day-to-day operations and new improvements.

Location: Stafford with potential for home working.

Evening and weekend work may be required.

In this role, you will help deliver an efficient and safe street lighting service. Each day may be different, but you will:

• Work with our PFI contractor and partners to resolve issues and improve service delivery
• Supervise street lighting works carried out by contractors to ensure they meet safety and quality standards
• Check and approve lighting works from developers and third parties
• Review lighting designs and support new schemes to make sure they meet council standards
• Respond to enquiries from residents, councillors and local councils
• Investigate requests for lighting changes and help resolve concerns
• Support the delivery of planned works, including ordering, pricing and tracking costs
• Work with colleagues across highways, including traffic signals teams
• Provide advice on lighting, electrical matters and seasonal installations
• Keep records up to date and follow council processes and policies

You will also build strong working relationships and help represent the council with partners and local communities.

To apply, you must meet the following minimum criteria:

• A relevant technical qualification, or demonstrable experience in street lighting or a related field
• Experience of street lighting or illuminated sign maintenance and installation
• Experience of supervising works or contractors, ideally within a PFI environment
• Good working knowledge of IT systems and confidence using digital tools
• Ability to communicate clearly with a range of people, including the public and partners
• Experience of working with others as part of a team

You will also need to be willing to travel across Staffordshire (casual car user allowance applies)

Membership of, or working towards, a relevant professional body (such as the Institution of Lighting Professionals) is welcomed.

If you are looking for a role where you can make a real difference to local communities and help keep Staffordshire moving safely, we would love to hear from you.

Don’t feel you meet all the requirements? We value transferable skills, experiences, and qualifications so consider applying anyway or for an informal chat about the role please contact Emily Madsen, Lighting and ITS Manager at emily.madsen@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role. Please note: The minimum essential criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes, detailed below.

Shortlisting: 3rd August

Interview date: 7th August

We are no ordinary county council:

Our Values:

The core of who we are as an organisation. Just like we all have personal values that shape our thoughts and behaviour, organisational values drive how we think and act collectively.

Our values were created and shaped by colleague feedback and national best practice and they sit at the heart of People Strategy:

We have a real sense of community spirit that brings our people together. This feeling of belonging means we are all connected to what we do and take pride in the difference we make every day for Staffordshire people. We are ambitious and our sights are set firmly on a better future.

We look forward and race ahead - that goes for your career too.

Our benefits:

We recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive working environment where employees can achieve their full potential and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

In addition to your salary, as a member of staff, you will have access to Our rewards and benefits - Careers at Staffordshire

Our recruitment process:

As an Authority we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people/vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Staffordshire County Council is an equal opportunities organisation and Disability Confident employer. We encourage applications from all background and communities

As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the minimum criteria for the post.