Kingston and Sutton Councils operate a shared Highways and Transport service. It is an exciting time to join our newly re-organised team as we lead the way in South-west London in delivering sustainable transport infrastructure, regeneration and rise to the zero carbon challenge. If you are seeking career growth and development opportunities, with the chance to pitch in and work on a variety of projects, then come and join us.

The service delivers a range of operational highways and transport functions, with a revenue budget of circa £5m, and a capital budget that averages £10m per year. The types of projects we work on range from redesigning a town centre traffic system and dealing with our climate emergency impacts and road safety issues, to the management and maintenance of our highway networks and assets. Being a shared service ensures there are always lots of opportunities to work on a wide range of projects.

We are committed to a hybrid, flexible working future so you won't be tied to a desk in any particular location. Whilst we have modern offices in both Sutton and Kingston town centres, we encourage all staff to work in ways that suit them best. Our focus is on ensuring all staff can bring their best selves to work, and we are interested in outcomes, not tick boxes or micro-management.

The Shared Service is committed to being a positive supportive employer, whether that’s in flexible working, building a diverse and collaborative team of engineers, transport planners, and project managers to deliver our future transport and highways engineering needs, or responding to net zero and environmental friendly goals through the development of initiatives such as school streets and cleaner and greener low traffic neighbourhoods.

If you embrace learning opportunities and relish the chance to learn and grow in a supportive environment, we have a clear and ambitious {investment} plan to transform our Highways and Transport network infrastructure. We need talented, ambitious, forward-thinking people to help drive this forward

Project Support Officer - Programme Team

The role aims to provide support for processes associated with successful programme and project management, and to function as a key central data hub to assist with data and project support requests. Other duties will include maintaining records, updating the project delivery plan, organising meetings, providing financial support and coordinating responses to data and project support enquiries. The role reports directly to the Programme Manager and may have to supervise one or two junior members of staff.

• Assisting with the delivery of high-profile Highways and Transport projects through providing programme and project management support, including data management, updating project plans and supporting the development of programme management systems.
• Oversight, triage, and administration of various elements of correspondence.
• Coordinating departmental responses to Highway Search enquiries.
• Providing financial support including processing invoices, raising purchase orders, undertaking financial reports.
• Assisting with communicating all stages of the project to internal and external parties and stakeholders, including organising meetings, drafting publications and updating web pages.
• Assisting with data requests and analysis to support a range of activities including future programme development, funding bids and general enquiries.

Programme and Support Team

This is an exciting opportunity to join a recently formed team to provide overarching support across a broad range of transport programmes and projects. The team currently consists of the Programme Manager and the Senior Programme Officer. We are recruiting for a Project Support Officer and Project Support Assistant to complete our friendly team.

The Programme Management and Support Team sits at the heart of the shared Highways and Transport service across Kingston and Sutton. The service covers a multi-million pound delivery programme including a wide variety of disciplines from walking, cycling and bus priority schemes, to school streets, behaviour change events and planned maintenance programmes.

The Programme Management and Support Team provides critical project and programme support across all Highways and Transport teams, through the centralisation and coordination of all project delivery, helping to keep the service running efficiently and to manage competing priorities across a diverse range of transport projects. The team is key in helping to streamline shared systems and processes, ensuring both boroughs are working in collaboration to deliver high quality and consistent services to residents, through a one culture holistic approach.

On a day to day basis the team helps to track the health of the overall Highways and Transport programme, escalating or assisting with any issues where needed to help the project managers ensure successful delivery. We are the key communication line between a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, providing a hub of information and data to facilitate the smooth running of projects, for example financial information, data analysis and coordination of funding bids. The team also oversees longer term projects to identify ways to improve processes and increase efficiencies, so as to continually improve service delivery.

Project Support Officer - Programme Team

You are an enthusiastic self-starter ideally with experience of working within highways, transport, or project and programme management environments. You are highly competent with IT and Digital processes, with the ability to manage and analyse data.

You are highly organised and skilled at keeping spreadsheets and datasets well managed in order to be able to respond quickly to information requests within a fast paced environment. You have experience of providing financial support, and managing correspondence and complaints.

You enjoy working collaboratively, have great communication skills and are committed to ensuring equality and diversity is embedded in everything we do. You would like to be part of a friendly team, helping to keep the Kingston and Sutton Shared Highways and Transport service running smoothly.

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

Please apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please ensure you refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.

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. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.