Job Description

About the job.

National Highways has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Major Incident Manager. We are seeking an experienced and proactive individual to lead the governance, assurance, and continual improvement of our Major Incident Management capability which operates across a complex multi-supplier environment. The role is responsible for ensuring that major incidents are managed effectively, consistently, and in line with agreed policies, processes, and service expectations, whilst driving improvements that reduce business impact and improve customer experience.

Working in close collaboration with technical and process subject matter experts, service owners, suppliers and operational teams, you will establish and embed a robust major incident framework. Your leadership will strengthen capability maturity, enhance resilience and ensure a high level of response readiness across a complex, integrated environment. You will also act as the primary escalation point for risks and issues relating to the operation of the Major Incident process, providing clear direction during high-pressure situations.

Please note this position can be based from any of our UK offices however travel to other offices will be required.

• Own the governance, standards, policies, and operational oversight of the Major Incident Management capability, ensuring processes are effective, controlled, and consistently followed across all support teams and suppliers.
• Oversee and assure the end-to-end management of major incidents, ensuring timely coordination, escalation, communication, decision-making, and restoration activities minimise business impact and maintain stakeholder confidence.
• Work closely with suppliers, Service Owners, technical teams, and senior stakeholders to monitor performance, challenge poor outcomes, drive accountability, and ensure service expectations and contractual obligations are met.
• Identify trends, risks, recurring issues, and improvement opportunities through reporting, lessons learned, post-incident reviews, and operational analysis, ensuring improvements are tracked through to delivery and measurable outcomes.
• Acting as primary point of contact for MI governance, produce clear operational reporting, service insight, and executive-level updates relating to major incidents, service performance, risks, compliance, and capability maturity to support informed decision-making and governance.
• Oversee and assure post-incident reviews, root cause analysis and knowledge sharing, embedding lessons learned into operational practices and driving ongoing capability maturity and performance improvements

About you.

• Demonstrated ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy, taking ownership of complex operational outcomes and delivering against time, cost and quality objectives
• Strong leadership and influencing capability, with proven experience building relationships and collaborating effectively across stakeholders, suppliers and customers
• Experience managing complex operational environments, applying specialist knowledge to resolve issues and align delivery with strategic objectives
• Excellent business and communication skills, including risk management, continuous improvement, stakeholder engagement and the ability to convey complex information clearly
• ITIL 4 Foundation certification required, with ITIL 4 Specialist modules (Create, Deliver and Support and Drive Stakeholder Value) desirable

About us.

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England’s motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.

The Digital Services Directorate is helping to reshape the way National Highways operates by delivering digital, data, and technology services across all areas, from frontline to back office, in a modern and efficient manner. Our vision is to develop integrated information and technology that empowers our colleagues and provides real-time information to our customers, as well as integrating with intelligent vehicle and transport systems as they evolve, to enhance journey safety and reliability.

External candidates will be offered a starting salary at the lower end of the pay scale, while current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy.

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Why you should join us

At National Highways we believe in a connected country. We are passionate about creating a culture where colleagues feel connected, included and enjoy greater wellbeing to achieve this. We’re proud that as an organisation we are continually striving to do better and actively encourage and support our colleagues to do the same with their careers.

So, if you put safety first, take ownership of your work, show passion for what you do, work effectively in a team, and demonstrate integrity in how you do it – then you’ll be a great fit for our organisation.

A connected and sustainable working approach has been adopted across National Highways. For some roles, this means being able to work in a hybrid way spending up to 60% of time working from a remote location such as home.

We offer many different ways to work flexibly and we’re open to discuss part-time working, job shares, and flexible start and finish times.

Please wait until the interview stage before asking us about flexibility, and we will explore what is possible.

Our benefits package

• Our total reward package includes basic salary, the potential for a performance related bonus
• Contributory pension scheme with employer contribution of up to 10%
• Annual Leave starting at 26 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising by 1 day each year up to 31 days (plus Bank Holidays)
• Flexible hours and an approach driven by connected and sustainable working which includes hybrid working
• Life assurance of 4 times annual salary
• Health and wellbeing support, including an Employee Assistance Programme, available 24/7 365 days and network of mental health first aiders. Plus access to a wellbeing app to enhance your self-care 24/7, Occupational health service and flu vaccines
• A cycle to work scheme for the purchase of a bicycle and equipment for healthy, low carbon travel
• Significant investment in your career development, through learning and development, talent management, coaching, mentoring and on job experience

And we are

• Family friendly with enhanced maternity leave and pay, paternity leave (15 days), shared parental leave, adoption leave. Plus access to financial support for holiday play schemes and paid special leave (up to 5 days pa), eg for caring responsibilities
• Money friendly with access to a discounts platform including over 3000 discounts for supermarkets, eating out, leisure, holidays. Alongside a financial wellbeing programme
• Community friendly – offering paid leave to volunteer, 3 days basic/year

If you are successful, it is key to know all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory completion of our pre-employment checks which include:

• Right to work check
• 3 year employment history references
• DBS criminal record check
• Social media and adverse journalism check
• Driving licence check (if applicable)
• Fit to work questionnaire (for all), followed by a medical check (if applicable)
• Qualifications and/or professional membership check (if applicable)

And finally

We reserve the right to close before the advertisement expires.