Job Description

About the job.

National Highways have an excellent opportunity for a Senior Economist to join our team in Customer, Strategy and Communications (CSC). We are seeking a Senior Economist to support ongoing business activities and one-off projects to ensure investment decisions are informed by rigorous economic analysis.

As a Senior Economist, you will influence decisions around our Third Road Investment Period. Your economic insights will help to secure funding for National Highways and inform choices around building new road capacity, improving the quality of the existing network, addressing challenges around safety, the environment and sustainability; and ensuring the network supports economic performance across the country. You will also be responsible for producing value for money (VfM) statements for individual schemes, projects, and programmes to support decision makers.

Please note this role can be based from any of our National Highways offices however, travel to regional offices to attend team meetings will be required.

• Act as business partner for investments across National Highways including but not limited to operational projects of medium-to-high value. This will involve working closely with project leads, providing economics content and review for business cases to ensure analysis is correctly specified and the capacity and capability is in place to deliver it.
• Undertake research projects to investigate and identify technical improvements to existing appraisal methods and seize opportunities to support the development of new processes and methods for the industry.
• Act as intelligent clients for modelling the impacts of National Highways activities, working closely with modelling experts to define scenarios and options in line with guidance and their own professional judgement.
• Advise where road schemes are likely to deliver wider economic benefits and recommend appropriate strategies for incorporating these into appraisals.
• Provide feedback to management on the functioning of business processes to support continuous improvement for the organisation, providing an exceptional value service for the organisation.

About you.

• A bachelor’s degree with Economics as the main component or a Masters’ degree in Economics.
• Relevant experience of working as an Economist in a public sector policy, delivery, or regulatory environment; or/and relevant private sector experience in consultancy, research, or delivery for transport, infrastructure, or economic development.
• Knowledge of economics and the ability to undertake economic analysis and draw out key insights from a range of sources.
• Written and verbal communication skills with evidence of communicating complex economics language and concepts to non-experts.
• Ability to work as part of a team and build collaborative working relationships.
• Knowledge of appraisal relating to digital, renewal or maintenance schemes would be advantageous, but not essential.

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 Customer, Strategy, and Communications directorate is essential to National Highways. We guide the direction of the strategic road network, helping the company deliver economic and social benefits by meeting the needs of our customers, clients, and fulfilling regulatory requirements. As the central hub within National Highways, we provide the corporate strategic planning function for the organisation.

The Customer, Strategy and Communications directorate plays a critical role in National Highways. We set the course for strategic roads, enabling the company to deliver economic and social benefits through meeting the needs of our customers and clients, as well as our regulatory obligations.

We are the focal point within National Highways responsible for providing the corporate strategic planning function for the organisation.

You will join an existing team of 13 economists working at the strategic centre of the Company. The team provide economic advice across the business covering from major projects, operations and renewals and the strategy for the next road period.

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.