Design Services Manager

About the role

Cambridgeshire County Council is offering an exciting opportunity, for a Design Services Manager, within the Design and Delivery Team.

The Design and Delivery Team manage diverse and varied programmes of work throughout Cambridgeshire working within our communities to improve our infrastructure and active travel potential. 

What will you be doing?

The development and delivery of new transport infrastructure is vital to the future economic wellbeing of Cambridgeshire. 

The skills required to deliver such a programme are considerable and require engineering knowledge and understanding of project and programme management, procurement and commissioning of infrastructure projects, stakeholder engagement, land negotiation, transport planning and statutory legal processes. 

Importantly, the Design Services Manager has responsibility for managing our design resources, and coordinating programme demands. They will use their technical expertise to ensure compliance with Construction Design Management (CDM) regulations, manage expectations, effectively challenge, and drive design delivery. 

In addition, the role requires a strong ability to meet delivery outcomes for projects and defining service outcomes across a range of needs – e.g., meeting best design guidance and practise, innovating, maximising contract savings and achieving value for money. Effectively delivering design activities across varied programmes and establishing a forward pipeline of work over multiple years will be key to achieving successful outcomes in this role. 

The role supports the Group Manager and other managers within the Project Delivery Service in delivering the Councils objectives, through joined-up service planning, community engagement and the flexible use of resources. 

The Design Services Manager will lead an established in-house design team of design professionals at various levels, and oversee related design activities on the following programmes -

• Major Maintenance – A varied, capitally funded portfolio of maintenance projects countywide across our carriageway, footway, and drainage portfolios. In year delivery is essential whilst working across a high-volume portfolio with a cumulative budget of c.£9,000,000 to manage.
• Delivering Transport Strategy Aims and Section 106 – A varied countywide capitally funded improvement programme, with individual schemes up to the value of £500,000. This portfolio includes public realm enhancements or active travel related improvements to popular walking and cycling routes.
• Local Highway Improvements, 20mph and privately funded works – A varied countywide capitally funded local improvement programme, with individual schemes up to the value of c.£50,000. This portfolio will include delivering highway improvements at a very local level, at the request of third parties in the community. This includes different forms of traffic calming, zebra crossings and speed limit changes.

For an informal conversation please contact Joshua Rutherford – Group Manager Design & Delivery, Joshua.rutherford@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

Please ensure your covering letter is no more than 2 pages.

Applications are reviewed weekly, please do not delay the submission of your application as this is a rolling advert and will be closed once successful candidates have been found.

About you

You will be educated to degree level or above with significant experience in highway infrastructure design. You will be capable of leading a team of industry experts delivering design and construction projects. Your ability to influence our strategic direction and communicate with a range of stakeholders and teams will be essential in this role.

You will need to work closely with our in-house project management team to design and deliver an integrated work programme. Collaboration, enthusiasm, determination, and an attention to detail are a must, as well as a focus on delivering value for money and getting it right first time for our communities.

You will be expected to ensure that health, safety, and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do and deliver in our day-to-day activities.

The role will include the management of design professionals and apprentices. The existing team is well established and high performing, so previous experience in development and helping others reach their full potential is a must.

Our benefits

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits:

• Flexible working
• Flexible Bank Holidays
• A comprehensive wellbeing package
• Our Cambs Rewards employee discounts
• A comprehensive pension scheme.
• IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Camweb our staff intranet helping to keep you informed
• An employee recognition scheme
• Up to 20% market factor applied to advertised salary (subject to experience and performance at interview)

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.

Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.

We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we believe benefits our employees, the organisation and our communities. 

Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion. 

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/jobs-and-careers

Attached documents

• Design Services Manager Job Description