Head of Strategic Asset Investment Planning Strategy & Planning Department

Job Description

Your new roleHighways England is building its Strategic Asset Investment Planning capability. You will lead a relatively new team which is designing and introducing policies, processes and systems to create a consistent strategic investment planning capability for investing in the Strategic Road Network. You will stimulate new and innovative thinking to deliver tangible process improvements that enhance the legitimacy of our Strategic Business Plan for 2020-25 with our key stakeholders. You will also act an advocate for change, supporting the team and wider organisation in consolidating new ways of working into our day-to-day strategic investment planning capability.This is an exciting and unique opportunity to build strong foundations for strategic investment planning at Highways England, in only our second road period as a regulated infrastructure provider. You will want to strive to move us to the forefront of the international roads sector for strategic asset management, by ensuring we appropriately balance risk, costs, customers’ expectations with stakeholder priorities and stretch our thinking beyond our current capability.Ideally you will be an experienced strategic asset investment leader looking to apply your skills in a new dynamic; willing to think creatively and bring value to a sector that has much opportunity to offer and with an appetite for success. You will be responsible for leadership and development of your team to deliver activities which set the overall investment strategy and direction. You will probably come from an infrastructure organisation or have experience of working with regulated infrastructure providers and have worked on multi-year investment plans/ investment period settlements.This role will be the Subject Matter Lead for 5-year strategic investment planning, driving the implementation and being responsible for the creation of the asset renewals case for Highways England; securing input to the case from across the business and acceptance through regulatory scrutiny by the Office for Rail and Road (ORR). You will manage the Strategic Asset Investment Plan £6M programme of activity to secure renewals funding for Road Period 3 in the order of £6-9Bn, and ensure appropriate expenditure control, risk management and delivery of output.What you will be leading on

Design and delivery of evidenced and efficient 5-year strategic asset investment plans for renewals, which secure sufficient funding to deliver the asset needs and services required by customers and key stakeholders over Road Period 3 and satisfies our Board’s risk appetite.

Production of asset renewals elements of our Initial Report in 2022 and the asset renewals business case for the Draft and final Strategic Business plans in 2023/24/25.

Securing a positive outcome from the ORR’s Deliverability and Efficiency Review.

Development of risk and service outcome based strategic investment planning, including use of customer preference insight.

Promotion of sustainability in investment planning, including continued growth in our capability for future investment periods.

The management of a £6m programme of activity to secure renewals funding for RIS3 of ~£6-9bn, including the direction and output delivery from our external expert consultancy support.

Collaboration and integration with Operations and Maintenance plans and business cases.

Close collaboration with the Future RIS team and colleagues creating the next Strategic Business Plan; promotion of the integration of strategic plans and approaches with active Asset Management strategy and practice. Ensuring consistency of approach and value add to in-period activity through next-period planning.

Leading and motivating the cross-business Virtual Team, taking responsibility for the development and delivery of activities in line with the business plan and supporting the Divisional Director in setting overall strategy and direction.

Provision of subject matter leadership, leading the development and evaluation of solutions, supporting the team in resolving strategic and technical issues, providing authoritative advice and guidance to internal stakeholders and representing the interests of Highways England with external stakeholders.

To be successful you will

Be an excellent and effective collaborator with strong networking and communication skills. A natural and inclusive leader, you will have lead cross-business teams in delivery of similar strategic or novel objectives.

Have good influencing and negotiating skills, including experience of managing stakeholder relationships to achieve desired outcomes, and the ability to communicate effectively and concisely at all levels.

Have proven experience of strategic asset investment planning in a regulatory environment or similar. This should include creation and delivery of evidenced business cases for renewals (capital maintenance) interventions using risk and service based approaches to intervention planning, customer insight and decision support tools.

Be able to lead delivery in a complex environment to tight deadlines, with experience of the successful delivery of similar complex projects or change programmes.

Be qualified to at least degree level, ideally in a STEM subject (or have equivalent experience); membership of a relevant professional institution would be desirable.

Required skills

Strategy

Planning

Keyskills :
Strategy Planning