Department for Transport

Automatic Traffic Counting Engineer
Department for Transport
Apply before 11:55 pm on Tuesday 28th May 2024

Reference number: 351092
Salary: £40,808
National minimum £40,808, London minimum £44,811
Contract type: Permanent
Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time
Location: Birmingham, Leeds, London

About the job
We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Do you have a degree in Engineering or relevant qualifications and experience in Engineering?
Do you have an interest in exploiting technology to deliver specific data needs?
Can you build effective working relationships quickly with a wide variety of stakeholders?
If so, we are looking for an Engineer to manage our automatic traffic counters and we’d love to hear from you!

Job description
The performance of our roads is a vital part of our communities and economy - nearly 90% of all journey miles in Great Britain are by road. The Department for Transport (DfT) therefore produces National Statistics on Road Traffic which are a key pillar of the evidence base across the transport sector.

As the only engineer in the DfT’s Traffic Surveys Team, you will be responsible for the operational management of DfT's network of around 300 in-road Automatic Traffic Counters (ATCs).

You will use your engineering and technical skills to ensure first rate performance is maintained across the counter network, and to help the Traffic Surveys team develop improved ways of counting traffic for the future.

You will provide the vital link between the statisticians in the Traffic Surveys Team who use the data from these ATCs to produce official traffic statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/road-traffic-statistics), and the maintenance contractor employed to maintain, develop and enhance the capability of the counter network.

The role can be tailored to you but would suit a team player with good organisational skills and an interest in exploiting technology and data to deliver specific statistical needs in a highways context. It provides excellent opportunities to develop project and contract management skills, and to gain experience of working closely with statisticians and data scientists managing and analysing large data sets.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Contract management and quality assurance of the contractor providing the maintenance and management service for the ATC network.
• Ensuring that the ATC network remains fit for purpose by maintaining an up to date understanding of the data requirements of your statistician colleagues, regularly reviewing operational needs and network performance, and suggesting improvements where appropriate.
• Working closely with DfT statisticians to maintain high quality data from the network, for example by developing warning systems to minimise data loss, and by providing technical advice on interpreting ATC data.
• Line managing one member of administrative staff supporting the day-to-day management of the counter network.
• Ensuring that the contractors and our ATCs comply with all appropriate health and safety requirements.
• Developing up-to-date expert knowledge of the equipment we use, as well as potential alternatives and other traffic monitoring technologies, and applying this to the development of innovative methods for measuring traffic, and to assisting in their evaluation through technical trials.

About You
We’re looking for a professional engineer with excellent technical skills to help the team develop improved ways of counting traffic for the future.
You’ll be confident applying your engineering expertise to set your own direction and influence decisions. You'll thrive managing a dynamic and challenging workload, welcoming autonomy to your role whilst supporting the wider team in achieving departmental goals and objectives.

Apply link - Automatic Traffic Counting Engineer - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UK