Stakeholder Engagement Officer

This role has a starting salary of £38,746 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.

We are thrilled to be hiring a new Stakeholder Engagement Officer to join our small but dynamic Highways Engagement and Commissioning team. The team is based out of Merrow Complex, Merrow, Guildford, and we promote a hybrid approach to working, meeting collaboratively when required. We are proud of our customer focus and our strong connections with local county councillors supporting them to progress highways improvements important to their local communities.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Team

This role sits within the Highways Engagement and Commissioning Team, which is part of the Highways and Transport Service. The focus for the team is to provide excellent customer service for highways works, and this is embraced to ensure that county councillors and customers are at the heart of everything we do.

As part of the Highways Engagement and Commissioning team, you will be the focal point for county councillors, supporting them to progress highways improvements important to their local communities. The team works with key local stakeholders to better understand the needs of an area, which will influence the work of the various engineering teams. This is likely to be through focus groups, surveys or engagement events and research.

About the Role

We are looking for a Stakeholder Engagement Officer who can work as part of a team to actively engage with a variety of stakeholders about sometimes complex highways issues and to translate this technical information into clear prioritised proposals. In addition to this you will be responsible for supporting members to commission highways works as part of their local budgets by working collaboratively with other highways teams. Therefore, it will be important to be able to work with figures and have attention to detail.

Sometimes highways schemes meet some resistance, even if prioritised by a local community. This role gives the opportunity to calmly influence to turn around opinion to give a positive outcome within a multi-tier political governance structure.

You do not need to be a highways expert for this role, however you will need to be a great communicator with an ability to work with budgets, an understanding of working in a political environment, with a passion for challenging conversations as well as an advocate of doing things differently as we would like to improve the service that we offer.

We are looking for a highly motivated, solution focused person who can make a valuable contribution towards highway stakeholder engagement.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be shortlisted for interview, your CV and personal statement will clearly evidence:

• A high standard of communication, presentation, organisation and IT skills
• An understanding of the governance of local authorities and preferably working with elected members (or equivalent in your work arena - shareholders for example)
• Confidence in dealing with a wide selection of customers and striving for Customer Service Excellence
• Ability to manage workloads and deal with conflicting priorities
• Ability to form excellent working relationships with a variety of individuals across organisations

Due to the nature of this role, the role holder will need to have the willingness and ability to travel around the county to meet the demands of the role.

Contact Us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

For an informal discussion contact Michelle Collins or Sarah Woodworth

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 21/04/2024, with interviews to follow.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role.

We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.