Active Travel England
Senior Inspector
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Job Summary
Can you provide advice to solve complex design issues in constrained environments?
Do you have an expert understanding of designing for active travel?
Have you got excellent communication and influencing skills?
If so, we’d love to hear from you!
Active Travel England (ATE) is the government’s executive agency responsible for making walking, wheeling, and cycling the preferred choice for everyone to get around in England. There has never been a more exciting time to join us to create happier, healthier communities, by helping to transform local transport and enabling 55% of all short stages in towns and cities to be walked, wheeled, or cycled by 2035. We are raising the standards of walking, wheeling, and cycling infrastructure across England, by overseeing improved design, and increasing skills and capability in local authorities.
Joining Our Department Comes With Many Benefits, Including:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below!
Find out more about what it's like working at Active Travel England roles: [Active Travel England - Department for Transport Careers](Active Travel England - Department for Transport Careers)
Job Description
This role provides expert leadership on active travel scheme design, helping Active Travel England raise standards for walking and cycling infrastructure across the country. The postholder will advise on complex design issues, support local authorities and delivery partners, and champion inclusive, high-quality schemes that meet national guidance and deliver better outcomes for all users.
Your Responsibilities Will Include, But Aren’t Limited To:
- Driving delivery by ensuring quality in scheme design through the utilisation of Active Travel England’s design assurance tools.
- Work with local, combined, and mayoral strategic authorities, as well as with other delivery partners such as Prime Minister’s Office, other government departments, and organisations such as Sustrans and Living Streets.
- Support the provision of information to support the technical and legislative changes undertaken by the Department for Transport.
- Responsible for managing and providing technical responses to internal and external stakeholders which include TfL Directors, Ministers, MPs, Councillors, Mayor’s Questions.
- Uphold the scheme inspection regime, highlighting examples of good and poor practice, and engaging with local authorities to raise standards.
- Provide advice and leadership to colleagues and assist them with skill development and career progression, with line management of 2 Inspectors.
- Ensure that a range of needs are considered when inspecting and advising on scheme design including children, older people, women, disabled people, and people from a range of ethnic backgrounds.
- Help build capability in local authorities to enable them to design and deliver high-quality active travel infrastructure.
Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.
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For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
Person Specification
Essential Qualifications/licenses:
- A degree in Civil Engineering or equivalent.
- Eligible for, working towards, or currently hold membership of a chartered institute (ICE, CIHT, CILT, RTPI, CMLI etc.).
You will be required to provide evidence that you hold any essential qualifications/licenses at some point during the recruitment process. If you cannot provide evidence, your application will be withdrawn.
Required Experience:
To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:
- Strong technical knowledge in active travel design including an ability to interpret design drawings and modelling information.
- An excellent understanding of design standards including Manual for Streets, Inclusive Mobility, and LTN 1/20, and their role in driving up standards of cycling and walking infrastructure.
- Significant experience in the design, implementation, and supervision of highway design and construction projects, with a specialism in active travel.
Additional Information
Working hours, office attendance, and travel requirements
- Full-time roles consist of 37 hours per week.
- Occasional travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.
If you have a question about hybrid working, part-time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).
Qualifications
- A degree in Civil Engineering or equivalent.
Memberships
- Eligible for, working towards, or currently hold membership of a chartered institute (ICE, CIHT, CILT, RTPI, CMLI etc.).
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Working Together
- Developing Self and Others
- Communicating and Influencing
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing
Alongside your salary of £57,515, Active Travel England contributes £16,662 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:
- Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
- 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
- 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
- Access to the staff discount portal.
- Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
- Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
- 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
- Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Get help with your application
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Find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies (opens in a new window).
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate, and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection Process Details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.
The Selection Process For This Role Will Be:
Stage 1: Sift of CV, personal statement, and behaviour statement.
Stage 2: Interview
You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.
Stage 1: Sift
At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:
- Behaviours – you will be asked to provide a maximum 250-word statement on the following Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing.
- Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (250-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:
- Project Delivery
The sift will take place week commencing 20/07/2026
Stage 2: Interview
At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:
- Behaviours – Delivering at Pace, Working Together, Developing Self and Others, Communicating and Influencing
The interviews will take place week commencing 03/08/2026.
This interview will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.
You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).
Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.
Further Information on the Selection Process
Feedback on your application can only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for. You can read more about our reserve lists here.
Reasonable Adjustments
As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible, and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need
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