Non-Executive Director, National Highways

About National Highways

Safe and reliable roads are essential for the economy and public wellbeing. National Highways manages, operates and improves the UK’s motorways and major A-roads (known as the strategic road network (SRN), helping its customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Beyond that, National Highways needs to demonstrate that it can meet the government’s commitment to net zero carbon, within its committed timescales. National Highways also needs to exploit the full potential of the digital revolution, both in delivery of its activities, and in its communications with road users and stakeholders.

National Highways manages over £100bn of assets, working with its many partners and suppliers to support over 4 million journeys that are undertaken every day on the SRN. The Government’s Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2), which covers the second road period from 2020–25, represented the biggest investment in the UK’s road network in a generation. National Highways received £24bn, which it has invested in road improvements and managing and maintaining the network, whilst achieving over £2bn of efficiency savings. Discussions are now progressing to agree RIS3, covering the third road period from 2026-31. This follows an interim year covering 2025-26.

National Highways’ three main overarching imperatives are:

• Safety – everyone who uses and works on National Highways roads should get home safe and well. Reducing the number of fatalities and injuries can only be achieved by planning and designing roads that meet the highest levels of safety.
• Customers – with more than four million daily journeys, National Highways’ roads play a vital part in connecting the country. National Highways knows the value of customer feedback and works closely with Transport Focus, together with using other customer insight platforms to seek views on a range of fundamental matters including safety, journey time, surface quality, roadworks management, and roadside information.
• Delivery – it is the job of National Highways to deliver safe and reliable roads. Since 2015 it has invested billions in new routes and extra capacity, such as the A14 in East Anglia.

Role specification

National Highways is seeking a Non-Executive Director (NED) to join its Board, with a particular background in the digital and technology challenges that the business faces. The successful candidate, through their membership of the Board, will provide challenge and support to a wide variety of management and operational issues and contribute to the effective strategic and operational leadership of National Highways.

The general responsibilities of a Board member are to:

• Provide sound advice to the Chair and Chief Executive
• Prepare for, and make, an effective contribution to the National Highways Board, Board subcommittee meetings and Executive/NED meetings
• Build strong stakeholder relationships, including with Ministers and Senior Government officials and broader external stakeholders to help manage the organisation’s reputation
• Critically analyse a wide range of information and discharge the duties and responsibilities of a NED through objective evidence-based recommendations
• Work closely with the Executive team and other key stakeholders, providing support, constructive challenge and assurance as appropriate to ensure that the Executive team delivers the approved strategy, and support them in discharging their leadership responsibilities to National Highways
• Ensure that National Highways is run effectively, in line with best practice for non-departmental public bodies and Managing Public Money requirements
• Listen and accept challenge and constructively challenge others in discussions with clarity and respect

Person specification

The successful candidate will possess a good appreciation of the role of a Non-Executive Director and understand and be committed to the pivotal role that the Board plays in the effective and efficient delivery of National Highways’ services and network, which both millions of individual customers and many thousands of businesses rely on. They will clearly demonstrate independence of judgement and an ability to communicate with impact to provide constructive support and challenge, together with the following essential specialist knowledge and experience.

National Highways are looking for exceptional candidates with a cyber security and/or data technology background to support the pivotal role that the Board plays within National Highways. We are looking for candidates that can demonstrate the following essential criteria:

• A clear understanding of the work, public priorities and challenges connected with effective and efficient delivery of National Highways’ services and network, which both millions of individual customers and many thousands of businesses rely on
• Ability to apply independent judgement, constructively challenge and support to drive value for money for the taxpayer – drawing on experience to deliver sound, impartial advice on complex issues
• Attention to detail, confidence in challenging opinions and making difficult decisions is essential Excellent communication and stakeholder skills – ability to listen and communicate with clarity and respect.
• Building strong stakeholder relationships, including with Ministers, senior government, the executive board, and other external stakeholders
• Effective decision-making skills with the ability to critically analyse a wide range of information to make clear and objective evidence-based recommendations to support the delivery of National Highways’ objectives

In addition to the essential criteria listed above, successful candidates should have skills in at least one of the following areas:

• An extensive understanding of cyber and network security issues connected to large-scale mission critical (24/7) monitoring and control systems
• Demonstrated success in leading innovative digital and data transformation projects, including knowledge of introducing rapid innovation to transform and consolidate legacy systems
• Knowledge of leveraging data analytics to drive operational efficiency and improve customer experience

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