Lead Operational Technology Compliance Manager

About the job.

National Highways has an excellent opportunity for a Lead Operational Technology Compliance Manager to join our Digital Services Directorate, providing specialist compliance leadership and independent assurance across our Operational Technology (OT) environment.

This is an important role in the Quality and Test Team with the opportunity to influence how compliance is understood, demonstrated and continuously improved across National Highways.

Working in close partnership with the Operational Technology Systems Engineering (OTSE) team and supply chain partners, you will provide the insight, constructive challenge and evidence-based assurance needed to ensure that OT delivers safer, more reliable services for road users nationwide.

Our technology estate is broad, diverse and continuously evolving. It’s also an opportunity to help shape the future of Quality and Test at National Highways leveraging your experience to improve and expand the service, ensuring it’s ready to support a modern road network that takes advantage of new technology.

You will be:

- Leading National Highways’ Process for Roadside Technology Product Acceptance, championing its benefits and maintaining a clear, evidence-based view of compliance across the OT lifecycle. Overseeing supplier compliance submissions, supporting evidence, risks, findings and improvement actions, with clear escalation and reporting to senior stakeholders.
- Providing independent assurance and constructive challenge, ensuring products, projects and deployment decisions comply with applicable OT standards, requirements and that governance processes and are supported by sufficient, appropriate and traceable evidence. You’ll achieve this by working closely with Quality and Test, the OTSE Team, the wider Digital Services Team, Commercial and Procurement and Operations.
- Embedding assurance early in delivery, working collaboratively with the OTSE Team, Quality and Test, projects, suppliers and wider stakeholders to identify and address risks early and support successful delivery of National Highways’ strategic initiatives. Maintain a clear understanding of which standards and requirements apply at each stage of the OT lifecycle
- Assessing the impact of new or amended requirements on programmes, projects and existing OT assets, working with OTSE to ensure requirements are understood and appropriately incorporated across the OTSL, DMRB and MCHW requirements framework.
- Driving continuous improvement, building resilience in OT assurance, using findings, operational data, analytics and emerging AI tools to identify trends and systemic improvements, while building shared knowledge, effective cross-team support and a cohesive OT Test and Assurance service. Extending this across Digital Services and the wider delivery community and by playing a key role in evolving the Quality and Test Team’s future approach to assurance

About you:

- Capable of making and guiding effective decisions, explaining clearly how the decision has been reached.
- The ability to look beyond the immediate technical problem and identify the wider implications.
- Familiarity and experience with working in a quality-controlled environment, eg ISO 9001.
- Detailed knowledge of roadside operational technology infrastructure and the lifecycle of products deployed within operational systems, including the safety, availability, resilience and latency requirements they must meet.
- An understanding of the delivery lifecycle, timescales and management of technology schemes across the motorway network.

About us.

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England’s motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.

The Digital Services Directorate is helping to reshape the way National Highways operates by delivering digital, data, and technology services across all areas, from frontline to back office, in a modern and efficient manner. Our vision is to develop integrated information and technology that empowers our colleagues and provides real-time information to our customers, as well as integrating with intelligent vehicle and transport systems as they evolve, to enhance journey safety and reliability.

External candidates will be offered a starting salary at the lower end of the pay scale, while current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy.

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.