Heavy Vehicle Technical Officer

Government Recruitment Service; Canterbury; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension 28.97%

25 days annual leave

Flexible working

Job summary

DVSA roles in Canterbury require expertise to assess heavy vehicle applications and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. The Heavy Vehicle Technical Officer responds to technical inquiries, advises processing teams, and supports policy development within a busy operation.

Joining the team offers pension contributions, generous annual leave, and flexible working options, with a focus on safety, compliance and operational performance across the vehicle testing network.

Qualifications

• Experience assessing heavy vehicle applications.
• Knowledge of DVSA standards.
• Ability to provide technical advice to varied teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide professional assessment of heavy vehicle statutory test applications.
• Assess ECWVTA applications via ECWVTA teams.
• Advise non-technical processing teams and frontline staff on DVSA topics.
• Investigate possible solutions to mitigate risks.
• Collaborate with the Vehicle Policy Team on new requirements and standards.
• Communicate clearly with internal and external customers to ensure understanding.
• Support Heavy Vehicle Processing Manager and represent DVSA at events.
• Maintain relevant databases.

Skills

Regulatory compliance

Technical assessment

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

Can you apply technical expertise to assess complex vehicle applications and ensure compliance with regulatory standards?

Have you successfully identified risks, solved operational challenges, and delivered excellent customer service in a technical environment?

Are you a collaborative leader who can support teams, influence stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement across a busy operation?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The team plays a key role in ensuring heavy vehicles meet statutory testing and approval requirements before entering and whilst in service. The team assesses complex vehicle applications, including first tests, conversions and type-approved vehicles, ensuring compliance with legislation and DVSA standards. Working closely with operators, manufacturers, testing staff and policy teams, the department provides expert technical advice, monitors testing processes, manages risks and supports the development of new requirements and guidance. The team is committed to delivering an efficient, customer-focused service while maintaining high standards of safety, compliance and operational performance across the vehicle testing network.

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 DVSA:

Working for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency | Civil Service Careers

The Heavy Vehicle Technical Officer will play a pivotal role within the wider leadership team of Vehicle Services.

The role holder will process technical applications ensuring that they are fully assessed and documentation is compliant.

They will respond to technical queries from the non-technical processing teams as well as acting as trusted advisors to front line colleagues, Vehicle Operators, Vehicle Manufacturers and others.

The role holder will work with technical standards, legal and technical assessments and ensure that DVSA meets its Key Targets and Objectives as detailed in the Business Plan.

Heavy Vehicle Technical Officer

Company: Government Recruitment Service

Salary: £38,540 to £38,540 a year

Hours: Full-time

Location: Canterbury

Job type: Permanent

Posting date: 26 Oct 2026

Closing date: 9 Nov 2026

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Provide professional assessment of heavy vehicle statutory test applications for both first test and vehicle conversion, checking reports and supporting documentation, ensuring compliance.
• Undertake assessment of applications of approved vehicles via the European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval (ECWVTA) teams.
• Provide technical support to non-technical processing teams and act as an advisory service to front line staff, operators, manufacturers, trade organisations, other agencies as well as the public on a variety of subjects including DVSA and related services, responding to written and verbal enquiries in a timely manner.
• Investigate possible solutions to solve issues or mitigate risks.
• Collaborate with the Vehicle Policy Team on new initiatives and developing new requirements and standards, for example where there are regulatory changes or to improve clarity within existing publications.
• Communicate positively and effectively with internal and external customers to ensure a full understanding of their requirements and to ensure a concise accurate response is delivered via technical inbox
• Provide support to the Heavy Vehicle Processing Manager, representing DVSA at trade events and to carry out ad hoc related tasks.
• Maintain relevant data bases as required.

For further information on the role, please read the 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.

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