Senior Economist

National Highways; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

An infrastructure management organization in the UK is seeking a Senior Economist to support investment decisions through rigorous economic analysis. The role involves advising on new road capacity, improving existing network quality, and producing value for money statements. Applicants should have a degree in economics, experience in the public or private sector, and strong communication skills to convey complex concepts to non-experts.

Qualifications

• Experience as an economist in public or private sector.
• Ability to communicate complex economic concepts to non-experts.
• Skills in building collaborative working relationships.

Responsibilities

• Act as business partner for investment projects, ensuring analysis is specified.
• Undertake research to improve appraisal methods.
• Model impacts of National Highways activities.
• Advise on wider economic benefits of road schemes.
• Provide feedback for continuous improvement.

Skills

Economic analysis

Written and verbal communication

Team collaboration

Knowledge of economic appraisal methods

Education

First degree in economics or a master's in economics

Job description

About the job.

National Highways is seeking a Senior Economist to support ongoing business activities and one-off projects to ensure investment decisions are informed by rigorous economic analysis.

As a Senior Economist you will influence decisions around our Third Road Investment Period. Your economic insights will help to secure funding for National Highways and inform choices around building new road capacity; improving the quality of the existing network; addressing challenges around safety, the environment and sustainability; and ensuring the network supports economic performance across the country. You will also be responsible for producing value for money (VfM) statements for individual schemes, projects, and programmes to support decision makers.

This role can be based from any of our UK offices.

What you'll be leading on:

• Act as business partner for investment and operational projects of medium-to-high value. This will involve working closely with project leads, providing economics content and review for business cases to ensure analysis is correctly specified and the capacity and capability is in place to deliver it.
• Undertake research projects to investigate and identify technical improvements to existing appraisal methods and seize opportunities to support the development of new processes and methods for the industry.
• Act as intelligent clients for modelling the impacts of National Highways activities, working closely with modelling experts to define scenarios and options in line with guidance and their own professional judgement.
• Advise where road schemes are likely to deliver wider economic benefits and recommend appropriate strategies for incorporating these into appraisals.
• Provide feedback to management on the functioning of business processes to support continuous improvement for the organisation, providing an exceptional value service for the organisation.

To be successful you will need:

• A first degree with a significant economics component or a master's in economics.
• Experience of working as an economist in the public or private sector.
• Knowledge of economics and the ability to undertake economic analysis and draw out key insights from a range of sources.
• Written and verbal communication skills with evidence of communicating complex economics language and concepts to non-experts.
• Ability to work as part of a team and build collaborative working relationships.

A bit about us

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve the strategic road network to make journeys safer, smoother and more reliable. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery.

The Customer, Strategy and Communications directorate plays a critical role in National Highways. We set the course for strategic roads, enabling the company to deliver economic and social benefits through meeting the needs of our customers and clients, as well as our regulatory obligations. We are the focal point within National Highways responsible for providing the corporate strategic planning function for the organisation.

You will join an existing team of 13 economists working at the strategic centre of the company. The team provides economic advice across the business to areas including major projects, operations and renewals and the strategy for the next road period.

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.