Senior Technical Advisor
| Posting date: | 16 February 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £44,241 to £48,581 per year |
| Additional salary information: | This role attracts a £4,500 allowance in recognition of the requirement for professional engineering and/or relevant professional occupational experience. After 3 years in the SEO post the allowance will be increased to £9,000 to reflect experience gained in the role. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 01 March 2026 |
| Location: | Hastings, East Sussex |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 447941 |
Summary
ob description
You will be responsible for both scrutinising and developing cross-cutting evidence for major project policy and sponsor teams on cost and engineering themes (e.g. benchmarking, cost and risk analysis, value engineering etc.), ensuring crucial technical evidence is embedded into the Department’s investment decision process. This will require working closely with Senior Civil Servants, internal colleagues across the Department, and key external stakeholders in other Government departments and Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs), including HS2 Ltd., East West Railway Co., National Highways, Network Rail and others.
Your responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:
Using your engineering skills and experience to proactively challenge design specifications and assumptions, ensuring a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ approach is adopted where appropriate, providing critical client intelligence to senior decision makers.
Examining technical evidence supplied by ALBs as advice to Government and leading on the drafting of briefings and papers to senior leaders, investment boards (including DfT Investment Committee) and ministers.
Working alongside technical, sponsor, and analytical colleagues to scrutinise emerging cost estimates to advise major project sponsor teams on their robustness and efficiency position (e.g. by developing appropriate cost benchmarking analysis).
Supporting internal and external colleagues in developing and managing approaches to maintenance and renewal of assets.
Developing and embedding processes for continuously monitoring and improving major project delivery, including, but not limited to, areas such as cost and schedule efficiency at various lifecycle stages.
Actively building IEE’s and DfT’s wider capability in better understanding the cost and schedule implications of project options early in the project lifecycle.
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.
You will be responsible for both scrutinising and developing cross-cutting evidence for major project policy and sponsor teams on cost and engineering themes (e.g. benchmarking, cost and risk analysis, value engineering etc.), ensuring crucial technical evidence is embedded into the Department’s investment decision process. This will require working closely with Senior Civil Servants, internal colleagues across the Department, and key external stakeholders in other Government departments and Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs), including HS2 Ltd., East West Railway Co., National Highways, Network Rail and others.
Your responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:
Using your engineering skills and experience to proactively challenge design specifications and assumptions, ensuring a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ approach is adopted where appropriate, providing critical client intelligence to senior decision makers.
Examining technical evidence supplied by ALBs as advice to Government and leading on the drafting of briefings and papers to senior leaders, investment boards (including DfT Investment Committee) and ministers.
Working alongside technical, sponsor, and analytical colleagues to scrutinise emerging cost estimates to advise major project sponsor teams on their robustness and efficiency position (e.g. by developing appropriate cost benchmarking analysis).
Supporting internal and external colleagues in developing and managing approaches to maintenance and renewal of assets.
Developing and embedding processes for continuously monitoring and improving major project delivery, including, but not limited to, areas such as cost and schedule efficiency at various lifecycle stages.
Actively building IEE’s and DfT’s wider capability in better understanding the cost and schedule implications of project options early in the project lifecycle.
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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