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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Level Transport Consulting Engineer

💰 $ - $

TransportConsultingEngineering

🎯 Role Definition

The Level Transport Consulting Engineer is a client-facing technical specialist responsible for delivering multi-modal transport planning, traffic engineering and infrastructure advisory services. This role combines hands-on transport modelling, evidence-based appraisal, design review, and stakeholder engagement to support highways, public transport, active travel and development-planning projects. The successful candidate will produce high-quality technical outputs, lead technical workstreams, support proposals and grow client relationships while ensuring programmes are delivered on time, on budget and to contractual standards.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Graduate Transport Planner / Trainee Traffic Engineer
  • Civil Engineer with transport interest
  • GIS Analyst or Data Analyst in transport

Advancement To:

  • Senior Transport Consulting Engineer
  • Technical Lead – Transport Modelling
  • Principal Consultant / Associate Director

Lateral Moves:

  • Highway Design Engineer
  • Transport Data Scientist / Analytics Lead
  • Infrastructure Project Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead and deliver transport planning and traffic engineering workstreams for the full project lifecycle, including briefs, data collection, modelling, appraisal, design input and final reporting for highways, local authority and development clients.
  • Prepare, execute and document multi-modal transport models (macrosimulation and microsimulation) using tools such as VISSIM, VISUM, Aimsun, SATURN, or PTV Nexus, ensuring calibration, validation and sensitivity testing meet industry standards.
  • Design and assess highway junctions, roundabouts and signal-controlled intersections using Junctions, ARCADY, PICADY, LINSIG or equivalent packages, and prepare mitigation options with cost, safety and deliverability assessments.
  • Produce and critically review transport assessments (TAs), travel plans, highway impact statements and transport statements for planning applications, ensuring compliance with national planning policy and local authority guidance.
  • Develop demand forecasting and traffic assignment inputs (four-stage modelling, matrix estimation, gravity models) and integrate outputs into strategic and local modelling frameworks for project appraisal and business case development.
  • Conduct capacity and queuing analysis, peak/off-peak modelling, and intersection performance evaluations to quantify delay, queue lengths and operational performance using robust evidence and sensitivity analysis.
  • Deliver public transport modelling and operational assessments, including timetabling, route performance, interchange design and passenger flow analysis, and produce recommendations for service optimisation.
  • Undertake active travel assessments (walking and cycling audits), design advisory notes, and network-level analyses that support sustainable and inclusive transport outcomes, including micro- and macro-level safety audits.
  • Prepare Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), cost–benefit analysis and value-for-money assessments for business cases (e.g., local authority bids, DfT funding submissions), including appraisal of carbon and wider socioeconomic impacts.
  • Lead technical quality assurance, peer reviews and verification of third-party modelling deliverables to ensure compliance with client briefs, industry best practice and model documentation requirements.
  • Develop clear, client-facing technical reports, executive summaries, visualisations and presentation materials that translate complex model outputs into actionable recommendations for planners, engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Manage client relationships and act as the day-to-day point of contact for project sponsors, local authorities and developers, providing expert advice, negotiating scope change and delivering value-added insights.
  • Produce and respond to planning and highway authority consultation comments, attend planning committee meetings and public consultations, and represent the client at stakeholder and multi-disciplinary design workshops.
  • Prepare and submit technical proposals, costed scopes of work, method statements and resource plans for transport consultancy bids and ensure timely post-award mobilisation and delivery.
  • Coordinate multi-disciplinary inputs (civil, drainage, environmental, land-use planners) into transport solutions, ensuring integrated outcomes and timely resolution of technical interface issues.
  • Supervise and mentor junior engineers and transport graduates, provide technical training, review deliverables and support career development and skills uplift across the team.
  • Implement and maintain data collection programmes (traffic counts, automatic traffic counters, travel surveys, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi OD profiling) and commission external surveys when required to underpin robust modelling and appraisal.
  • Use GIS (ArcGIS/QGIS) and CAD tools (AutoCAD, MicroStation) to create plan production, network datasets and mapping deliverables for planning submissions, design packages and stakeholder communications.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of transport policy, guidance and standards (e.g., DMRB, WebTAG, Manual for Streets, local authority guidance) and proactively incorporate regulatory changes into project practices.
  • Evaluate emerging technologies and data sources (mobile phone/telemetry data, automatic number plate recognition, smart ticketing data) to enhance modelling accuracy and client insight.
  • Prepare technical input for procurement documents and contract management, including scope of works for model development, subcontractor briefings and deliverable acceptance criteria.
  • Coordinate safety audits and produce Road Safety Audits (stage 1–3) in collaboration with design teams, identifying design risks and practical mitigation measures ahead of construction.
  • Lead post-implementation monitoring and evaluation studies, compare modelled forecasts to observed outcomes, and produce lessons-learned reports that feed into continuous improvement of modelling practice and client decision-making.
  • Ensure projects adhere to corporate quality standards, BIM processes where applicable, risk registers, and budget controls while escalating issues and proposing corrective actions to senior management.

Secondary Functions

  • Support business development by preparing tender documents, technical appendices and proposal content that showcase transport modelling capability, successful case studies and commercial understanding.
  • Assist in marketing and thought leadership activities such as writing technical articles, delivering webinars, and contributing to industry groups to raise the consultancy’s profile in transport engineering and planning.
  • Provide input into resource planning, help allocate team members to projects, and maintain utilisation and capacity forecasts to optimise delivery across the practice.
  • Contribute to internal process improvement initiatives—standardising model build templates, model documentation checklists and quality assurance procedures to increase efficiency and repeatability.
  • Support client bids for funding through evidence synthesis, development of outputs for economic appraisal and preparation of supporting technical annexes required by funding bodies.
  • Participate in stakeholder and community engagement events to present technical findings in accessible formats and capture local knowledge that informs design solutions.
  • Maintain and update internal model libraries, script repositories (Python/R) and GIS datasets so the team can reuse validated components for faster project starts.
  • Assist procurement and supplier evaluation for specialist services such as traffic survey contractors, microsimulation model calibrators and independent peer reviewers.
  • Provide QA and editorial support for technical outputs to ensure consistency of language, clarity of recommendations and compliance with client branding and template requirements.
  • Act as a technical reviewer on cross-practice innovation projects involving data science, digital twins and smart city deployments to align transport modelling with organisational innovation goals.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Transport modelling: strong practical experience building, calibrating and validating microsimulation and strategic models using PTV VISSIM, PTV VISUM, Aimsun, SATURN or similar tools.
  • Traffic engineering: junction design and analysis using LINSIG, ARCADY, PICADY, Junctions or industry-equivalent software and hands-on experience with capacity / queuing assessment.
  • Highway design awareness: understanding of geometric design principles, DMRB standards, and the ability to provide constructible mitigation measures with engineers.
  • Multimodal appraisal: experience preparing WebTAG-compliant appraisals, benefit–cost analysis, and transport economic assessments.
  • Data analytics: proficiency with data manipulation and analysis in Python, R or MATLAB, and experience handling large mobility datasets (Bluetooth, ANPR, mobile, smartcard).
  • GIS and CAD: advanced use of ArcGIS/QGIS and AutoCAD/MicroStation for network preparation, mapping and drawing production.
  • Survey design and data collection: specification, procurement and QC of traffic surveys, turning counts, pedestrian/cyclist counts and public transport patronage surveys.
  • Programming and automation: scripting model workflows and data pipelines (Python, SQL), automating repetitive modelling tasks and producing reproducible workflows.
  • Public transport operations: modelling route performance, interchange design, stop spacing and timetable integration for bus/tram/metro systems.
  • Road safety assessment: competence in conducting Road Safety Audits, collision data analysis and delivering practical mitigation strategies.
  • Project and contract management: experience managing budgets, deliverables, change control, subcontractors and client expectations on medium-complexity projects.
  • Reporting and visualisation: producing high-quality technical reports, PowerPoint presentations and model visualisations to support decision-making and public consultation.
  • Familiarity with national policy and guidance: e.g., WebTAG, Manual for Streets, local transport plans, DfT appraisal routes and funding mechanisms.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent client-facing communication and presentation skills; able to translate complex technical analysis into clear, persuasive recommendations for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strong stakeholder management and negotiation skills with local authorities, developers and statutory consultees.
  • Proven leadership and people-management capability, including mentoring and developing junior staff and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams.
  • Analytical problem-solving mindset, with careful attention to data quality, assumptions and scenario testing to ensure robust outputs.
  • Time management and prioritisation skills to manage concurrent projects, tight planning deadlines and dynamic client requirements.
  • Commercial awareness to scope work efficiently, manage budgets and identify opportunities to grow client relationships.
  • Collaborative team player who contributes positively to firm culture, knowledge sharing and cross-office delivery.
  • Adaptability and resilience in fast-moving project environments with changing technical and political constraints.
  • Strong written English with meticulous attention to technical grammar, report structure and compliance with client templates.
  • Curiosity and continuous learning mindset to adopt new modelling tools, data sources and policy developments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Transport Planning, Transport Engineering, or a related discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Transport Planning / Transport Engineering / MSc Sustainable Transport or equivalent postgraduate qualification.
  • Chartered status or working toward chartership (e.g., CEng, MICE, CIHT) is advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Transport Engineering
  • Transport Planning
  • Civil Engineering
  • Urban Planning
  • Data Science / GIS

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3 – 10 years in transport consultancy, local authority or transport operator roles.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years delivering consultancy projects across highway and multimodal transport schemes, with demonstrable experience in transport modelling, design input and client management.
  • Proven track record preparing planning submissions, funding bids and technical appraisals that have gained regulatory or funding approvals.
  • Experience working with local highway authorities, transport operators and national funding bodies, with a portfolio of published reports or case studies.

If you would like this tailored to a specific level (Graduate / Intermediate / Senior / Principal) or region (UK / EU / US / Australia) I can adjust responsibilities, tools and salary banding accordingly.

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