Victoria Higgin joined Highways England as CIO in September 2019, bringing more than 13 years of experience at National Grid. Her remit joined business IT with the roadside technology and 24/7 control-room systems behind England’s strategic road network. The Digital Roads agenda she championed was about using data, connectivity and technology to improve how roads are designed, built, operated and used—not simply modernising office IT.
Who is Victoria Higgin?
Higgin’s career at National Grid crossed both technology and business roles, including project management, business relationship management, testing, customer service, process excellence and IT transformation. That mix informed her approach at Highways England: technology teams needed to understand operational needs and work as business partners, rather than act only as service providers.
She also had a public-service and STEM focus. In a 2014–2015 six-month secondment to EngineeringUK, she helped establish the Tomorrow’s Engineers programme. She later spoke about wanting to encourage young people—particularly girls and women—to consider technology-related subjects.
What did a CIO at Highways England do?
The job spanned more than corporate systems. Higgin was responsible for business IT, roadside operational technology and the technology used in control rooms operating around the clock. Those systems supported the strategic road network, where technology failures can affect traffic operations and public safety as well as staff productivity.
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In a 2021 interview, Computer Weekly described her as Highways England’s chief digital and information officer and reported a 277-person digital-services team. Her role connected three broad areas: managing road assets and safety, operating traffic-management technology, and providing digital services to customers.
That breadth helps explain why she put service continuity ahead of ambitious transformation. In a 2021 CIO interview, she said, “What you have to do is make sure the business can operate. That’s your license and your credibility. Because if the basics don’t work, then nobody’s ever going to trust you around the strategic work.”
What did “Digital Roads” mean?
Higgin described Digital Roads as “using digital connectivity, data and technology to improve the way the network is designed, built, operated and used.” The goal was to make the road network more responsive and useful, while improving capacity, construction methods and value for taxpayers.
Rank #2
- Book - textbook of highway engineering
- Language: english
- Binding: paperback
Highways England’s May 2021 Digital Delivery paper, signed by Higgin as CIO and Executive Director of Information and Technology, organised the delivery approach around three aims:
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- Transform services: change how asset management, operations, customer and corporate functions work.
- Enable people: give staff access to data and secure technology.
- Improve delivery: make digital, data and technology work more efficient, flexible and streamlined.
In practical terms, the vision included repeatable digital design and construction methods, digital communications for customers, and more reliable information to help people plan journeys. It also looked toward connected and, eventually, autonomous vehicles, alongside ways to optimise road use and make traffic-flow decisions using data.
How was technology intended to change road operations?
Asset management and safety
Roadside equipment generates information that can help operators understand the condition of assets and plan maintenance. Higgin identified predictive analytics for roadside-asset maintenance as a possible use of AI. The potential benefit is better-informed maintenance planning; the interview described this as an opportunity, not as proof that a particular AI system had been deployed.
Traffic management and incident response
Real-time data and roadside technology could help control rooms manage traffic, roadworks and incidents. Higgin also discussed exploring in-vehicle signage and exchanging data with vehicle manufacturers, as well as sharing information more widely with local authorities and transport organisations.
Her 2021 technical interview described digital-twin simulations as a way to plan and rehearse major motorway works. Such simulations can help teams consider how a project may affect the network before carrying it out; the interview did not establish a measured outcome or claim that every major scheme used a digital twin.
Customer services and reusable technology
Digital channels and dependable customer data were part of the plan to make journeys easier to understand and road use more efficient. Underpinning these services was an architecture intended to let teams create or improve services by reusing existing ones. Higgin’s stated aims were to reduce complexity, increase standardisation and make technology stacks more automated, orchestrated and flexible.
AI with safeguards
Higgin pointed to control-room assistance and predictive maintenance as possible AI applications, but stressed that ethical questions needed attention before deployment. That meant considering bias and the effects on customers and employees, rather than treating technical capability as sufficient justification for using a system.
What scale of investment and organisation did the work involve?
The following figures were reported at the time and describe Highways England’s position in 2020 or 2021. They are historical, not current 2026 figures.
| Figure | What it described | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| £27.4 billion | Strategic-road-network investment for 2020–2025 | Highways England, as reported by Computer Weekly in 2021 |
| £1.5 billion | Information and Technology Commercial Framework | Highways England, as reported by Computer Weekly in 2021 |
| £500 million | Operational Technology Commercial Framework | Highways England, as reported by Computer Weekly in 2021 |
| 277 people | Digital-services team | Highways England, as reported by Computer Weekly in 2021 |
| 6,000 people; about 4,000 working from home | Workforce and remote-working account during the first COVID-19 lockdown | Highways England interview account, 2020 |
The two commercial frameworks were procurement arrangements for organisational technology, not consumer products. Their reported values should not be read as annual spending or as the cost of a single Digital Roads project.
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How did Highways England maintain services during lockdown?
In her May 2020 CIO UK interview, Higgin said continuity preparation had enabled office staff to work remotely during the first COVID-19 lockdown. A 24/7/365 call centre also operated from home, with staff supplied with phones and laptops. Operational traffic officers were among those whose work could not simply move to a home office.
The episode illustrates the distinction between transformation and resilience in a safety-critical organisation. Remote access and equipment mattered because core services still had to function while normal working arrangements changed.
How did Higgin approach teams and capability?
Higgin described changing the technology function from an “order taker” into a business partner, including renaming IT as digital services and adding business-partnership capability. She also emphasised building expertise inside the organisation through recruitment, a Digital Academy, graduate and apprentice pathways, and stronger skills in enterprise architecture, data science and cyber security.
Her stated motivation was tied to public purpose. In a contemporaneous BAE Systems interview, she said that working with people with “a sense of duty to the UK” mattered to her, distinguishing that motivation from work driven primarily by making money. For a roads operator, this sense of duty sat alongside the practical need to keep services reliable and protect the network.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat happened after Highways England?
By December 2021, Highways England had been renamed National Highways, and Higgin was described as its chief digital and information officer. The expanded remit covered information and operational technology, roadside maintenance, delivery, service operations and business partnership.
A later CIO appointments roundup reported that she left National Highways after three years to take a CDIO and executive role at CityFibre. That is the latest career move established by the cited coverage; her employer and title in 2026 are unverified.
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