Rail Services Lead

Major improvements are being delivered by DFTO train operators (TOCs) that are already under public ownership - these are LNER, Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE), Southeastern, South Western Railway (SWR), c2c, Greater Anglia and WM Trains. We work closely with the DfT but operate independently with our own governance and leadership teams. Our priority is ensuring efficient, dependable rail services for everyone. Primary Purpose of Job: This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the Rail Services Teams who sit within Rail Services Group which is responsible for ensuring the successful development and the day-to-day management ofrailway contracts to enable improvements in operational performance and reductions in subsidy. Key Deliverables:

• You will work collaboratively with the Train Operator as our delivery partner, so that they operate their contract in the interest of passengers, ensuring that they meet their suite of obligations and are supported and challenged to deliver agreed outcomes.
• You may be required to work flexibly in future across teams managing other Train Operating Companies.
• The role is high-profile and fast-moving and will require a blend of strategic stakeholder
• management, commercial, project management and leadership skills., You will be responsible for:
• Working with senior level executives of in the Train Operator, including on the Annual Business Plan, performance target setting negotiations, subsidy reduction and contract management.
• Advising internal stakeholders and also external stakeholders in DfT including Ministers and other DfT senior leaders including providing material to the correspondence teams, sometimes within challenging timescales.
• Managing the contract/agreement and having a clear understanding of the key levers that can be used to maximise passenger benefits while minimising risk to the taxpayer.
• Developing relationships and working collaboratively with NR and other Train Operating Companies.
• Effective use of management information to challenge and support the operator highlighting key trends and issues using data and putting in place improvement plans when necessary.
• Taking the lead on identifying and driving forward solutions, supported by analysis of a range of credible options, to overcome problems. This could include leadership of specific projects such as on rolling stock or cross-cutting issues.
• Management responsibility of a team as well as organising, reporting and planning information and their workloads.
• Covering for and assisting the Senior Rail Services Lead, on the development, resilience and recruitment for the wider team, or across regional teams, to improve the overall effectiveness and productivity. For Train Operators on National Rail Contracts.
• Lead/ Contribute to the twice-yearly Performance Based Fee process, including scorecard assessment and Quantified Target Measures (QTM) monitoring.
• Build knowledge, and play a key role in the transition to the new public ownership Services Agreement, including working closely with the Public Ownership Transition (POTP) team.
• Using commercial expertise to support effective wind down of National Rail Contracts, working collaboratively with Public Ownership Transition teams.
  
  The ability to build and establish collaborative commercial relationships with multiple stakeholders at Board level.
• Experience of solving complex commercial problems in a fast paced and high-profile environment.
• An understanding of market and change in commercial drivers and the ability to develop strategies to exploit these, considering financial, legal and commercial implications.
• A high degree of personal resilience, with the ability to work under pressure and maintain your performance levels under challenging circumstances.
• Be able to demonstrate or quickly build understanding of strategic relationship management including contract management processes.
• You will also be required to complete the Contract Management Capability Programme (CMCP) and achieve the accreditation at Foundation level, once in the role.
  
  DFTO is the government's public sector rail owning group. Its purpose is to bring all currently privately-owned train operators into public ownership in advance of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027 - and deliver improvements in the here and now by unifying and integrating train operations under common public ownership.
DFTO has over 30,000 employees, runs over 8,500 services a day and delivers over 640 million customer journeys across its networks every year. 7,000 people joined the railway family in the last year