Chief Engineer & Technical Officer – GTR

Women in Rail; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Women in Rail invites applications for a senior leadership appointment as Chief Engineer and Technical Director/Officer. You will steer engineering, fleet, asset management, maintenance, renewals and infrastructure across one of the UK's largest railway operations, shaping an integrated approach for a safer, more reliable and high-performing network.

Reporting to the Managing Director and as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, you will drive professional engineering leadership, ensuring

Job description

Shape the future of rail by leading engineering and infrastructure across one of the UK's largest and most complex railway operations.

This is a significant executive leadership opportunity at a pivotal moment for the industry on the largest railway in the UK, with an unrivalled growth agenda. You will have one million reasons to deliver outstanding outcomes because that is how many customers are carried on the network’s busiest days.

As Chief Engineer and Technical Director/Officer, you will lead the engineering, fleet, asset management, maintenance, renewals and infrastructure agenda across an integrated business, bringing together track and train to deliver a safer, more reliable and better-performing railway for customers.

Reporting directly to the Managing Director and operating as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, you will provide professional engineering and asset management leadership across the organisation. You will be accountable for ensuring fleet and infrastructure assets are safe, sustainable and capable of supporting both today’s operational railway and its future development.

Working across GTR and Network Rail, you will help shape a genuinely integrated approach to engineering and asset management, improving performance, enabling better whole-system decision-making and preparing the organisation for the transition towards Great British Railways.

What you’ll be doing

This is a broad and highly influential role, combining executive leadership with professional engineering accountability and the delivery of complex engineering and asset strategies.

You will:

• Set and lead the integrated engineering, maintenance, renewals and enhancements strategy, working across GTR and Network Rail to optimise outcomes across track and train.
• Provide executive leadership for Fleet Engineering, Asset Management and Infrastructure, ensuring plans support safety, operational performance, customer outcomes and long-term business objectives.
• Influence asset plans and delivery across other Integrated Business Units to secure the best outcomes for customers.
• Provide Level 1 assurance for asset safety, integrity and sustainability, maintaining strong engineering governance and technical compliance.
• Lead the planning and delivery of day-to-day maintenance and overhaul activity across railway infrastructure and fleet.
• Coordinate medium and long-term asset management planning, ensuring investment and renewals decisions reflect future operational requirements.
• Lead and inspire teams to put safety first, promoting engineering excellence and strong environmental performance across all areas of responsibility.
• Drive improvements in fleet availability, maintenance, operational performance and train presentation, ensuring the railway consistently delivers for its customers.
• Lead major fleet and engineering programmes, including refurbishment, maintenance arrangements and the introduction of new products and technologies.
• Work closely with GTR Renewals Enterprise to ensure renewals are delivered against the integrated business strategy and agreed targets.
• Develop innovative approaches to engineering and asset management, identifying opportunities to improve performance, efficiency and value.
• Build strong relationships with customers, regulators, suppliers, industry partners and senior leaders across GTR and Network Rail.
• Lead continuous improvement across the directorate, embedding learning from incidents and developments across the wider industry.
• Develop engineering capability across the organisation and lead the transformation of engineering and infrastructure management in readiness for the future railway.

About you

The successful candidate will be an accomplished engineering and asset leader with experience operating at significant scale within a complex, safety-critical and highly regulated environment.

You will bring substantial senior leadership experience across engineering, fleet, asset management, maintenance, renewals or infrastructure, together with the professional credibility to provide assurance and leadership on complex engineering matters.

You will also bring:

• Chartered Engineer (CEng) status or equivalent professional experience.
• Significant experience leading large engineering, fleet, maintenance, renewals or infrastructure organisations.
• Strong knowledge of asset management, engineering assurance, maintenance delivery and infrastructure performance.
• Experience successfully delivering major engineering, fleet, maintenance, renewals or enhancement programmes.
• A deep understanding of safety management, risk, change management and regulatory compliance within highly regulated environments.
• A strong track record of leading, developing and inspiring large multidisciplinary teams through organisational and cultural change.
• The ability to influence and support strategic decision-making at Executive level.
• Excellent stakeholder management, negotiation and communication skills, with credibility across regulators, suppliers, industry partners and senior leaders.
• Strong commercial judgement and experience managing budgets, contracts and supplier relationships.
• Experience within rail would be highly advantageous, as would experience working within an integrated, partnership-based or complex matrix environment.

The opportunity

Bringing track and train closer together enables the railway to be managed differently, looking beyond organisational boundaries and focusing on the performance of the whole system.

As Chief Engineer and Technical Director/Officer, you will play a central role in making that ambition a reality by bringing together fleet and infrastructure thinking, strengthening engineering assurance, improving reliability and creating an asset strategy capable of supporting the railway of the future.

You will join the Executive Leadership Team with the opportunity to influence not only how the railway performs today, but also how engineering and asset management evolves as the industry moves towards greater integration and Great British Railways.

If you are an exceptional asset leader who can combine professional authority with collaborative executive leadership and a focus on safety, performance and customers, this is a unique opportunity to shape the future of one of the UK’s most important rail networks.