Chief Technical Officer

High Speed Two (HS2)

Greater London

On-site

GBP 180,000 - 260,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

High Speed 2 (HS2) seeks a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) to define and assure the technical integrity of the HS2 railway. The CTO will set the technical strategy, requirements, specifications and standards to deliver the railway in line with government expectations.

The role acts as Technical Authority, ensuring consistency, compliance and integration across environment, design and consents, while overseeing safety, environmental minimum requirements and delivery quality.

Qualifications

Chartered Engineer with civil engineering background and professional registration.
Significant senior leadership experience in major infrastructure or rail programmes.
Proven ability to define technical strategy, standards and assurance frameworks.
Experience working with government, regulators and supply chains.

Responsibilities

Define the technical strategy, requirements, and specifications aligned to DfT guidance and sponsor expectations.
Establish and maintain technical requirements standards across sponsors to contracts.
Ensure consistency and integration of technical decisions across the programme.
Oversee railway level performance and capability modelling.
Act as Technical Authority implementing standards across environment, design and consents.
Oversee technical assurance and safety processes for delivery and operation.
Lead resolution of complex technical issues across interfaces and disciplines.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Systems thinking

Stakeholder engagement

Risk-based decision making

Clear communication

Multidisciplinary teams

Education

Chartered Engineer (CEng) UK

Senior technical leadership experience

Experience setting technical strategy & standards

Experience with government/regulators

Job description

Location: London or Birmingham The role requires a minimum of three days per week office attendance.

The Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is accountable for defining and assuring the technical integrity of the HS2 railway. The role sets the technical strategy, requirements, specifications, and standards required to enable delivery into service in line with government expectations.

Acting as the Technical Authority, the CTO ensures consistency, compliance, and integration across all technical disciplines, including environment, design, and consents, enabling delivery of HS2 in a cost-effective and timely manner. The role also acts as the Nominated Undertaker, ensuring compliant delivery against Environmental Minimum Requirements during construction and enabling the railway to be brought safely into use.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

About the role:

Technical Strategy and Standards

Act as the guiding mind for technical delivery of the railway, defining the technical strategy, requirements, and specifications aligned to DfT guidance and sponsor expectations, and oversee the development of evidence demonstrating the delivery of railway requirements.
Establish and maintain technical requirements standards for the railway and supply chain from sponsors requirements to contract level.
Ensure consistency, integrity, and alignment of technical decisions across the programme.
Oversee railway level performance, including ownership of capability modelling.
Act as Technical Authority, responsible for implementing strategies, standards, and specifications across environment, design, and consents.

Delivery Assurance and Integration

Oversee technical assurance and quality to ensure the railway is deliverable, integrated, and operationally ready.
Oversee the safety assurance and authorisations process to successfully operate and maintain the railway.
Act as the Nominated Undertaker, ensuring delivery complies with Environmental Minimum Requirements during construction.
Guide the application of standards and specifications across design, construction, and commissioning.
Lead resolution of complex technical issues, including interfaces across systems and assets.
Ensure integration across disciplines to deliver a fully functioning, safe, operable railway system that meet end-state requirements.

Programme and Supply Chain Alignment

Embed technical requirements within contracts and across the supply chain.
Work with delivery, engineering, and programme teams to ensure alignment between technical and delivery outcomes.
Ensure coordinated delivery across all technical and engineering disciplines.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Ensure compliance with sponsor requirements, technical regulations, and industry standards.
Act as the Nominated Undertaker, ensuring delivery complies with Environmental Minimum Requirements during construction.
Guide the application of standards and specifications across design, construction, and commissioning.
Lead resolution of complex technical issues, including interfaces across systems and assets.
Ensure integration across disciplines to deliver a fully functioning, safe, operable railway system that meet end-state requirements.

Leadership and Capability

Provide leadership and direction to technical and engineering communities across HS2.
Build technical capability and promote best practice across the organisation and supply chain.
Champion continuous improvement, safety, and innovation in technical delivery.

About you:

Skills:

Strategic technical leadership across large, complex programmes.
Strong systems thinking and integration capability.
Influential stakeholder engagement across government, regulators, and delivery partners.
Ability to resolve complex technical challenges and make risk-based decisions.
Clear communication of technical concepts to senior stakeholders.
Leadership of multi-disciplinary engineering and technical teams.

Knowledge:

Engineering, technical standards, and systems integration for major rail or infrastructure programmes.
Regulatory and sponsor requirements, including DfT guidance.
Environmental, design, and consents frameworks, including Environmental Minimum Requirements.
Technical assurance, governance, and risk management practices.
Infrastructure delivery lifecycle from design through to commissioning and operations.

Type of experience:

Chartered Engineer (CEng) UK / equivalent appropriate professional institution with significant experience in Civil Engineering.
Significant senior technical leadership experience in major infrastructure or rail programmes.
Experience setting technical strategy, standards, and assurance frameworks.
Experience working with government, regulators, and supply chains.
Demonstrated leadership of large engineering and technical communities.

The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity and Respect. It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

We ask for a variety of detail in your online application, however we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review. This removes bias from the process and makes it even more important that you attach an updated word version of your CV for each new application ensuring you include evidence directly related to the criteria in the job advert. Watch this video on how we remove bias in the recruitment process:Removing bias in the recruitment process - YouTube

Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

About Us

High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK’s new high speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain’s major population centres, boost the economy and create thousands of jobs.

HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff - living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity and Leadership.

In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our ‘Safe at Heart’ programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential.

Job Info