Customer Experience Strategy and Governance Manager

Abellio East Midlands Ltd.; East Midlands; On-site; GBP 66,000 - 74,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading rail company in the UK is seeking a Customer Experience Strategy and Governance Manager. This pivotal role involves driving customer experience strategy, establishing governance frameworks, and managing complex stakeholder relationships. The ideal candidate will possess significant experience in customer strategy and governance within regulated environments and have superior project management skills. This role offers a competitive salary and an opportunity to shape how customer experience is delivered across the network.

Benefits

First Class Duty Travel

Free Leisure Travel with EMR

Discounted travel with other train operators and Eurostar

Qualifications

• Experience in continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma) is desirable.
• Significant experience in customer strategy or related roles in regulated environments.
• Strong project management and performance tracking capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Drive the Customer Experience Directorate Strategy and governance.
• Oversee strategic programmes and workstreams coordination.
• Establish effective governance frameworks aligned with PMO standards.
• Design real-time performance dashboards for decision making.
• Manage internal and external stakeholder relationships.

Skills

Customer strategy

Governance expertise

Programme management

Stakeholder management

Data visualization

Education

Degree-level qualification or equivalent relevant experience

Job description

Customer Experience Strategy and Governance Manager

Customer Experience (CSC)

Location: Derby - Head Office

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: £66,000.00 - £74,000.00 depending on experience

First Class Duty Travel, Free Leisure Travel with EMR and discounted travel with other train operators and Eurostar

Closing Date: Sunday 18 January 2026

Interview Date: To be confirmed

Reference: 2026-CXSGM

We are proud to be One Team at East Midlands Railway (EMR). We are passionate about keeping people safe, delighting our customers, doing the right thing, and putting customers at the heart of our sustainable railway for the East Midlands. With over 2,600 employees, our people are the reason we are so successful, and our Customer Experience team plays a crucial role in shaping how passengers experience our network every day.

Nine times accredited as a Top Employer and Gold accredited for Inclusive Employers Standards, we value our people and are committed to creating an environment where everyone feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work.

Are you a strategic thinker with strong governance expertise and a passion for improving customer experience in a complex, regulated environment?

We have an exciting opportunity to join East Midlands Railway as a Customer Experience Strategy & Governance Manager, a pivotal role supporting the Customer Experience Director to deliver a safe, reliable and industry-leading customer experience across our network.

What You'll Be Doing

As the Customer Experience Strategy & Governance Manager, you will act as a strategic partner, operational integrator and programme leader for the Customer Experience Directorate. You'll ensure priorities are clearly defined, governance is robust, and delivery is aligned with business objectives, regulatory commitments and customer outcomes.

• Own and drive the Customer Experience Directorate Strategy, ensuring alignment with wider business goals and regulatory requirements, supported by clear plans, milestones, KPIs and governed reporting of progress, risks and opportunities.
• Coordinate and lead the development and delivery of strategic programmes and workstreams across the CX function, acting as a central point of integration between functional teams, other EMR directorates and industry forums.
• Establish and maintain effective governance frameworks, aligned to EMR's PMO standards, providing clear oversight, assurance and control of strategic and operational activity.
• Design and oversee real-time performance dashboards, bringing together daily, weekly, periodic and year‑to‑date performance data to support data‑led decision making and proactive management of trends.
• Use CX, business and industry data to define, oversee and challenge performance reporting, ensuring insight drives action and continuous improvement.
• Manage key internal and external stakeholder relationships, including cross‑directorate colleagues, DfT and contractual governance partners, ensuring engagement is effective, compliant, reputationally safe and operationally deliverable.
• Prepare high‑quality briefing materials, board papers, decision papers and regulatory submissions for EMR's Executive Team, Board, Group and external stakeholders.
• Support the Annual Business Planning process for the Customer Experience Directorate, including coordination of budgeting, resource prioritisation and strategic planning.
• Coordinate CX Leadership Team meetings, including agenda setting, preparation of papers, follow‑up actions and strategic reviews.
• Champion continuous improvement, leading end‑to‑end process reviews, audits, lessons‑learned activity and the exploration of digital innovation.
• Support the Performance Based Fee Scorecard pipeline and governance process, attending Periodic Scorecard and QTM meetings alongside the Head of Customer Experience.
• Actively support EMR's Sustainability commitments, embedding sustainable thinking into decision‑making and ways of working.

This is a highly visible role that blends strategy, governance, performance insight and stakeholder influence, enabling the Customer Experience Director to focus on senior leadership, engagement and long‑term transformation of end‑to‑end passenger journeys.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for a confident, credible professional who can operate comfortably at senior level while maintaining a strong focus on delivery and detail. You'll bring:

• A degree‑level qualification or equivalent relevant experience. Experience in continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, systems thinking) and/or APM or equivalent project management qualifications is desirable.
• Significant experience in customer strategy, governance, compliance or related roles, ideally within a complex or regulated environment.
• Strong programme and portfolio management skills, with a proven ability to drive complex, cross‑functional initiatives.
• Excellent project management, reporting and performance tracking capability.
• Exceptional communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to review, challenge and support Heads of Department on process, governance and ways of working.
• High attention to detail, with the ability to produce a wide range of high‑quality outputs for internal and external audiences.
• Proven experience establishing and managing compliance and governance systems.
• Experience supporting or advising senior leaders and executive teams.
• Well‑developed data visualisation and presentation skills, with the ability to turn complex information into clear, actionable insight.

You'll need to be comfortable working at pace, managing ambiguity and balancing strategic thinking with operational reality. We're looking for someone with strong judgement, collaboration and a customer‑first mindset.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to play a central, strategic role in shaping how customer experience is planned, governed and delivered at East Midlands Railway.

As we operate a blind screening process, please remove your name and personal details from your CV (including name, age, location, gender and date of birth).