Driver Area Manager

East Midlands Trains; East Midlands; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading rail company is seeking an experienced Driver Area Manager to lead Driver Operations across Intercity depots at Derby, Kettering, and London St Pancras. This critical role involves ensuring safety standards, driving performance, and managing teams while influencing a positive operational culture. Candidates should demonstrate strong leadership skills and extensive railway knowledge, along with a safety-critical background. The position offers a competitive salary and various employee benefits, ensuring impactful operational leadership.

Benefits

Defined benefit pension scheme

32 days holiday, rising to 34

Flexible working hours

Free First Class duty travel

75% discount on national leisure travel

Various training opportunities

Qualifications

• Experience in a safety-critical or highly regulated environment.
• Proven leadership capabilities and ability to engage with teams.
• Sound judgement and understanding of operational impacts.

Responsibilities

• Lead all aspects of Driver Operations across Intercity depots.
• Ensure compliance with health & safety legislation.
• Manage budgetary accountability for driver operations.

Skills

Operational leadership

Crisis management

Interpersonal skills

Financial management

Technical knowledge of railway operations

Data-driven approach

Job description

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. Ten times accredited as a Top Employer, we value our people and are dedicated to making sure that everybody feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work.

At EMR we want to proactively embrace diversity across our workforce and recognise that we are under-represented in terms of females and ethnic minority groups. We’re therefore taking positive steps to promote a positive and inclusive culture; we welcome applications from those that identify with these groups to better represent our communities.

We’re looking for an experienced and values-led Driver Area Manager to lead Driver Operations across our Intercity depots at Derby, Kettering and London St Pancras.

This is a senior, safety-critical leadership role with accountability for driver performance, safety standards, employee engagement and service delivery. You’ would play a key part in ensuring a safe, punctual and customer-focused railway, while delivering against productivity, financial and workforce targets.

If you are an operational leader with a Train Drivers License, strong people skills, sound judgement and deep railway knowledge, and experience of Train Driving this is a chance to make a real impact at the heart of our Intercity operation.

As Driver Area Manager, you will:

• Lead all aspects of Driver Operations across Intercity depots, ensuring the highest standards of safety, performance and professionalism
• Drive driver availability and establishment delivery to support consistent service and maximise optimisation and efficiency
• Lead and oversee operational investigations, safety standards issues, discipline, grievance and welfare matters
• Act as the local liaison for Driver Local Delivery/Consultation arrangements, working within the agreements
• Produce and authorise Depot Local Policies and Emergency Plans
• Ensure full compliance with health & safety legislation, fire regulations and safety management systems
• Maintain high standards of operational excellence through strong, visible leadership
• Build effective working relationships with Operations, Fleet, On Train and Station teams to deliver a true “one team” approach
• Ensure Driver Managers are fully competent, assessed and compliant with rules and regulations
• Lead employee engagement activity across driver teams
• Support workforce planning and establishment modelling in partnership with the Head of Operations
• Manage budgetary accountability for Driver operations within your area
• Actively support sustainability objectives and minimise environmental impact

Key skills and Attributes for the role:

• A confident operational leader with experience in a safety-critical or highly regulated environment.
• Strong, engaging leadership and interpersonal skills
• Proven experience delivering performance, safety and people outcomes
• The ability to understand and manage financial and business KPIs
• Experience working with trade union or staff representatives at a local level
• Broad technical knowledge of railway operations, rules, regulations and traincrew procedures
• Sound judgement and the ability to understand the wider impact of operational decisions
• Experience leading and developing management teams
• Strong IT, reporting and presentation skills, with a data-driven approach

This is a senior leadership opportunity offering genuine operational influence, the chance to shape safety, performance and culture across Intercity depots, and the support of a collaborative, high-performing professional environment.

As well as a competitive salary, we’ll also offer you:

• An excellent defined benefit pension scheme
• 32 days’ holiday per year, rising to 34 after 2 years
• Flexible working hours
• Free First Class duty travel on the EMR network
• Free standard leisure travel on the EMR network and Train Operating Companies under Transport UK & LNER
• 75% discount on national leisure travel (inc partner and dependants)
• Friends and Family discounted tickets on the EMR network
• Various training opportunities
• Employee benefits portal with access to generous discounts, Cycle 2 Work Scheme …and many re!