Duty Station Manager

Great Western Railway (Gwr); Newbury; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Defi ned benefit pension

Free rail travel

Company health care plan

Discounted shopping

Gym membership

Employee assistance programme

Job summary

Great Western Railway (GWR) is seeking a Duty Station Manager for a fixed-term 12‑month contract at Newbury Station. You will lead a large customer service team, manage station operations on shift and ensure safety and quality standards across the site.

The role requires strong communication, problem solving, and the ability to adapt to a 7 day/24 hour operation. You will work to deliver exceptional service during events and upgrade works, including race and match days.

Qualifications

• Experience leading a large customer service team.
• Proven delivery of customer service initiatives.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to manage station operations and staff on shift.

Responsibilities

• Provide minute-by-minute management of the station operations and staff.
• Ensure safe and efficient operation of the station on shift.
• Maintain high standards of customer service and safety by all colleagues.
• Oversee contractors and ensure environmental, maintenance and cleaning standards.
• Monitor punctuality and provide delay information to systems.
• Foster a culture of exceptional customer service.
• Manage events at Newbury Racecourse and Reading Green Park on race/match days.

Skills

Team leadership

Customer service

Communication

Analytical thinking

Shift management

Regional knowledge

Tools

MS Word

MS Excel

Job description

Duty Station Manager (Fixed Term Contract 12 months)

Location – Newbury Station

Who are we?

GWR is the proud custodian of Brunel's railway - one of the most prestigious networks in the world. We have some of the newest trains in the country and exciting plans to extend our services. With more than one hundred million passenger journeys each year, we carry people to over 275 stations in the South West, from Cornwall and South Wales to London, passing through beautiful country and some of the UK's top tourist destinations.

We are transforming the way people think about train travel, empowering our team of over 6,000 people from all different backgrounds to make it a great experience for our customers. Together, we will revalue rail as a very special way to travel – relaxing, fast, efficient, friendly and fun.

About the Job;

The primary purpose of the role is leadership of people and management of processes to enable delivery of business excellence. The focus is on getting things done safely to deliver quality, great customer service.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Providing minute-by-minute management of the 17 Thames Valley Stations, including ticket office, concourse, customer information desks, information and customer service, gateline, train dispatch and train/station cleaning
• Accountable for the safe and efficient operation of the station on a shift basis
• Ensuring the highest levels of customer service and safety are provided by all colleagues
• Managing contractors working on the station
• Monitoring the delivery of station environmental quality, safety, maintenance, cleaning and customer service standards and performance, taking action where necessary to achieve required standards, ensuring a clear focus on attention to detail
• Working to improve punctuality and providing delay information to the appropriate systems.
• Creating a culture where customer service is recognised, and customer expectations are exceeded.
• Managing events, ensuring the safety of customers and staff at Newbury Racecourse Station and Reading Green Park Station on race days and match days.

You'll need to be:

• Able to communicate at all levels verbally and in writing
• A strong lateral thinker
• Analytical
• Able to demonstrate a flexible approach
• Adaptable as the Railway moves towards a 7 day/24 hour operation.
• Familiar and have an extensive knowledge of the Kennet and Thames Valley area

As a minimum you'll need to have:

• Experience of managing a large customer service team
• Experience of successfully creating and delivering customer service initiatives
• A successful track record of dealing with complex customer issues
• Experience of managing station operations
• Experience of delivering performance related targets
• Experience of managing delay budgets and industry performance budgets
• Strong computer literacy skills (MS word, excel etc.)

Working Pattern:

Working as part of a large team, you will be expected to support the team and the business when it's needed most. Whilst ensuring you enjoy regular time away from work, you will be expected to support the station during special events and railway upgrade work, and therefore working during weekends or unsocial hours on occasion is part and parcel of working on an ever-operational railway.

Additional information

This role requires shift work covering an early, mid and a late week. This role comes with an on-call responsibility, supporting our front-line teams and customers 24/7.

Candidates successfully short listed, will be invited to a competency-based interview.

The Reward:

As well as a great team environment and comprehensive training, all GWR colleagues enjoy a range of benefits including on-going development, defined benefit pension scheme, free rail travel across the GWR network for you and your family, company-sponsored health care plan, discounted shopping and gym membership and an employee assistance programme.

We all belong at GWR.

This is our vision for providing an inclusive environment for all our colleagues, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA, ethnicity, religion and disability. We maintain zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/

INGWR