Head of Operations

Balfour Beatty; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Smart working

25 days annual leave (pro rata)

Pension scheme

Job summary

Balfour Beatty plc is seeking a Head of Operations on a leadership secondment based at Aston Depot in Birmingham. You will oversee North, West & Central and South & Central teams, ensuring safe delivery and financial performance.

You will engage with regional customers and planning/supply chain colleagues, drive governance, and develop the skills of your people through structured reviews and training.

Qualifications

• Five years in middle management roles in construction and/or rail.
• Knowledge of the UK railway industry, safety requirements, Network Rail and BB Group Standards.
• Strong commercial judgment and financial awareness, including business investment processes.
• Understanding of health, safety and environmental legislation and best practice (CDM).
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with experience leading people and change.

Responsibilities

• Lead depot programme of works across North, West & Central and South & Central teams.
• Oversee plans, resources, costs and delivery to meet margins; report on performance.
• Maintain risk and change management; ensure plans and briefs meet standards and timescales.
• Be depot contact for regional customers and internal stakeholders; collaborate with planning and supply chain.
• Support governance reviews and audits; ensure incidents and actions are closed out.
• Develop people through leadership, welfare, training and succession planning.
• Provide on-call and on-site operational support as required.

Skills

Leadership

Safety governance

Commercial acumen

Stakeholder management

Project planning

Education

Engineering degree or equivalent (HND/HNC)

Tools

CDM Regulations knowledge

Job description

About the role

Lead with purpose. Put safety first. Make an impact!

Ready to bring your operational expertise to a leadership secondment? Join CRSA as a Head of Operations, based at Aston Depot in Birmingham, you’ll take responsibility for the North, West & Central team and the South & Central team until the end of March 2027.

Reporting to the Operations Director, you’ll lead the depot programme of works, combining visible leadership with commercial oversight to deliver safely, efficiently and to the right specification.
You’ll be a key point of contact for regional customers and internal stakeholders, working closely with planning and development colleagues to turn plans into successful delivery. It’s an opportunity to broaden your leadership experience while championing teamwork, continuous improvement and high standards.

What you'll be doing

• Leading safe delivery: Oversee works across both teams, ensuring compliance with Group Standards, safety legislation and health, safety, quality and environmental requirements, including CDM obligations.


• Driving commercial performance: Manage plans, resources, costs and delivery to meet or better tendered margins; report on performance and targets, escalating issues to the Operations Director.


• Keeping delivery on track: Maintain robust risk and change management and ensure methodologies, estimates, work package plans, task briefs and contingency arrangements meet required standards and timescales.


• Building relationships: Be the depot’s initial contact for regional customers and internal stakeholders, collaborating with planning, development and supply chain colleagues.


• Championing governance: Support Network Rail’s End to End/PACE governance, lead planning reviews and audits, and ensure incidents, non-conformances and actions are investigated, reported and closed out.


• Developing your people: Lead visibly, promote welfare, maintain training and competence arrangements, and support development reviews, succession planning and teamwork.


• Providing operational support: Deliver on-call and on-site cover as required by the programme.

Who we're looking for

• Experience successfully managing major programmes of work in construction and/or rail.


• Knowledge of the UK railway industry, its safety requirements and relevant Network Rail and Balfour Beatty Group Standards.


• Strong commercial judgement and financial awareness, including business investment processes and procedures.


• A sound understanding of health and safety, quality and environmental legislation and best practice, including the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations.


• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with experience leading people and behavioural change within a large organisation and contributing to cross-functional strategic discussions.


• A visible, collaborative leadership style: you listen, build consensus, champion change and make sound decisions under pressure.


• The relevant track safety competence required for this safety-critical role, which is also designated a key safety post.


• A degree, HND or HNC, or equivalent relevant engineering and commercial experience, alongside at least five years in middle management roles.

Desirable: Membership of a relevant professional body with chartered status and/or degree-level education, plus a NEBOSH and/or accident investigation qualification.

Why work for us

Day in, day out, our teams deliver some of the UK’s most ambitious, exciting and meaningful projects; developing, building and maintaining the vital infrastructure that supports national economies and strengthens communities.

Why join us?

As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn’t rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. You’ll have the freedom to shape the package that’s right for you and your life. Here are some of our key benefits:

• Smart working, giving you more flexibility such as staggered start and finish times, with up to 40% remote working, where roles allow.


• 25 days paid annual leave (pro rata)


• Family friendly policies which include 28 weeks full pay for maternity/adoption leave and four weeks full pay for paternity/partners leave


• Pension, share incentive plan, volunteering leave, recognition schemes and much more…

About us

Balfour Beatty works at the heart of the UK’s rail networks – designing, enhancing and maintaining thousands of miles of the railways that connect communities and underpin growth.

From feasibility studies, planning and design through to implementation and asset management, we provide multi-disciplinary rail infrastructure services across the lifecycle of rail assets. Our expertise covers electrification, track, power, civils, specialist rail plant, railway systems and technologies.

Diversity and inclusion

At Balfour Beatty, we want everyone to be able to thrive and achieve their full potential, regardless of their identity or background. We’re making great progress through our Value Everyone DEI Action Plan, but we know we’ve got more to do. Find out more about our values and DEI initiatives.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this role will be offered an interview.

We are committed to our processes being barrier-free and will support adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Please let the recruiter for this role know if you require any adjustments.

We’re looking to continually improve our recruitment process, so if you have any feedback, please share this with us via [e-mail]