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Your decisions will make all the difference

Based in one of our North West Route’s signal boxes, you’ll make sure trains travel safely and efficiently along your part of the network. Managing the signals on your part of the network, you’re an integral part to passenger and freight journeys, as well as the safety of our maintenance colleagues out on track.

Our signalling community comes from a variety of different backgrounds, and so we’re focused on your transferrable skills and behaviours. No formal rail experience is needed, though any work you’ve done which has needed concentration, is safety critical and involves communicating with others would stand you in good stead.

And if you make the grade then you can look forward to an exciting and fulfilling career with a company that recently joined the top 50 in the Glassdoor's 2021 Best Places to Work.

Are you looking to join an organisation where you do meaningful work every day?

You’ll be joining our North West route team which covers a major part of the national rail network.

Whilst you’ll be part of a signal box team, you’ll also be comfortable with working on your own for long periods of time and shift work. And when things happen, such as a trespasser on the line, you’ll need to use your training and skills to get our passengers moving safely onwards to their destination.

Commitment to self-development and continuous learning is hugely important in this role, we'll provide you with all the training to develop both technical skills and non-technical skills by attending a 10-week residential signaller training course, followed by a period of supervised on the job training and the opportunity to practise new skills in a real work environment.

You don’t need rail experience, but you do need to show how your transferrable skills meet the following,

• Communication – A variety of clear communication skills are crucial in the signalling role, for example being comfortable delivering safety critical communications to colleagues and team members to ensure processes and safety standards are always adhered to.
• Ability to learn – Due to its safety critical nature, there is a lot to learn to become a proficient signaller.
• Ability to work alone – Every signaller requires the ability to operate efficiently and make safety critical decisions confidently on an individual basis.
• Ability to work as part of a team – Despite being able to work confidently alone, it is important you are a great teammate.
• Attention to detail – The signaller role requires consistent high levels of attention but varying levels of concentration.
• Multi-Tasking – You need to deal with phone calls, signal trains, block lines for maintenance work and complete administration tasks.
• Being calm and composed– Due to the intense and challenging events that can occur on the railway, it is crucial you are able to remain calm whilst working under pressure.
• Decision Making - By its nature, the signaller roles require you to make safety critical decisions throughout the course of your shift.

In order for your application to proceed to interview stage, you'll need to achieve a passing score on the application screening questions, as well as meeting the minimum pass benchmarks in our psychometric testing

You’ll also need to be within a 50 minute commute of the location(s) you’re applying to work at and will need access to your own transport to allow for the different shift work.

This role involves days, nights and weekend working and the job is safety critical. Offers of employment are subject to drug and alcohol testing and passing of the relevant medical assessment and BPSS pre-employment checks.

We’re an organisation where people matter. We matter to millions.

Our role is to run a safe, reliable and efficient railway, serving customers and communities. We exist to get people and goods where they need to be and to support our country’s economic prosperity. Safety is our number one priority.

We're undertaking a bold change. Our vision is Putting Passengers First – becoming a company that is on the side of passengers and freight users; that is easy to engage with and is an efficient and dependable partner; a company people are proud to work for; instinctively recognised as an industry leader.

Your Signaller recruitment journey

Here’s a short video explaining what to expect and how to prepare for your Signalling recruitment journey

• Application - This takes around 20 minutes of your time, so find a safe, quiet spot where you’re comfortable typing answers to a handful of questions about your interest and understanding of the Signaller role. We'll also need a copy of your CV.
• Virtual ability assessment - helping us understand your suitability.
• Identification documents - You'll need to provide your identification documents virtually on our ID platform.
• Virtual assessment - All interviews & assessments will be held virtually. You'll take part in two online assessments including a pre-recorded scenario assessment and a live video interview to explore your skills and experiences more.
• Offer - Our Careers Team will give you a call to discuss salary, benefits and your medical assessment. Offers of employment are subject to drug and alcohol testing and passing of the relevant medical assessments.
• Pre-employment Screening - We'll need some documents to prove your identity and right to work in the UK
• Medical assessment – Signalling is a safety critical role, so you’ll take a medical assessment before starting in the position. This will include a hearing and eyesight examination
• Drug & alcohol test – All prospective candidates offered a conditional role will be required to pass a drugs and alcohol test. Your application will be rescinded if you record a positive test. All positive drugs and alcohol test results for prospective candidates will be securely held on Sentinel database and a 5 year suspension from applying for a safety critical role, a role which requires PTS certification or a Key Safety role on Network Rail Managed Infrastructure will be enforced
• Induction - you'll receive more information about your Signaller training.

We’re happy to help you with any queries you may have about the recruitment and selection process and to listen to any reasonable adjustments you require to make you feel more comfortable. To contact us please email: [email protected]

Everyone matters is our diversity strategy. By 2024 we will be an even more open, diverse and inclusive organisation that is better at reflecting the communities that we serve. By putting our passengers first, our strategy will help us to provide a more accessible and more inclusive experience for you.

Signalling matters to millions across the UK by keeping trains moving and people safe!

If you’ve never considered working in signalling before, you might be wondering what it’s all about. So, here’s a quick introduction to what signalling is and why it matters to millions.

What is signalling?

Simply put, Signalling is a sophisticated traffic light system for the railway. It gives us a simple way to keep a huge number of trains moving safely across the various routes in our network.

Without signallers, the railway simply couldn’t function, and passengers all over the country would be affected! Our role is to run a safe, reliable and efficient railway, serving customers and communities. We exist to get people and goods where they need to be and to support our country’s economic prosperity. Safety is our number one priority.

For more information on signalling please look at the Signalling Careers web page-

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/campaigns/signalling-opportunities

Or ask our current signallers questions about their experiences and day to day duties.

https://networkrail.career-inspiration.com/app/insiders

Are you looking to join an organisation where you do meaningful work every day?

Our signaller roles are your first step into an exciting career with Network Rail!

We are recruiting for grade 2 trainee signallers on a permanent contract based in the Warrington & Chester Areas.

You will join as a permanent employee, as a Grade 2 trainee signaller. You will not be allocated to a specific signal box until you finish signalling school, at which point you will begin to train at locations local to you where we have vacancies. When permanent signaller vacancies arise, you will be invited to apply for these to secure a permanent location.

Grade 2 salary: £32,210

Closing date: 31st August 2023

Due to our fatigue management policy you’ll need to be within a 50-minute commute of the Warrington & Chester areas and will need access to your own transport to allow for the different shift work. Please be aware it is our due diligence to check peak travel times and if the time is over 50 minutes, we will contact you about this.

Click ‘apply for this job’ to apply

Note on early closing - Signaller vacancies often receive high numbers of applications, and we may close the vacancy early when we have reached a maximum number of applications. Please do submit your application as early as possible.