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Network Rail operates and maintains the railway infrastructure 24/7 365 days a year.

Our ambition to be responsive to passengers and freight users drives us every day and we’re empowered to do the right thing for those who use the rail network. We actively challenge unsafe practices and take responsibility for addressing risks, resolving issues and protecting safety and wellbeing.

We’re passionate about great service and we ask ourselves, what can we do to put our passengers and freight users at the centre of everything we do? With this in mind, we pull together as one industry because we care about people and teamwork is key.

This is an exciting time to join Network Rail. We’re passionate about great service and commit to our service equation vision by “putting passengers first”. Performance, safety and getting the fundamental basics right, are something we strive for as well as asking ourselves - what can we do to put our passengers and freight users at the centre of everything we do?

You will be part of the NW&C Region which consists of three routes:

• North West
• Central
• West Coast South – and a regional team supporting Regional Major Programmes & Professional services.

To find out more about NW&C/us, visit - Who We Are.

For us, ‘Diversity' means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make. ‘Inclusion’ means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

We offer hybrid working with the requirement to be in the office two/three days a week.

You will be leading projects on the Manchester & North-West Transformation Programme, the next stage to improve and enhance the railway in the North West of England. This is a major programme delivering £220m of investment over the next 3yrs which will unlock capacity, train performance, and connectivity improvement benefits for the area. Projects include electrification, power supply and line of route upgrades and major station redevelopments. This is an exciting time to be joining the team with the complex interfaces with HS2, TRU, NPR, and IRP all driving forward.

This post will involve the direction and management of the development, and then implementation of major renewal and enhancement projects, funded by government, customer, stakeholder, or multiple funders, where Network Rail assumes a sponsorship role. You will be responsible of the delivery of the project benefit realisation to agreed scope, time and cost.

What will you be doing?

• Build effective relationships, (internally & externally) to balance the requirements of the client, funder, Network Rail and the industry as a whole. Champion the interests of clients, customers and stakeholders acting as the focal point for escalation within Network Rail.
• Review and interrogate client remits to confirm their viability. Work with internal and external stakeholders to establish a scope which optimises client requirements, value for money, network availability and capacity for future development and whole life cost.
• Be responsible for the conversion of the client remit into an agreed project requirements specification. Be accountable for the development of the initial project plan and budget; working with the project manager to specify how the project is going to be delivered, expected milestones and associated timescales, resource requirements, risks & issues and funding needs/sources.
• Produce business cases and investment papers for projects.
• Devise solutions which maintain the ‘business as usual’ accessibility for our customers, take consideration of the 7 day railway principles and therefore minimise disruption to end rail users. Take a national/route wide view across portfolios to generate additional benefits, identify and resolve conflicting work and drive efficiencies.
• Lead the process of quantifying risk associated with the project. Devise mitigating actions and periodically review recovery progress.
• Interrogate and challenge plans to assess the deliverability of agreed scope within stated timescales and cost parameters, presenting any required scope changes to the client for approval.
• Hold the Project Manager accountable for programme delivery to cost, time and scope parameters. Hold periodic reviews to understand and challenge delivery progress against the client remit.
• Communicate progress status against defined milestones and expectations to stakeholders putting contingency measures in place if required.
• Negotiate with customers and stakeholders on the project’s commercial and contractual terms in accordance with relevant corporate policy and strategy. Act as the focal point for negotiations and resolution of external scheme interface requirements, including any Parliamentary or Statutory processes, external consents issues to optimise the value of the scheme to Network Rail and funder(s).
• Comply with the requirements of investment regulations, other corporate governance and the Guide to Railway Investment Projects. Adhere to corporate processes, including those related to safety, finance, legal and corporate affairs.
• Facilitate the discharge of the duties assigned by the Client as detailed within the Construction Design Management (CDM) Regulations for the programme of projects allocated to you

In order to be successful in this role, we would like you to have/to be:

Essential

• Qualified to degree level or equivalent
• Experience of dealing with client portfolios and liaising with people at all levels
• Ability to articulate complex business problems into manageable work packages and produce synthesised logical solutions
• Proven ability to write coherently, conveying report / investment information in a concise manner
• Commercially astute, persuasive, and customer focused
• Proven influencing and negotiating skills
• Experience of leading a successful team

We would also like but it isn’t crucial to have/to be:

Desirable

• Experience in management roles in a commercial environment
• MBA or other related postgraduate qualification
• Experience in negotiating contracts to finalisation and ability to demonstrate commercial success