Chief Design Engineer - Rail

£700 - £880/day

6 month contract

Based in Milton Keynes

You will need:

Essential

• Member of a relevant engineering professional body with chartered status
• Fellow of a relevant engineering professional body, or working towards fellow status
• Experience of the leadership of multi-disciplinary design for £multi-million programmes of work in the infrastructure sector.
• Experience of the management of large profit and loss accounts.
• Experience of leading large teams (100) across multiple disciplines and geographic locations.
• Expert knowledge of Health & Safety, quality and environment legislation and systems engineering.
• Expert knowledge of design for operational safety and reliability.
• Experience of developing and delivering business plans
• Experience of negotiating at senior level and balancing the views of a range of stakeholders
• Experience of delivering engineering improvements in a safety critical industry or public facing industry
• Ability to inspire others
• Highly collaborative and adept at developing lasting and productive relationships
• Resilient with the ability to handle multiple engineering issues at the same time

Desirable

• Member of the Association of Project Management
• Experience in senior management roles in a complex matrix organisation
• Experience of working across multiple organisations, such as design houses, contractors and owner operators
• Experience of developing design delivery strategy
• Experience of LEAN and continuous improvement techniques.
• High levels of emotional intelligence

The Role:

• To lead development activities to enhance strategy for achievement of world-class engineering systems performance. Act as technical representative in the UK and Europe infrastructure industry forums.
• Direct the Heads of Design and provide technical leadership and development of the engineering communities across for design via the creation and implementation of a national technical competency and capability framework, systems and processes. The role covers all of IP's portfolio of projects, from a design leadership perspective, and includes the line management of the 550 in house design teamWhat you will do:
• Direct and support the Heads of Design to provide professional leadership and advice to the engineering community throughout and the industry, to improve decision-making, design, and execution.
• Direct strategy for design development and delivery to facilitate alignment of policies and to provide the framework within which Asset creation is optimised for safety, value, quality and reliability.
• Lead the Heads of Design input to the development of Strategic Business Plan, including commercially beneficial design delivery models both internally and via suppliers to ensure the retention of a sustainable in-house design capability.
• Direct and support the Heads of Design in the establishment and monitoring of rules, specifications and controls such that design processes achieve compliance with corporate and legal requirements and standards, and deliver the highest levels of design safety, cost efficiency, quality and reliability for all railway customers.
• Direct the development and implementation of standard designs to maximise re-use and reduce delivery risk.
• Direct benchmarking and learning from audits, peer reviews, incidents, new technologies, and practices both from within the business and from other industries. Lead the process of embedding learning through sponsorship of business change and lateral learning events.
• Direct the engineering professional communities for design to provide assurance to the Chief Engineers’ Assurance Review governance process that appropriate competence is available to satisfy the Health and Safety Management System. Lead the assessment of the health of the skill pool, oversee functional talent and succession planning and advise the Engineering Director on the appointment of senior engineering staff tasked with leading on design matters within the business.
• Direct the development of new processes such that they align with asset policies and deliver the requirements of the technical strategy and provide a sustainable solution.
• Lead policy setting, development and implementation processes for Design. Provide corporate infrastructure industry representation in UK and Europe as appropriate. Lead assessment on the impact of proposed external legislation, including European legislation, such that the interests of are protected.
• Represent and promote interests, with respect to infrastructure design, on national and international bodies including governmental, regulation and professional institutions.

CALL NOW! To apply for this position contact Linda Davison ON <phone number removed> or email your C.V to linda .davison @vital .uk .com

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