Programme Director - Rail

Location: United Kingdom

Atkins’ UK Transportation business brings together the capabilities of our Rail, Highway and Local Transport teams, into a single business of 3,000 talented engineering professionals, transport planners and consultants. The unique breadth of services in Transportation, combined with our scale, makes Atkins the leading UK transportation infrastructure consultancy. We create a culture and environment to inspire our people, ensure collaboration with our clients and continue to shape the future of mobility.

The UK & Europe Transportation Division in Atkins brings together the capabilities of our key markets, Strategic Highways, Strategic Rail, Local Transport, into a single £450m turnover business of 3,750+ talented engineers and professionals. The transport infrastructure sector is experiencing unprecedented levels of investment and Atkins is playing lead roles in key projects across the UK and Europe from high-speed rail to major road programmes to Digital Railway implementation. It is not just about today, the business is investing and building new capability and services in intelligent mobility, digital asset management and new products for the rail market. Our teams work closely with Government, national and local authorities to deliver integrated transport strategies and solutions that support economic growth and improved journeys for all.

Read more about how you can thrive with us.

The Project Delivery Practice leads the most complex, biggest and exciting projects within the UK. The project leaders in this team directly influence the lives of people within the UK by improving their passenger experience, making their journeys better and by making the country a greener place to live.

Atkins Digital Rail business is providing consultancy and solution delivery services in the UK Rail market, including ETCS both onboard & infrastructure, Intelligent Infrastructure, cyber security and Traffic Management.

The role:

The National Rail Digital Programme seeks to bring about the next generation of the railway through the introduction of digital signalling technologies such as the European Train Control System (ETCS) along key routes in the UK. The programme will also deliver traffic management capabilities to control the flow of trains across the network in an efficient way. There are 30+ organisations involved in this transformation who work together in a collaborative partnership. The Leadership for the Programme includes representatives of these organisations.

We are seeking an Industry Programme Director (IPD) to lead on the delivery of this innovative programme. You will be a core part of the leadership team whose role is to inspire and Supervise a Digital Programme as part of a collective and collaborative team. The IPD is also responsible for making key decisions as part of their role in the Programme Leadership Board.

Purpose:

This position is accountable for the overall delivery of the outcomes of the programme.

Areas of Responsibility:

This position has the following responsibilities:

Programme Leadership -

• Act as a role model in the adoption and implementation of programme values and behaviours.
• Support the development and delivery of the programme partnership model.
• Drive the alignment of delivery to the programme’s Critical Success Factors.
• Contribute to decision-making and programme oversight as a member of Programme Leadership Board.
• Champion the Digital Programme across the wider Industry.
• Ensure all parties are aware of their safety obligations within the functions they have oversight of.

Accountability for delivery -

• Overall accountability for delivery of outcomes, which includes:
  • Development of the overall plan and approach to execute the programme mission.
  • Set programme strategies and plans.
  • Monitoring programme performance.
  • Ensuring engagement with all partners.
  • Active management of risks impacting delivery of programme outcomes.

Learning -

• Ensure effective coordination, integration and sharing of lessons between projects within the sector for the programme, supporting the achievement of delivery efficiencies and/or reduced risk.
• Support the assembly and delivery of the Digital Programme Learning Legacy so that other Digital deliveries can benefit from experience.
• Oversee process for capturing lessons learned and ensuring that these create better ways of working in the future.
• Play an active role in driving and delivering the Digital Programme continuous improvement agenda supporting the achievement of delivery efficiencies and/or reduced risk.

Success Criteria:

• Delivery of the Programme’s scope to the appropriate levels of quality, on time and within budget, in accordance with the programme plan.
• Realisation of the Programme’s benefits.
• Establishing a blueprint for ETCS delivery that has produced robust processes, methodology and solutions, which can be used for future ETCS delivery programmes across the Rail Industry.

Required Competencies:

• Proven leadership and influencing skills to ensure motivation and progress.
• Proven interpersonal skills to develop and maintain effective and positive working relationships with other members of the Management and the project teams and third-party service providers.
• Senior profile commensurate with the responsibilities required of the role.
• Strong Railway industry insight and knowledge of “digital technologies”.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to ensure constructive dialogues with projects and the programme, and reporting to stakeholders.
• Excellent advocacy skill to promote the programme and railway digitisation to the whole sector.
• Experience with, and strong competencies in, planning, monitoring, and controlling programmes of similar size and complexity.
• Experience in dealing with complex benefit-led transformational programmes involving multiple organisations.
• Familiarity with MSP programme management methodologies, tools, and best practices.