BUSINESS FUNCTION: Operations - Central

GRADE: Executive

SALARY: Executive

ROLE TYPE: Hybrid

HOURS: 37 per week

About Northern:

At Northern, we play a vital role across the North by providing a reliable and friendly train service that connects hundreds of thousands of people to work, leisure, education and more. Our customers trust us with over 2,500 services every weekday, and we travel to almost 550 destinations.

Our vision is about more than just train travel. It’s about setting a new standard for customer experience, and that means building a different kind of workplace: one that is inclusive, values individuality, and celebrates differences; somewhere we can work harmoniously together, have fun, and get stuck into making our customers’ lives easier; a place that goes out of its way to create incredible opportunities for everyone to grow and be the best we can be, every single day.

So, if you’re a great people-person, smart, forward-thinking, enthusiastic and full of fresh ideas like we are, you could play your part in making it happen.

About the role:

We are looking to recruit an inspirational Head of Trains and Stations to report to the Regional Director, Craig Harrop. In this role you will nurture your team, predominantly across Greater Manchester, to deliver excellent standards and generate continuous improvements to enhance the customer experience. You will use your knowledge and experience to empower them to make informed decisions that meet the business objectives and customer expectations.

Your primary focus will be to transform the passenger experience, win back customer confidence and ensure our operations run safely and effectively, whilst motivating, developing, and leading your people through change.

Your responsibilities:

• Generating and maintaining an inclusive culture through effective leadership and role modelling the Northern values and behaviours.
• Establishing and promoting co-operative relationships and effective partnerships with clients and key stakeholder organisations including other TOCs and Network Rail, whilst working collaboratively with all regions.
• Ensuring the effective implementation of station security arrangements in compliance with the Land Transport Security Division.
• Developing, agreeing, and delivering a budget to meet business needs and to ensure the most efficient use of resources.
• Cultivating and implementing simple, yet effective procedures to ensure that the Company’s revenue is safeguarded, and any losses are investigated and acted upon.
• Promoting the achievement of high standards of maintenance and cleanliness of stations and associated facilities, which meet all required health and safety and service quality standards.
• Delivering an efficient people resource plan to create an effective team who will assist in achieving our customer experience requirements whilst proactively monitoring all commercial activities to maximise revenue.
• Developing and delivering train service performance and operational improvement plans ensuring the achievement of the performance of on time targets and associated indicators.
• Supporting the Regional Director to build effective relationships and partnerships with key stakeholder groups and represent Northern at key external meetings.

About you:

The ideal candidate will be a strong business leader with a proven track record in Operations/Customer Service/Retailing, who can demonstrate success in nurturing and leading high-performing teams.

You should also be a strategic thinker who is able to translate this locally into tactical plans and to identify opportunities for change in all areas of the business.

You should also be able to demonstrate the following:

Experience of leading, managing and facilitating change

• Strong negotiating and influencing skills
• Experience of managing complex employee industrial relations processes
• Exceptional leadership capability and financial astuteness
• Innovative problem solving
• Ability to speak in public and promote Northern to the wider community
• Customer focused to ensure delivery of outstanding customer service
• Degree level qualification or equivalent is desirable

In return, you’ll discover brilliant opportunities to grow and progress within Northern, not to mention amazing perks and benefits like free or discounted travel, employee assistance, generous policies, regular pay reviews and a great pension.

We look forward to receiving your application.

NB. Northern Trains is an equal opportunities employer, strongly committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

We encourage and welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds.

Northern holds a disability-confident status, reflecting our commitment to creating a truly inclusive culture in the workplace.