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Job Title: Senior Engineering Leader – Telecoms
Grade: Band 3
Salary: Circa £75,000.00 (dependent on skill, knowledge and experience) + TfL Benefits
Contract Type: Permanent / Full Time / Hybrid
Reference: SF 4356
Location: Stratford / Southwark, London
Hybrid working, within this role enables a balance of 50% of time split between the office and home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements can evolve subject to business requirements.
The closing date for applications is Friday 26 June @ 23:59
All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory right to work checks. Candidates must be able to demonstrate their right to work in the UK. At the present time TfL is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
About Us
The Telecoms Engineering team is dedicated to ensuring the seamless operation and continuous improvement of the operational telecommunications infrastructure that enables one of the world's most complex urban transport networks.
Our team expertise spans a broad range of telecoms technologies, critical for maintaining operational efficiency, customer and staff safety, and promoting innovation across the entire TfL ecosystem.
Overview of the role
A Senior Engineering Leader within a well-established pan-organisational team. The successful applicant will provide vital support for the initiation and delivery of our projects and programmes, delivering Mayoral Transport Strategy benefits, supporting the organisation’s safety priorities and delivering planned asset upgrades.
As a Senior Engineering Leader you will be expected to act as or develop quickly into a Subject Matter Expert in a defined field of TfL Telecommunications and ensure the performance, motivation and development of staff within your organisational unit, in order to deliver cost effective engineering capability to TfL. You will also support strategic planning of the Telecommunications asset portfolio, the development of related standards and specifications and fully deliver the duties, as discharged by the Technical Head of Telecommunications, for ensuring safety and compliance, efficiency of delivery (programme and cost) and lowest possible whole life cost.
This role also includes acting as a Telecoms Asset Engineer within a live operational transport environment, providing technical leadership and assurance across the full asset lifecycle. This includes in-service performance, maintenance support, fault response, renewal and replacement of operational telecommunications systems, ensuring assets remain safe, reliable and fit for purpose.
This role is centred around building the team’s transportation focused Telecoms capability across Operational Telecoms, Fixed Transmission and Operational Radio engineering. The successful applicant will bring a breadth of telecoms engineering expertise and will support both project delivery and operational teams, contributing to asset performance, system integration and continuous improvement across the network. Being a Senior Engineering Leader, you will also be expected to bring with you an expanse of Telecoms engineering skills and knowledge to serve many other operational technology demands upon the team and be active in assisting other members of the team in stretching their own technical capability.
The job holder will have a high influence over the deployment of multi-million pound expenditure on major programmes, projects or interventions. As such, they will influence the availability and reliability of the transport network and hence have the opportunity to make a major contribution to the delivery of TfL’s services to their customers.
This role operates within a live operational transport environment and may involve site-based activities, supplier engagement and occasional work during engineering hours.
What do we expect you to be doing?
- Implementing staff resource management policies and procedures to ensure that ongoing capability is maintained and improved through the optimisation of staff utilisation and enabling of continuous professional development
- Undertaking line management of staff, ensuring performance and motivation is managed
- Ensuring the safety, functionality and compliance of newly implemented or altered assets, engineering processes, procedures or systems.
- Leading the technical definition, development and implementation of complex engineering solutions through the provision of subject matter expertise and occasionally the delivery management of multi-disciplinary teams, leading to outcomes that improve efficiency or effectiveness while improving safety and reducing operating costs.
- Providing internal stakeholders with appropriate challenge and professional advice to ensure the development or delivery of high quality, tested engineering solutions.
- Representing TfL Engineering as a subject matter expert when engaging with suppliers, customers, industry bodies and external agencies, identifying and influencing best practice to enable continuous improvement across TfL.
- Leading a culture of continuous improvement through the identification of best practice, innovation, whole life cost optimisation and effective root cause analysis.
- Providing technical assurance and undertaking design reviews for telecoms assets across both maintenance and capital delivery activities
- Acting as the technical point of contact for telecoms systems, supporting projects, maintenance teams and suppliers with technical queries
- Supporting fault investigation, incident response and root cause analysis, including engagement with operational and safety teams
- Developing and maintaining engineering requirements, technical specifications and standards for operational telecoms systems
- Managing and escalating engineering risks and asset performance issues, ensuring safe and reliable operation of the transport network
- Supporting asset management activities including asset performance analysis, maintenance strategy optimisation and ensuring accuracy of asset data to support decision-making and compliance
What do we expect you to bring to the team?
Essential knowledge:
- Highly developed overall understanding of Operational Technology Telecoms engineering within an integrated public transportation system with excellent domain knowledge of their respective job role specialism.
- A high degree of capability in one of the following domains:
- Design, assurance and in-service support knowledge of Telecoms operational control systems (incl. PA, CCTV, PHP, CIS, SMS and operational control centre systems and related assets).
- Design and implementation knowledge of Telecoms Transmission systems (inc Copper and Fibre solutions within the road or rail transportation arena).
- Design and implementation knowledge of Public Cellular systems (multi band, multi technology (GSM/UMTS/LTE/NR etc.) and active and passive radio infrastructure deployments).
- Design and implementation knowledge of Operational Radio systems based on TETRA ideally in a metro environment.
- Good knowledge of engineering safety management and its application within railway or safety-critical / operational technology environments, including risk assessment and safety management systems
- Exceptional knowledge of developments in Telecoms products and emerging technologies within the industry and in that, excellent knowledge of relevant TfL, British and International standards.
- Understanding of asset management frameworks (e.g. IAM, ISO 55001) and their application within a safety-critical transport environment
Desirable Knowledge:
- Good working knowledge of cyber security methods and controls within CNI environments.
- Exceptional knowledge and practical experience of TfL processes, delivery of Assurance and industry best practices.
- Good knowledge of the TfL business, its obligations and priorities. Good commercial awareness of contractual models used within TfL.
- Awareness of working within complex contractual or outsourced operating environments.
Essential experience:
- Good experience within the Telecoms industry.
- Wide ranging experience of Telecoms engineering and its practical application to high value programmes.
- Good level of experience and personal responsibility for providing professional engineering support to major projects and operational maintenance organisations within a live transport or safety-critical / operational technology environment, where there are complex interfaces
- Good record of continuing professional development and contribution to the knowledge base of the profession.
- Experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams or applying subject matter expertise to resolve complex technical challenges
- Experience of building relationships and influencing stakeholder at all levels within and outside of TfL
- Experience of building high performing teams through effective leadership, performance management, development and empowerment of staff, whilst demonstrating the TfL Behaviours
And finally, your commitment and dedication to providing the best cost / benefit balanced engineering solutions available and an appetite to grow your own professional capability and your recognition within the organisation.
Equality, diversity, and inclusion
We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We want to represent the city we serve, which will help us become a more innovative and efficient organisation. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. We are a disability confident employer who guarantee an interview to any disabled candidate who meets all of the essential criteria. We also use anonymising software that removes identifying information from CVs and cover letters to make the process fair.
Application Process
Please apply using your most recent CV and mandatory 1 page Cover Letter (Word format only) explaining how you meet the criteria listed under the section ‘Role Requirements’, with reference to the skills, knowledge and experience you have gained at expert level.
You are encouraged to apply for the position that is most relevant to your existing skills, knowledge and experience as shortlisting is carried out on the basis of how well you meet the criteria for the role.
The closing date for applications is Friday 26 June @ 23:59
Vetting Process
At Transport for London, safety, trust and fairness sit at the heart of how we recruit. Our Vetting Charter (https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/careers/our-vetting-process) explains the checks we carry out before you join us, helping ensure we create a safe, inclusive and reliable network for everyone who depends on our services. We simply ask that the information you provide is honest and accurate so we can progress your application smoothly. If something doesn’t match or can’t be verified, we may not be able to move forward with your application, but we’ll always treat you with transparency, respect, and clear communication throughout.
Benefits
In return for your commitment and expertise, you will enjoy excellent benefits and scope to grow. Rewards vary according to the business area but mostly include:
- Final salary pension scheme
- Free travel for you on the TfL network
- Reimbursement of 75% of the cost of a standard class Ticket for National Rail travel from home
- 30 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays
- Private healthcare discounted scheme (optional)
- Tax-efficient cycle-to-work programme
- Retail, health, leisure, and travel offers
- Discounted Eurostar travel
We will make every effort to give you as much notice as possible, however some interviews/assessments could be organised at short notice.