Senior Rail Service Lead – AWC SET

About DFT Operator

Join Our Team at DFTO

DFTO is the governments public sector rail owning group. Its purpose is to bring all currently privately-owned train operators into public ownership in advance of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027 - and deliver improvements in the here and now by unifying and integrating train operations under common public ownership.

DFTO has over 30000 employees runs over 8500 services a day and delivers over 640 million customer journeys across its networks every year. 7000people joined the railway family in the last year

Major improvements are being delivered by DFTO train operators (TOCs) that are already under public ownership - these are LNER Northern TransPennine Express (TPE) Southeastern South Western Railway (SWR) c2c Greater Anglia and WM Trains.

We work closely with the DfT but operate independently with our own governance and leadership teams. Our priority is ensuring efficient dependable rail services for everyone.

Primary Purpose of Job:

We are looking for an individual to build lead and maintain collaborative commercial relationships with Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to effectively deliver high profile contracts ensuring taxpayers receive value for money and the benefits of investments in our railways are maximised. This role sits within the Rail Services Group in the Department for Transport Operator (DFTO). You could be assigned to any of the 14 DFTO contracted TOCs; current vacancies include Avanti West Coast (AWC) and South Eastern. You will need to be flexible to be deployed across any TOC in future

Key Deliverables:

• You will be responsible for driving and leading a team that works collaboratively with the train operator as our delivery partner so that they operate their National Rail Contract and successor Services Agreement (SA) in the interest of passengers ensuring that they meet their suite of obligations and are supported and challenged to deliver agreed outcomes when they move to a SA.
• You will also with the Finance Lead lead the annual business planning relationship.
• You will work collaboratively with Board level members of a train operating company and hold them to account where necessary to ensure that passengers receive the service they need and deserve.
• The role is high-profile and fast-moving and will require a blend of strategic stakeholder management commercial project management and strong team leadership skills.

Key Responsibilities:

Rail Operators and their contracts/agreements with Her Majestys Government come under significant levels of parliamentary and public scrutiny as a result you will be responsible for ensuring that the train operating company improves performance and reduces subsidy by:

• Leading and managing relationships with senior level executives of TOCs including the negotiation and the resolution of complex issues ensuring outcomes are consistent with affordability constraints represent value for money and are in the interests of taxpayers and passengers.
• Working with the TOC to develop negotiate and agree an Annual Business Plan each financial year or longer period (as applicable) that deliver outcomes which are affordable represent value for money and are in passengers interests.
• Ensure systems are in place that enable the delivery of the operational and financial outcomes to be monitored and forecast accurately.
• Proactively using management information and industry data to highlight trends issues and challenge the operator on operational performance and where required lead on the resolution of performance and passenger experience issues.
• Working with the TOC on efficient longer-term initiatives that will improve the customer and service offer for passengers and working with other industry partners such as Network Rail.
• Leading the relationship with stakeholders and governance processes to deliver approvals for complex propositions; including advising DfT colleagues and through them Ministers; on matters relating to the relationship and operational delivery.
• Using commercial expertise to enable effective wind down of National Rail Contracts as required working collaboratively with Public Ownership teams.
• Lead on transition to the new public ownership Services Agreement including working closely with the Public Ownership Transition (POTP) team.
• Developing relationships and work collaboratively with DfT NR and Train Operating Companies as part of the development of Great British Railways (GBR).
• Overall Leadership and management of the Rail Services Team ensuring that they work collaboratively with the train operating company and internal stakeholders.
• Ensuring that the team have balanced workloads clear work objectives and development plans.
• Covering for and assisting the Deputy Director on the development resilience and recruitment for the wider team or across other rail service teams.
• You may also need to work collaboratively across the Department and lead multidisciplinary teams of internal and if required external advisors.
• There is a mandatory requirement for candidates undertaking this role to be accredited in the Contract Management Capability Programme (CMCP) and achieve the accreditation at Foundation level once in role.
• Travel to other DfT offices and Operator sites within the UK will be required.

Knowledge Skills Experience & Technical Qualifications:

We are looking for driven individuals with:

• The ability to build and establish collaborative commercial and partnership relationships with multiple stakeholders at Board level.
• Experience of managing high value contracts/agreements and solving complex commercial problems in a fast paced and high-profile environment.
• An understanding of market and commercial drivers and the ability to develop strategies to exploit these considering financial legal and commercial implications.
• A high degree of personal resilience with the ability to work under pressure and maintain your performance levels under challenging circumstances.

Experience

You will have and be able to demonstrate experience of:

• Managing high value contracts and solving complex commercial problems in a fast paced and high-profile environment.
• Working with very senior/board level stakeholders and board governance in a complex environment providing constructive challenge.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to negotiate and influence effectively at all levels in the organisation
• Working at pace on complex issues and communicating complex ideas in a simple way to senior management.
• Leading a team or strong management skills.

Rail knowledge and working with government and Ministers is valued but not essential.

Vacancy Details:

Duration: Permanent/secondment
Location:London Waterloo Leeds or Birmingham
Salary:up to 81717
Closing date: 13th May 2026

DFTO Benefits:

Annual Leave: Starting at 25 days and rising to an additional day per year of service completed within the first 5 completed years up to a maximum of 5 additional (30 days)

DC Pension Scheme: 10% Employer contribution 5% Employee contribution

Opportunities to learn and network across the wider industry

Additional Information

Disclaimer: Candidates applying for this position on a secondment basis must inform their line manager prior to submitting their application. This is to ensure transparency and facilitate any necessary discussions regarding workload and responsibilities.

About our people and the recruitment process - Were an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly as we know traditional working patterns dont always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly just let us know and well do our best to help and invest in your career with us whilst you have a healthy work life balance.

Contact: If you have any questions or reasonable adjustments please contact Amra

Please do not email any CVs to us your application must be made by clicking the Apply button.