Who are we?
South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.
Join our team and help us continue to bring people together to get the most out of life.
About the job
Accountable for the efficient station operations in their area, this role focuses on the tactical implementation of the functional strategy at the local level. The post holder is responsible for driving excellence in customer experience, safety, and performance, and developing improvement plans to meet functional objectives. Leading a team of Flagship Duty Station Managers and the broader area team, this position is instrumental in delivering local performance and KPIs for the assigned stations. The working hours for this role require a degree of flexibility depending on Operational, Safety, or Contingency requirements.
Your main responsibilities will be:
Strategy and Planning
- Takes ownership of delivering the regional strategy in their area, aligning with the overall SWR and functional plan to achieve improvements in Customer, Colleague, Commercial, Safety, and Performance areas.
- Regularly reviews plans to ensure alignment with changing business priorities and resources, creating a culture of continuous improvement and business change.
- Builds and develops cross-functional relationships with key internal stakeholders, influencing the delivery of the local plans and process improvements throughout their area of stations.
- Communicates local plans effectively to key stakeholders, including front-line teams, ensuring their support in delivering strategy elements.
Leadership
- Provides positive and inspired leadership, setting clear performance expectations and accountabilities for a team of Duty Station Managers and customer service teams.
- Builds effective teams by identifying and nurturing talent, providing leadership development, and creating continuous improvement, and a positive environment.
- Actively listens to colleague feedback, supporting the regional/local area employee engagement strategy.
- Aligns annual objectives with SWR's vision and values, creating a sense of direction and achievement for all colleagues.
Technical Planning
- Uses quantitative and qualitative information to deliver tactical plans for improving station operations.
- Develops business cases for initiatives, presenting to key stakeholders for buy-in and financial support.
- Adapts to changing business needs, technology, and customer behaviour to ensure station operations are economical.
Operations and Delivery
- Oversees the delivery of tactical plans, creating a mindset of continuous business improvement.
- Identifies operational trends and takes necessary actions to complement the regional strategy.
- Ensures safety objectives are implemented within the area and collaborates with key stakeholders for required improvements.
- Manages budgets and local rostering for optimal colleague deployment, achieving business objectives and enhancing the customer experience.
Customer and Stakeholder
- Delivers best practice in Customer Experience to improve and strengthen service at stations, ensuring consistency across all accountable locations.
- Takes corrective action to resolve any service quality issues highlighted by the SQR process and reviews longer-term plans for proactive improvement methods.
- Motivates the team to deliver excellent customer experiences, driving colleague engagement and embedding a customer-centric culture.
- Develops effective relationships with trade union representatives and collaborates with relevant departments across SWR.
- Ensures collaboration with Network Rail and other TOCs to maximise the customer experience.
Commercial Agility
- Responsible for delivering the local budget, managing risks and issues, and ensuring plans align with re-forecasted expectations.
- Understands the wider commercial impact of decisions and communicates accordingly.
- Allocates resources and takes operational decisions which achieve optimum efficiency, challenging existing processes to improve efficiency and reduce operating costs.
- Translates and communicates commercial data to the team.
- Ensure efficient management of Retail and Gatelines (where applicable) in line with Revenue Protection Strategy.
You'll need:
- Demonstrated leadership, organisational, analytical, and planning skills.
- Ability to lead and motivate teams for cultural improvement.
- Strong communication, presentation, and influencing skills.
- Proven ability in handling difficult and challenging business issues.
- Commercial acumen, including business case development and cost management.
- Ability to work independently or as part of a team and adapt to changing priorities.
- Experience in report writing, creating business cases, and stakeholder management.
Working pattern
You will work an average of 37 hours per week, typically, office hours, Monday to Friday.
Flexibility is required for events and occasional weekends.
The Reward
In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:
- Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
- Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
- 75% discount on many other train operating companies
- Full training and support with development
- Excellent pension scheme
We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.
We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.
We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.
If you require additionalsupport to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.