System Strategy Manager
| Posting date: | 25 June 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £54,857 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National - £54,857 London - £59,686 |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 08 July 2025 |
| Location: | London |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 412594/3 |
Summary
Have you got experience of analysing commercial, financial and economic issues on a large scale?
If so, we’d love to hear from you!
DfT is a high-profile department at the heart of UK government. We work with agencies and partners to support the transport network that helps businesses and gets people and goods travelling around the country. We plan and invest to make journeys better.
Sitting within the Rail Services Group (RSG), the Rolling Stock and Infrastructure Whole System Strategy team is responsible for producing an overarching strategy for the specification and supply of trains on the network and the infrastructure needed to support them. The strategy will focus on passenger needs while improving rail industry efficiency and environmental performance and improving visibility and certainty to industry supply chains.
The new team brings together consideration of the financial, economic, commercial and operational aspects of the rolling stock and infrastructure in the long-term. It includes policy teams on train service, rolling stock, depots and infrastructure, and will work closely with stakeholders in Network Rail, DfT Operator Limited and others elsewhere in DfT, wider government and beyond.
The Whole System Strategy team will lead on the development of the overall strategy, pulling together a wide range of workstreams, evaluating options against policy aims and proposing alternative and recommended strategies. They will, for the first time, bring together a “whole system” approach around rolling stock contracts and the interaction with infrastructure such as electrification and charging stations, taking into account the current Public Ownership and Reform programmes for the railways.
Within the Whole System Strategy team, the System Strategy Manager will have primary responsibility for the development of the strategy, through working closely with other members of the RSISS team and others in RSG, DfT and the wider rail industry.
Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:
- Development of an “interim” rolling stock and infrastructure strategy that provides a framework for decision-making on rolling stock and infrastructure ahead of the full strategy being in place. This will require understanding of the interaction of contracts covering around the supply and maintenance of almost 15,000 rail vehicles worth over £2bn/year and allow decisions to be made on how to proceed with procurement of new trains to replace old trains on a whole life basis.
- Development of a future rolling stock and infrastructure needs assessment, working with colleagues within the team and beyond. Passengers will be at the heart of the strategy, understanding how the needs of a £10bn/year rail market and complex infrastructure and technological requirements will change over the next 25 years, and the impacts on the UK rail network.
- Development of alternative strategies for the supply of rolling stock and associated infrastructure, in line with other industry strategies and DfT policies, particularly the emerging Long Term Rail Strategy, working with and coordinating other workstreams as needed. This will involve consideration of many complex elements including driving long-term financial sustainability of the rail industry, and reassurance that the proposed strategy is deliverable and affordable.
- Provision of input to Rail Reform Programme on the Long Term Rail Strategy, Rail Reform legislation and future GBR design, including systems and processes around strategy development. The role-holder will be expected to represent RSG in discussions and provide recommendations on how best to achieve Rail Reform objectives.
- Ongoing communication with others in RSG around rolling stock and infrastructure decisions, to ensure consistency with the interim and emerging strategies, including presenting to senior stakeholders inside and outside RSG.
- The role holder will manage 2 staff directly, with matrix (project) management of a further two analytical staff.
Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.
For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.
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