Depot Manager

Job Purpose
Provide senior leadership for all rolling stock maintenance, servicing, and depot operations at train operating company. Own the strategic direction of the depot, driving a transformational culture shift focused on safety, quality, performance, and operational excellence. Align depot performance with wider business goals while ensuring compliance with legal, regulatory, and company standards
 
Key Accountabilities
•             Act as the senior-most authority on site, accountable for achieving all safety, performance, quality, and customer service metrics
•             Develop and execute the depot strategy in alignment with long-term business and fleet plans
•             Provide inspirational leadership, establishing clear expectations, driving accountability, and championing continuous improvement
•             Drive a positive culture change program, embedding proactive safety behaviours, engagement, and collaboration
•             Lead cultural change to embed proactive safety behaviours and promote a high-performance, engaged workforce
•             Ensure safe systems of work are established, maintained, and followed for all depot activities, providing assurance through audits and feedback to individuals
•             Investigate and lead audits, inspections, and investigations to drive compliance, learning, and continuous improvement
•             Manage depot workload delivery to meet maintenance plans, ensuring high-quality output and compliance with standards
•             Maintain appropriate staffing levels, skill competencies, and training plans to deliver operational needs now and in the future
•             Own the full depot budget, including staffing, tooling, facilities, materials, and revenue generation opportunities
•             Build strong strategic relationships with internal stakeholders (e.g. Safety Team, HR, Performance, Operations) and external partners (e.g., Network Rail, ROSCOs, contractors, suppliers) to achieve depot and fleet targets
•             Oversee contractor compliance, safety practices, and delivery quality
•             Maintain accurate asset condition data to support asset management planning and long-term fleet performance
•             Support depot improvements by providing input on infrastructure changes from an end-user perspective
•             Ensure compliance with all health, safety, environmental, and railway standards by collaborating with relevant team
•             Chair and represent the depot for local consultations, influence engagement, and negotiation meetings with staff representatives and trade union
•             Undertake general and statutory inspections as required
•             Participate in the engineering on-call rota, providing senior support for unplanned events
•             Cover other roles in the engineering team, and deputise for Head of Fleet Delivery as required

Personal Specification
•             Essential - ONC NVQ Level 4 or higher
•             Desirable - Degree in engineering, management, or a relevant discipline.
•             Significant experience in managing traction and rolling stock maintenance operations, including budget and team leadership
•             Demonstrated success in leading cultural change programs and improving operational maturity