Customer Experience Strategy and Governance Manager

Location: Derby - Head Office

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary: £66,000.00 - £74,000.00 depending on experience

First Class Duty Travel, Free Leisure Travel with EMR and discounted travel with other train operators and Eurostar

Closing Date: Sunday 18 January 2026

Interview Date: To be confirmed

Reference: 2026-CXSGM

We are proud to be One Team at East Midlands Railway (EMR). We are passionate about keeping people safe, delighting our customers, doing the right thing, and putting customers at the heart of our sustainable railway for the East Midlands. With over 2,600 employees, our people are the reason we are so successful, and our Customer Experience team plays a crucial role in shaping how passengers experience our network every day. Nine times accredited as a Top Employer and Gold accredited for Inclusive Employers Standards, we value our people and are committed to creating an environment where everyone feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work.

Are you a strategic thinker with strong governance expertise and a passion for improving customer experience in a complex, regulated environment? We have an exciting opportunity to join East Midlands Railway as a Customer Experience Strategy & Governance Manager, a pivotal role supporting the Customer Experience Director to deliver a safe, reliable and industry-leading customer experience across our network.

What You'll Be Doing

• Act as a strategic partner, operational integrator and programme leader for the Customer Experience Directorate.
• Ensure priorities are clearly defined, governance is robust, and delivery is aligned with business objectives, regulatory commitments and customer outcomes.
• Own and drive the Customer Experience Directorate Strategy, ensuring alignment with wider business goals and regulatory requirements, supported by clear plans, milestones, KPIs and governed reporting of progress, risks and opportunities.
• Coordinate and lead the development and delivery of strategic programmes and workstreams across the CX function.
• Establish and maintain effective governance frameworks, aligned to EMR's PMO standards.
• Design and oversee real-time performance dashboards to support data-led decision making.
• Use CX, business and industry data to define, oversee and challenge performance reporting.
• Manage key internal and external stakeholder relationships.
• Prepare high-quality briefing materials, board papers, decision papers and regulatory submissions.
• Support the Annual Business Planning process for the Customer Experience Directorate.
• Coordinate CX Leadership Team meetings.
• Champion continuous improvement, leading end-to-end process reviews and audits.
• Support the Performance Based Fee Scorecard pipeline and governance process.
• Actively support EMR's Sustainability commitments.

This is a highly visible role that blends strategy, governance, performance insight and stakeholder influence, enabling the Customer Experience Director to focus on senior leadership, engagement and long-term transformation of end-to-end passenger journeys.

What We're Looking For

• A degree-level qualification or equivalent relevant experience.
• Experience in continuous improvement methodologies and/or APM or equivalent project management qualifications is desirable.
• Significant experience in customer strategy, governance, compliance or related roles.
• Strong programme and portfolio management skills.
• Excellent project management, reporting and performance tracking capability.
• Exceptional communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• High attention to detail, with the ability to produce a wide range of high-quality outputs.
• Proven experience establishing and managing compliance and governance systems.
• Experience supporting or advising senior leaders and executive teams.
• Well-developed data visualisation and presentation skills.

You'll need to be comfortable working at pace, managing ambiguity and balancing strategic thinking with operational reality. We're looking for someone with strong judgement, collaboration and a customer-first mindset. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to play a central, strategic role in shaping how customer experience is planned, governed and delivered at East Midlands Railway.

As we operate a blind screening process, please remove your name and personal details from your CV.