Operational Control Resilience Lead in London

About DFT Operator

Join Our Team at DFTO

DFTO is the government’s 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 30,000 employees, runs over 11,000 services a day and delivers over 930 million customer journeys across its networks every year. 7,000 people 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, WM Trains, GTR. and Chiltern.

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:

Lead a focused, evidence-based review of operational control resilience across DFTO train operators and relevant Network Rail control functions. The postholder will test whether contingency arrangements would work in practice, identify material vulnerabilities and dependencies, and develop a common industry resilience standard and ongoing assurance framework.

The role requires pace, independence of thought and the credibility to work directly with senior operational leaders. It is a delivery role, not a further desktop review: the postholder will challenge assumptions, run practical exercises, escalate urgent risks and leave a clear, measurable route to improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of the Operational Control Resilience Review, maintaining a clear plan, evidence base, risk log and weekly reporting cadence.
• Engage directly with Network Rail Heads of Control, DFTO train operator Heads of Control, the RDG Rail Resilience Team and relevant technical specialists.
• Review existing resilience, contingency, recovery and business continuity arrangements and assess whether they are understood, maintained and deliverable during real disruption.
• Design and facilitate tabletop exercises, challenge sessions and evidence reviews using representative control-failure scenarios.
• Test resilience across people, processes, technology and facilities, including power, communications, telephony, cyber security, access to fallback sites and third-party dependencies.
• Challenge critical assumptions including competent staff availability, deputy arrangements, mobilisation and travel, generator capability, mobile devices and access credentials.
• Assess command, control, escalation, recovery milestones and handback arrangements during major incidents.
• Assess interoperability between train operators and Network Rail, including mutual aid, regional support and temporary transfer of operational responsibilities.
• Identify common vulnerabilities, dependencies and single points of failure, escalating any significant or immediate risk without delay.
• Develop practical recommendations with clear ownership and timescales, distinguishing immediate actions, medium-term improvements and strategic opportunities.
• Build senior alignment around a common operational control resilience standard and sustainable assurance regime.
• Prepare concise, high-quality reports and presentations for DFTO and Network Rail leadership.

Key Deliverables:

• A concise assessment of resilience maturity across the 14 DFTO operators and relevant Network Rail control functions.
• An industry vulnerability register covering common risks, dependencies, assumptions, vulnerabilities and single points of failure.
• A proposed minimum operational control resilience standard covering people and competence; facilities; power, technology and cyber resilience; communications; mutual aid; recovery; command and decision-making; and testing requirements.
• A proposed assurance framework, including quarterly tabletop exercises, annual live recovery exercises, technology and power failover testing, cyber-response exercises, joint Network Rail and operator exercises, governance, reporting and escalation.
• A prioritised action plan covering 0-3 months, 3-12 months and 12+ months, with named ownership and proposed delivery timescales.
• A final report and leadership presentation setting out whether current arrangements are likely to work in practice and the actions required to strengthen whole-system resilience.

Measures of Success

• A quantified understanding of the highest risks in current operational control resilience arrangements.
• Clear evidence on whether contingency arrangements would work in practice.
• Agreement on ownership and timescales for priority improvement actions.
• A credible common resilience standard and assurance framework capable of measuring improvement over time
• Immediate risks escalated quickly and acted upon.
• Greater senior confidence that the railway can sustain operations and recover effectively following a major loss of control capability.

Knowledge, Skills, Experience & Technical Qualifications:

Essential criteria

• Significant operational leadership experience in rail, transport, infrastructure, emergency management, business continuity or another safety-critical environment.
• Demonstrable experience of operational control, incident management, resilience, recovery or business continuity.
• Experience of independently testing plans through exercises, structured challenge, assurance or audit, rather than relying only on document review.
• Ability to identify systemic risk, dependencies and single points of failure across organisations and technical interfaces.
• Credibility to challenge senior operational leaders constructively and secure timely evidence and action.
• Strong programme delivery skills, with the ability to work at pace, manage multiple stakeholders and convert analysis into practical recommendations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including concise reporting for executive audiences.
• Sound judgement, discretion and the ability to escalate urgent operational vulnerabilities appropriately.
• Please note: the postholder will be expected to travel regularly to operational control locations and may occasionally need to work flexibly to observe exercises or operational activity.

Desirable criteria

• Direct experience of railway control, route or train operator operations.
• Knowledge of control technologies, communications, power resilience, cyber risk or fallback facilities.
• Experience of joint working across infrastructure managers, operators, government or industry bodies.
• A relevant qualification in business continuity, emergency planning, risk, audit, safety or programme management.

Vacancy Details:

Duration: Fixed Term up to 31st October 2027 contract/secondment
Location: We currently have officesin London Waterloo, Leeds, Birmingham, Flexible / hybrid, with regular travel to operational control locations across Great Britain
Salary bandings : £76,764 to £85,294
Closing date: 30th November2026

DFTO Locations:

DFTO currently have office locations in London, Birmingham and Leeds and individuals can be based from any of the three locations. Whilst we do offer hybrid working there are sometimes demands to travel to the other office locations.

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 - We're an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don't always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we'll 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 Dean.palmer@dftoperator.co.uk

Please do not email any CV's to us, your application must be made by clicking the 'Apply' button.