Governance and Assurance Lead

Location: TfL Head office Buildings, TfL Corporate

Salary: Up to £85,000.00 (dependant on experience)

Grade: Pay Band 4

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Stratford / Southark / Hybrid

Application closing date: Friday 14th of August at 23:59

All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory right‑to‑work checks. Candidates must be able to demonstrate their right to work in the UK. At the present time TfL is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

*Hybrid working within this role enables a balance of 50 per cent of time split between the office and home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements can evolve subject to business requirements.

Overview of role

This role is responsible for establishing, implementing, and continuously improving engineering governance frameworks, policies, and processes across Engineering & Asset Strategy. The role ensures robust technical assurance and oversight of engineering risk management, including asset safety verification in collaboration with the Chief Safety Officer. The post holder leads the development of clear and effective governance arrangements where none exist, ensures compliance with engineering standards, and provides independent assurance on behalf of the Director of Engineering & Asset Strategy. This role is critical in maintaining safety, integrity, and accountability across TfL’s engineering activities.

Key Accountabilities

• To provide strategic leadership in driving the delivery and implementation of the detailed design phase E&AS’s Technical Governance (TG) workstream.
• Communicate the ambition and benefits of the TG initiative in a compelling manner to ensure wide‑spread buy‑in and support across the organisation.
• Manage team members and work collaboratively with external consultants and the TG Working Group to achieve the key milestones.
• Identify key and/or recurrent issues arising from TG reviews and assessments and inform SLT and align work with wider/existing E&AS and/or TfL initiatives to avoid duplication and maximise synergies and impact.
• Identify and develop synergies between the TG and other workstreams and initiatives in E&AS and wider TfL to maximise impact in achieving TfL corporate objectives.
• Create and embed a technical governance strategy for engineering and asset strategy, this includes defining technical authority and escalation routes for decision‑making.
• Develop assurance processes tailored to different delivery models (e.g., capital programmes) and standardise governance practices across modes and projects.
• Implement mechanisms to track compliance and assurance activities, through defining governance and assurance reporting lines (e.g., Chief Capital Officer, Chief Safety Officer, Executive Committee).
• Work with SLT and delivery areas to clarify accountabilities and close gaps and act as escalation point for disputes or ambiguity in technical decisions.

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Skills

• Policy & Process Development – ability to design and embed governance and assurance frameworks from scratch.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Influence – Skilled at working with senior leaders, technical heads, and delivery teams to gain buy‑in.
• Analytical & Critical Thinking – Assess gaps in compliance and assurance processes and identify efficiencies.
• Communication & Reporting – Clear articulation of governance requirements and assurance outcomes to senior stakeholders.
• Change Management – Drive cultural and behavioural change to embed governance practices across diverse teams.

Knowledge

• Technical Governance Frameworks – deep understanding of governance principles, assurance processes, and compliance requirements in engineering.
• Standards & Regulatory Requirements – knowledge of industry standards, safety regulations, and organisational accountability for compliance.
• Engineering & Asset Management – familiarity with engineering disciplines and asset lifecycle management across multiple modes.
• Risk Management – Understanding of operational, reputational, and compliance risks and how governance mitigates them.
• Organisational Structures & Delivery Models – awareness of how engineering interfaces with delivery areas and capital programmes.

Experience

• Experience of delivering change and actively challenging the status quo to find new ways of doing things, by drawing on and looking for good practice.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to engage confidently with senior leaders and build effective working relationships, with people at all levels across the organisation.
• Excellent communication skills both written and oral with an ability to influence and inspire at all levels in achieving a common vision or goal.
• Excellent leadership of both direct reports and wider delivery teams, including experience of driving timely project delivery.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to represent the city we serve, which will help us become a more innovative and efficient organisation. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. We are a disability confident employer who guarantee an interview to any disabled candidate who meets all of the essential criteria. We also use anonymising software that removes identifying information from CVs and cover letters to make the process fair.

Benefits

• Final salary pension scheme
• Free travel for you on the TfL network
• Reimbursement of 75% of the cost of a standard class Ticket for National Rail travel from home
• 30 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays
• TfL is committed to work‑life balance, operating a hybrid working approach where business and role requirements allow
• Private healthcare discounted scheme (optional)
• Tax‑efficient cycle‑to‑work programme
• Retail, health, leisure and travel offers
• Discounted Eurostar travel

We will make every effort to give you as much notice as possible, however some interviews/assessments could be organised at short notice.