Job Title: Head of Operations – Specialist teams
Contract Type: Permanent
Number of Posts: 1
Grade: A (Grade 6)
Salary:London: £75,759 - £80,859; Regional: £71,283 - £76,532
Hours/FTE: Part Time, Full Time, Flexible Working, Job Share
Location: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, York, Glasgow
Security Vetting: BPSS
Reports To: Deputy Director, Railway Safety
Direct Report(s): 7
Directorate: Railway Safety
Team: Specialist Teams
Team information:
The Team provides specialist, topic-based support to RSD in our strategic risk priority subjects. We share intelligence; we lead inspection & investigation work across RSD in our specialist areas. We help set strategic direction.
Job Purpose:
Drives improvement in health and safety management and risk control, by leading and planning our strategic and tactical engagement across a full range of regulatory levers, as well as ensuring ORR’s railway safety directorate maintains and improves our understanding of industry risk.
For example, this function is currently:
* Leading our work to drive improvement in the management of civil structures and earthworks
* Leading our policy and process for determining and communicating ORR’s view on priority risk topics
* Designing and delivering our strategic approach to improving the rail industry’s risk control for key areas such as fatigue, civil asset management, electrical and digital safety, and train overspeed
Key Responsibilities:
You will manage a number of teams that have a total of 13 people in them, based across all of our offices.
Your key responsibilities, although not exhaustive, will include:
Strategic engagement:
* Lead, promote and engage with ORR’s 4 core values (being ambitious, innovative, professional and collaborative)
* National policy and programmes including periodic review and monitoring;
* Statutory processes including investigations and Railway Accident Investigation Branch recommendation handling
* High level, high profile external engagement, challenging the industry to do better and responding to our stakeholders
* Owning our emerging processes for assessing industry risk, including the Risk Management Maturity Model, and managing our internal and published strategies for addressing them
* Working with colleagues planning our activities across a range of regulatory interventions, including Strategic Intervention Plans, which set out objectives and outcome measures to drive improvement in key areas across a range of disciplines, activities, guidance, education, leadership and influencing
* Coordinating specialist support to operational and policy work
* Working with colleagues, contribute to leading competency management and learning and development of our specialist inspector, inspectors, inspector assistants and trainees
Tactical support to planning and management of inspection programmes:
* Overseeing planning and delivery of inspection, collating and communicating inspection findings and conclusions
* Leading specialist input to our operational work, supporting investigations and provision of expert opinion
* Sharing and collaborating across ORR directorates and teams
Essential Criteria:
When assessing your application, these are the criteria that you are assessed against:
Behaviours:
* Leadership
* Seeing the Big Picture
* Making Effective Decisions
* Communicating and Influencing
Experience:
* Offering analytical challenge at the highest levels
* Previous experience and knowledge of applying the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and associated legislation in a safety critical industry, or the demonstrable ability to quickly acquire the necessary knowledge and experience.
Technical:
* The ability to discuss, present and persuade technical detail in support of strategic plans.
Mandatory Qualifications:
* Be a warranted inspector able to demonstrate the full use of the range of both informal and regulatory levers to secure improvements or be able to undertake the training to obtain a specialist inspectors warrant.
This job description provides an overview of key duties and responsibilities and is not exhaustive. You may be expected to undertake other duties and responsibilities within the scope of your role and as appropriate for your grade.
How we will assess your application:
At ORR, we use the Civil Service ‘Success Profiles’ framework for our recruitment. Please refer to the Candidate Information Pack accompanying this advert for details.
When completing your application form, please ensure you provide evidence of how you meet each of the essential criteria listed above for this post.
1. Shortlisting:
We will assess you against these elements at shortlisting:
* Leadership
* Seeing the Big Picture
* Making Effective Decisions
* Experience
If there are a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial pre-sift based on the lead criteria for this role which is: Making Effective Decisions. Successful candidates at the pre-sifting stage will then progress to a full sift.
2. Interview:
We will assess you against all essential criteria at interview stage, as well as the strengths associated with the role. We want to hear your first, unrehearsed, natural response to the strength questions, and so we don’t advertise which strengths are being tested.
A test or presentation may be included as part of our assessment for the essential criteria.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
You will be informed by email within 14 days of the job advert closing whether or not you are being invited to attend an interview. Currently, and subject to confirmation, interviews are expected to take place on 25 and the 27 March 2025 in our London office.
Security Vetting:
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (BPSS) checks.
To apply, please visit our website via the button below.
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