Station Facilities Manager

Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to improve quality of life, by bringing people together to get the most out of life.

SWR is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier. FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.

About the job

Responsible for the delivery of all asset maintenance and repairs to the South Western Railway and Island Line station buildings and their surroundings in accordance with the Station Access Conditions and the requirements of ISO

Ensure works are delivered to an appropriate technical standard, in a safe manner, ensuring value for money, and to satisfy all regulatory, statutory, contractual and business requirements.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Develop strong relationships throughout the Business with stakeholders and particularly with the Station Management Team. Represent the Infrastructure & Property Department as required.
• Develop efficient and effective measures to enhance the capability in managing servicing, repairs and maintenance activities.
• Manage the Maintenance Works Manager and all servicing, maintenance, repairs and renewals contracts delivered by external contractors.
• Mange the SWR Maintenance Help Desk personnel x2, to ensure all reactive faults and orders are recorded and issued to the relevant Maintenance Contractor.
• Lead the SWR maintenance team in the changes required to more robustly deliver sustainability works, meet regulatory and safety obligations, and develop strong relationships with the Network Rail Route Asset Management department.
• Develop practices and procedures as appropriate to reduce the reliance on and cost of reactive maintenance.
• Responsible for the delivery of the reactive and planned maintenance work carried out by Infrastructure & Property front-line teams including Handymen, Graffiti team and Property Services teams, to ensure that repairs and maintenance work are carried out to standards and within set timescales, ensuring best value for money.
• Develop and maintain KPIs for all aspects of maintenance, servicing and repair activities.
• Lead the safety management of the direct labour and any contractors employed. Work closely with the HQ Health & Safety department to ensure compliance with all obligations. Request and assess method statements and risk assessments and carry out due consultation with the safety team prior to approval by the Safety Manager.
• Accountable for work programs carried out by contractors and staff and ensuring that they are delivered as planned and that SWR maintains its legal compliance in all areas of responsibility.
• Manage the interface with Network Rail's fault system, ensuring the correct split of responsibilities between organisations.
• Develop and maintain the key relationships with contractors in support of the reactive and planned maintenance contracts and develop effective and efficient long-term solutions for the contracting strategy.
• Responsible for the delivery of maintenance activities to be carried out by other contractors and staff where this falls outside of established contract agreements, ensuring that this is completed to appropriate standards and within timescales, ensuring value for money.
• Provide professional advice on technical issues including provision of budget estimates to other staff within SWR.
• Develop annual budgets and ensure that budget provisions within areas of responsibility are not exceeded. Regularly monitor expenditure against budget and take necessary action to keep expenditure in line with budget.
• Chair meetings in conjunction with the performance of the role, including monthly liaison meetings with contractors and others within SWR.
• Ensure that all records, reports and correspondence as required in the undertaking of the role are completed and maintained in line with regulatory, legislative, Asset management and company procedures.
• Manage staff following the set South Western Railway procedures, ensuring that documentation is completed, and records kept or passed on as appropriate.

You'll need:

• Must have good written and verbal communication skills.
• Must have good IT skills and be comfortable using email, spreadsheet and word-processing software and have extensive experience of planned and reactive maintenance job tracking databases.
• Should have a practical approach to construction with a clear sense of practicability and costs.
• Must have a proven ability to develop and maintain strong relationships at all levels within a large organisation.
• High standards of general education and ideally with professional qualifications in a building maintenance or construction discipline to minimum HNC level.
• A thorough knowledge of construction Health & Safety legislation, ideally with relevant experience of Health & Safety in the railway environment.
• A sound knowledge of construction and its legislative framework and ideally experience of construction in the railway technical environment.
• Must have extensive hands on experience of managing a large front-line operational staff team in a property maintenance environment and preferably within a large organisation.
• Ideally should have an understanding, experience or qualification in ISO 55001 Asset Management.

Applicants who require a visa must have 6 months remaining at the time of their appointment. Training is full time and you must be able to commit to this.

Working pattern

On average you will work 37 hours across 5 days per week. Typically Monday - Friday.

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Large range of exclusive retail offers
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.