Depot Manager

Role: Depot Manager Location: Wembley Contract Type: Permanent Salary: Competitive

Job Purpose Provide senior leadership for all rolling stock maintenance, servicing, and depot operations at Chiltern Railways. Own the strategic direction of the depot, driving a transformational culture shift focused on safety, quality, performance, and operational excellence. Align depot performance with wider business goals while ensuring compliance with legal, regulatory, and company standards

Key Accountabilities

• Act as the senior-most authority on site, accountable for achieving all safety, performance, quality, and customer service metrics

• Develop and execute the depot strategy in alignment with long-term business and fleet plans

• Provide inspirational leadership, establishing clear expectations, driving accountability, and championing continuous improvement

• Drive a positive culture change program, embedding proactive safety behaviours, engagement, and collaboration

• Lead cultural change to embed proactive safety behaviours and promote a high-performance, engaged workforce

• Ensure safe systems of work are established, maintained, and followed for all depot activities, providing assurance through audits and feedback to individuals

• Investigate and lead audits, inspections, and investigations to drive compliance, learning, and continuous improvement

• Manage depot workload delivery to meet maintenance plans for Chiltern Railways and other customers, ensuring high-quality output and compliance with standards

• Maintain appropriate staffing levels, skill competencies, and training plans to deliver operational needs now and in the future

• Own the full depot budget, including staffing, tooling, facilities, materials, and revenue generation opportunities

• Build strong strategic relationships with internal stakeholders (e.g. Safety Team, HR, Performance, Operations) and external partners (e.g., Network Rail, ROSCOs, contractors, suppliers) to achieve depot and fleet targets

• Oversee contractor compliance, safety practices, and delivery quality

• Maintain accurate asset condition data to support asset management planning and long-term fleet performance

• Support depot improvements by providing input on infrastructure changes from an end-user perspective

• Ensure compliance with all health, safety, environmental, and railway standards by collaborating with relevant team

• Chair and represent the depot for local consultations, influence engagement, and negotiation meetings with staff representatives and trade union

• Undertake general and statutory inspections as required

• Participate in the engineering on-call rota, providing senior support for unplanned events

• Cover other roles in the engineering team, and deputise for Head of Fleet Delivery as required

Personal Specification Essential

• ONC NVQ Level 4 or higher

• Significant experience in managing traction and rolling stock maintenance operations, including budget and team leadership

• Demonstrated success in leading cultural change programs and improving operational maturity

• Strong understanding of railway safety standards and regulatory requirements

• Excellent communication skills for engaging effectively at all levels, both internally and externally

• Analytical skills with the ability to solve complex technical and operational challenges

• Strong experience with union engagement, chairing meetings, consultations, and negotiations

• Proficiency with IT systems relevant to fleet maintenance and depot management

• Commitment to continuous personal and team development

Desirable

• Degree in engineering, management, or a relevant discipline