The Rail North Partnership is a collaboration between the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport for the North (TfN), which is transforming rail services across the north of England, this is achieved through the joint management of the Northern Trains Ltd (NTL) and TransPennine Express Trains (TPT) rail contracts. 

The Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is a is a major, multi-billion-pound programme of railway improvements which will bring better journeys to passengers travelling across the Pennines between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York.   It’s an ambitious long-term programme that’ll take years to deliver and because of this its important ‘track’ and ‘train’ work together to successfully deliver this programme.  RNP has a key role in ensuring NTL and TPE are fully enabled to support the programme and do so in an efficient, collaborative way.  Transport for the North is England’s first Sub-National Transport Body. We were formed to transform the transport system across the North of England, providing the infrastructure needed to drive economic growth. 

As a partnership, we bring together the North’s local transport authorities and business leaders together with Network Rail, Highways England, and HS2 Ltd and working with Central Government. We enable the North to speak with one voice on the transport infrastructure investment needed to drive transformational growth and rebalance the UK economy. 

TfN role is to add strategic value by ensuring that funding and strategy decisions about transport in the North are informed by local knowledge and requirements. This fits with the devolution agenda and we will draw powers down from central government rather than up from local government.  

Our vision is of a thriving North of England, where modern transport connections drive economic growth and support an excellent quality of life.

What we’re looking for:
We now need a Contract Support Officer to provide support to the RNP TRU Customer Experience team to coordinate the management of documentation to assist in the successful delivery of Train Operator business plans, ensuring timely and collaborative compliance of all operator led activities supporting the design, development and delivery aspects of the TRU programme.  

The primary aim of the role will be to support the delivery of distinct elements of straightforward projects or contribute to the control/delivery of projects/programmes of work as required.  You will be required to support the processes needed to answer questions from government and stakeholders on the delivery of operator activities associated with the TRU programme.  

You will support RNP TRU team, and are expected to be a team player, with the ability to communicate highly and effectively whilst providing exceptional customer centric services.  

You will be adept in problem solving, possess good administration, organisational skills, have an eye for detail and have a background in contract management, commissioning, projects or procurement combined with an ability to develop credible relationships with industry leaders.  You will have a flexible and adaptable approach and ability to think through complex issues to co-ordinate multi-faceted aspects of projects.

You will have a relevant degree, or the equivalent relevant experience in contract management or are working towards professional qualification or chartered status.  You will possess strong IT skills and be competent and confident in using Microsoft packages. Rail industry knowledge would be advantageous, but is not essential.    

We are a small team with a big remit and in return, as well as a competitive salary (cost of living award pending), our other benefits include:

•    28 days holiday per annum (Pro-Rata for part time employees)
•    Access to the local government pension scheme
•    Access to various salary sacrifice benefits, including Travel Pass purchase scheme
•    Access to TfN’s Flexi-Time Scheme – allowing accrual of up to 18 additional days leave per year 
•    Hybrid working in an agile environment, to suit both personal and business needs

If you believe you have the skills and experience we’re looking for please apply online, ensuring that in your application you provide evidence in the form of specific examples of how you meet the essential criteria in the role profile (e.g. E1,E2,E3,E4, etc).

At TfN, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. We are particularly keen to encourage applications from women, members of ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities who are currently under-represented.

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, all applications will be considered on their merit.

As an organisation we always strive to do the right thing and understand that in order to make a difference in our society and workplace, we must be committed to respecting equality and diversity, showing kindness, tackling discrimination and promoting inclusion. We have signed the CIHT Diversity and Inclusion Charter Statement to further endorse our commitment. We are also an accredited Living Wage Employer, which means that every member of staff working for Transport for the North, earns a real Living Wage. TfN is also recognised as Disability Confident employer (stage 2), acting as a Disability Confident champion within our local and business communities and business networks. 

Want to know more? Then visit us on www.transportforthenorth.com. take a look at our twitter page or find us on LinkedIn.