Location
London Puddle Dock, Blackfriars

Hours
Full Time

Salary
£46,701 - £56,963

About the Role
Join the Southern Region where your work truly matters. Covering Wessex, Sussex, and Kent, the Southern Region is one of the busiest and most dynamic parts of the railway. Our teams keep some of the UK's most vital passenger and freight routes moving every single day. This is a place where collaboration, innovation, and resilience are key and where your contribution will directly impact millions of journeys.
We are entering an exciting new chapter as we integrate with train operating companies under one national leadership, creating even greater opportunities to shape the future of rail. From supporting major modernisation programmes to improving performance for local communities and enhancing safety across complex operational environments, Southern offers a fast-paced, rewarding environment to grow your career and make a real difference.

As Senior Strategic Planner, you will lead and develop the production of strategic documents in line with the Long Term Planning Process (LTPP). You will support and maintain stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally, to ensure agreement and alignment of key strategic outputs. You will manage virtual teams, incorporating expertise from across the rail industry, to understand strategic constraints and issues when developing strategic advice.

Our strategic planning team aims to demonstrate how improving rail services in the Wessex Route can meet the long-term needs of the railway, stakeholders, the economy, and passengers, while providing more immediate benefits to service performance and resilience. We seek an adaptable individual who can lead and develop relationships with Route and cross-regional teams, technical experts, external stakeholders, and funders to achieve the best outcomes for the industry.

While knowledge of performance analysis and the performance issues affecting the Wessex Route is advantageous, it is not mandatory, as you will work closely with relevant teams across the business.

Key Accountabilities
- Facilitate cross-functional input to the development of Strategic Advice.
- Contribute to development of Strategic Advice for specified routes, supporting decision-making to meet stakeholder needs and priorities, including regulatory outputs and customer commitments.
- Manage analysis for capacity studies considering existing capability, contractual and regulatory obligations, and future traffic levels.
- Review Strategic Advice for consistency with other industry plans, particularly relating to new rolling stock.
- Review maintenance and renewal plans for strategic fit and consistency with Strategic Advice, ensuring renewals and enhancement projects reflect route needs.
- Support the Strategic Planning team's activities as required by the line manager.

Experience
- Experience of network strategy and business planning.
- Understanding of basic infrastructure issues influencing capacity.
- Good relationship management with experience in cross-functional, collaborative working.
- Knowledge of the rail industry and commercial framework.
- Good commercial and financial awareness, including economic trade-off analysis.

About you
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Adaptable and able to lead and develop relationships with diverse teams and stakeholders.
- Numerate with a degree or equivalent qualification.
- Collaborative and motivated to contribute to a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Qualifications
- Numerate degree or equivalent.
- Desirable: Knowledge of Network Rail's sponsorship and investment processes and procedures.
- Desirable: Knowledge of project development and delivery processes.
- Desirable: Wide-ranging knowledge of the customers and assets of the route.