Depot Manager
Location: Aylesbury
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: Up to £80,000 per annum
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
- Desirable – Degree in engineering, management, or a relevant discipline.
- 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
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