DFTO is the government’s public sector rail owning group. Its purpose is to bring all currently privately-owned train operators into public ownership in advance of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027 – and deliver improvements in the here and now by unifying and integrating train operations under common public ownership.
DFTO has over 30,000 employees, runs over 8,500 services a day and delivers over 640 million customer journeys across its networks every year. 7,000 people joined the railway family in the last year
Major improvements are being delivered by DFTO train operators (TOCs) that are already under public ownership – these are LNER, Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE), Southeastern, South Western Railway (SWR), c2c, Greater Anglia and WM Trains.
We work closely with the DfT but operate independently with our own governance and leadership teams. Our priority is ensuring efficient, dependable rail services for everyone.
Primary Purpose Of Job
The Intercity Express Programme Contract Manager role is the key point of contact between the Department and the private train supply contractor Agility Trains.
This role encompasses close collaborative working across the whole of the DfT, DFTO, relevant Train Operating Companies, wider stakeholders, advisors and external partners. This role is responsible for ensuring delivery of contractual obligations and managing the day-to-day mechanisms and processes of the Intercity Express Programme (IEP) contracts.
The role is varied and fast paced, and you will be responsible for ensuring delivery of benefits to passengers by working with the train suppliers, operators and project teams, supporting management of day-to-day issues as they arise securing delivery of contracted obligations. Monitoring train availability and performance, managing contract changes, drafting reports or Ministerial briefings and correspondence as well leading on administration, and widerinformation management.
This role also leads on the management of advisory and other supporting contracts. This includes procurement (and re-procurement), ongoing management of deliverables andperformance monitoring.
In this role you will gain practical delivery experience in stakeholder and supplier management as well building up strong contract management capability. As you learn to manage these high value, complex contracts, you develop the commercial awareness to support the Department for Transport to drive and deliver positive outcomes for rail passengers.
Key Responsibilities
Knowledge, Skills, Experience & Technical Qualifications
We are looking for candidates with:
Vacancy Details
Duration: Permanent or Secondment
Location: Leeds
Salary: up to £42,596
Closing date: 6th May 2026
DFTO Benefits
Annual Leave: Starting at 25 days and rising to an additional day per year of service completed within the first 5 completed years up to a maximum of 5 additional (30 days)
DC Pension Scheme: 10% Employer contribution, 5% Employee contribution
Opportunities to learn and network across the wider industry
Additional Information…
Disclaimer: Candidates applying for this position on a secondment basis must inform their line manager prior to submitting their application. This is to ensure transparency and facilitate any necessary discussions regarding workload and responsibilities.
About our people and the recruitment process – We’re an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don’t always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we’ll do our best to help and invest in your career with us, whilst you have a healthy work life balance.
Contact: If you have any questions or reasonable adjustments, please contact Amra.Hurley@dftoperator.co.uk.
Please do not email any CV’s to us, your application must be made by clicking the ‘Apply’ button.
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