Operative

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Operative [Track Maintenance] - Fast-Track opportunities available

Sector: Transport and Logistics
Role: Manual Skilled
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: Full Time

About Network Rail
We're proud to be recognised as one of the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equity for the fourth year running. Find out more from our people here.

Network Rail operates and maintains the railway infrastructure 24/7 365 days a year. Our purpose is to connect people and goods with where they need to be and our vision is for a simpler, better, greener railway.

The North West route is part of the North West and Central region and runs from Cheshire in the south to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Cumbria in the North, with the two Northern Powerhouse cities of Liverpool and Manchester on the route, as well as the tourist destinations of Blackpool and the Lake District.

Major stations across the route include Crewe, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly.

We're a very busy region, with 1.3 million passengers travelling on our rails every weekday, and 700,000 tonnes of freight moved a week. With 571 stations in the North West & Central region, we make up a quarter of Britain's railway system.

For us, Diversity means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make. Inclusion means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

We value the commitments you may have outside of work and will consider flexible and hybrid working applications. If we can make it work we will! Please click here for more information.

Brief Description
Are you interested in Track Maintenance?

Do you enjoy hands-on problem solving, fault finding and inspection?

Do you want to work for a company that gets railway passengers from A to B safely?

Then this might be a role for you!

We are looking to recruit for a range of roles within our Track team across the Cumbrian Fells and Yorkshire Dales. We want to fill Operative and Technician roles which could be based out of one of our depots located in Appleby-in-Westmorland and Horton in Ribblesdale.

As part of the role, you will undertake inspection, faulting, track maintenance and track renewal. An Operative is the first step in a Track maintenance career but there are progression opportunities into Technician then Team Leader roles and above.

You will be enrolled on a 12-to-18-month training programme, which involves classroom and practical hands-on learning experiences. You will also be partnered with an experienced member of staff to help aid your training. Once this training has been completed, you will have gained the experience and training required to progress to a technician role and beyond.

Track maintenance offers a dynamic and diverse role based on mechanical engineering skills. There is a variety in tasks, from walking the tracks to finding faults to taking the track apart and putting it back together, in a limited timeframe to ensure the trains can begin running as scheduled once the work is completed. This ensures that no two days are the same.

You will be working on tasks such as:

Track inspection: walking the tracks to find faults and fix them before they become an issue.

Track maintenance: attending faults identified by the track recording vehicles and carrying out manual repairs.

Support OTM's: provide support to on track machines such as tampers and stoneblowers.

We value individuals with transferable skills, a willingness to learn, and a desire to develop new skills. This includes people who have experience with:

General labouring skills, such as using petrol powered machinery.

Mechanical problem-solving, for example car mechanics or metal working.

Basic IT knowledge, such as using an iPad.

Whether you're new to the field or bringing experience from another technical discipline, there are plenty of opportunities for growth and advancement within Network Rail.

Please Note: There may be a requirement to work on call in this role if you opt to take the GTRM IMC25 contract.

About the role (External)

You'll be responsible for maintaining, inspecting and repairing the track network (also known as the Permanent Way or P-Way) to keep the railway safe and efficient. This is a very manual role as you'll be working with rails, sleepers and ballast that support the trains, together with their associated drainage and ancillary structures.

Operative Position: You will be a key member of the team, carrying out tasks as directed by the Team Leader. You'll be responsible for ensuring that work is completed safely, efficiently, and to the required standards.

You'll also check that vehicles, plant, tools, equipment and materials under your control are fit for use and are used/stored and disposed of correctly.

This role is essential for maintaining the smooth functioning of operations, and it sets the foundation for career progression into more technical or leadership roles within Track.

Technician Position: This role builds upon the Operative position and adds more responsibility, including leadership, technical expertise, and oversight of work quality.

You will provide support to the Team Leader to organise and motivate the team so that work is undertaken safely, efficiently and to the relevant standards. Undertake inspection, faulting, maintenance and renewal work as allocated and where directed, act as Team Leader.

You'll also accurately report all work completed/not completed and produce/maintain records as required and control and check the quality of work undertaken and confirm assets are compliant to standards.

Essential Criteria

• Able to work as part of a team.
• Able and willing to drive vehicles as required by business need.
• Have interest or experience in Mechanical Engineering.
• Be willing to work outdoors in all weather types at any time of the day.
• Willing to learn and maintain competence from a variety of differing training methods.
• Desire to always improve yourself and make things better.

Desirable Criteria

• Already hold a valid PTS.
• Hold qualifications in Mechanical engineering from either further education or from previous employment, or be able to demonstrate these principles from experience.

This role involves days, nights and weekend working, and is a safety critical role, so subject to drug and alcohol testing and passing of the relevant medical assessment. You must also live within a 60-minute driving distance from the location you will be working from.

Company

Every day, 4.8 million people use our network. Keeping Britain moving and building a better railway for the future is full of challenges – but also tremendous opportunities.

From our commitments to your development, our range of benefits and our approach to Diversity & Inclusion, we believe there are many reasons to join the team at Network Rail.

We’re proactive in empowering employees with the knowledge to help them progress. We encourage all our employees to be ambitious and offer great training and career development opportunities. As the railway becomes bigger and more technologically advanced, it’s crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead.

We believe that investing in our people is one of the most effective ways of improving the safety, reliability and efficiency of the railway.

We also know that it’s vital to get each individual’s training programme just right. As well as helping us to meet our immediate needs, we believe this is an approach that encourages people to stay with us and develop their careers.

Your health, wellbeing and benefits

We believe that safety and performance go hand in hand and this doesn’t just mean safety on the railway! We are committed to the wellbeing of our employees and believe that should come first.

We provide access to support services such as our employee assistance program to help you with finances, family, health and wellbeing. In addition to this, we offer excellent benefits, are sensitive to work-life balance and encourage our employees to use their 5 volunteer days for their favourite causes.

We have a range of benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave entitlement.
• My benefits – Our discounted online shopping site.
• A range of discounted offers including childcare vouchers, Healthcare offers – cycle to work, healthcare club discounted membership and other benefits.
• Subsidies of up to 75% on rail and underground season tickets.
• A range of pension schemes.
• 2 weeks paid reserve leave for our Armed Forces community.

What Diversity and Inclusion means to us

‘Diversity’ means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make. ‘Inclusion’ means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourage innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

Our aspiration is that the behaviours and actions that support diversity and inclusion will come from the conviction of everyone here at Network Rail – making diversity and inclusion a conscious part of how we run our business throughout Britain.

Disability Confident Leader

Network Rail is an accredited Disability Confident Leader. This means, where a disabled applicant meets the essential criteria for any of our vacancies, they will receive an interview.

Find out more about our recruitment process here.

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