We are proud to be One Team at East Midlands Railway (EMR). We are passionate about keeping people safe, delighting our customers, doing the right thing and putting customers at the heart of our sustainable railway for the East Midlands. With over 2,600 employees, our people are the reason we are so successful, and the Operations team make a crucial contribution to this.
Nine times accredited as a Top Employer and Gold accredited for Inclusive Employers Standards, we value our people and are dedicated to making sure that everybody feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work.
Driver Competency Development Manager (Operations)
Ready to shape the future of rail safety and driver performance?
We’re looking for a highly experienced rail professional to lead and evolve our driver competency development programmes. If you’re passionate about improving safety, driving consistency, and empowering people through training and development, this could be the perfect next step in your railway career.
What you’ll be doing:
As the Driver Competency Development Manager, you’ll be at the forefront of delivering critical safety and competency initiatives, including:
1. Leading the design and delivery of Safety Discussion briefs aligned with real-world risks and trends.
2. Overseeing SIM training plans and ensuring their effective use in developing driver skills.
3. Supporting and developing Instructors and Mentors through tailored training and guidance.
4. Chairing CMS standardisation meetings to drive consistency across all driver competency assessments.
5. Conducting quality assurance checks to ensure high standards and continuous improvement.
6. Representing driver professionalism by maintaining your own driver competency and supporting on-call duties.
What you bring:
7. A fully competent Driver with extensive experience, ideally with time spent as an instructor or Mentor.
8. Strong knowledge of railway operational rules, industry regulations, and safety practices.
9. Familiarity with EMR operations and geography.
10. Experience in incident investigations and risk management (desirable).
11. Working towards or holding relevant qualifications in instruction (L11/L12), assessing (A1), and verification (V1).
12. TOLO qualification (Train Operating Liaison Officer).
Why join us?
You’ll play a key role in reducing performance and safety incidents and contribute to shaping a culture of operational excellence. This is an opportunity to influence, innovate, and make a tangible impact across the driver function.
We’re committed to sustainability and continuous development—for our people and the communities we serve.
As well as a competitive salary, we’ll also offer you:
13. Defined benefit Pension scheme
14. Free standard leisure travel on the EMR network and Train Operating Companies under Abellio & LNER
15. Friends and Family discounted tickets on the EMR network
16. 75% discount on national leisure travel (inc partner and dependants)
17. …and many more!
At EMR we want to proactively embrace diversity across our workforce and recognise that we are under-represented in terms of females and ethnic minority groups. We’re therefore taking positive steps to promote a positive and inclusive culture; we welcome applications from those that identify with these groups to better represent our communities.