Head of Technical Strategy and Governance

Head of Technical Strategy and Governance

Reporting into – Director of Engineering & Asset Strategy

Contract – Permanent

Band – 5

Vacancy Type – Full Time

Location – Palestra

About Us

This is a unique and exciting opportunity to join the senior leadership team in TfL’s Engineering & Asset Strategy Directorate as the Head of Technical Strategy and Governance.  The Head of Technical Strategy and Governance role sits within the Chief Capital Office but operates across TfL.

Engineering & Asset Strategy sets engineering standards and provides engineering and asset strategy expertise to the business.  The directorate is key to the success of TfL, with a large scope of work, serving maintenance, renewals and enhancements across all modes. It is responsible for providing engineering oversight and assurance, defining technical standards and safe practices, and ensuring both safety and efficiency across TfL services. Engineering & Asset Strategy oversees engineering outcomes related to £5.69bn of planned asset expenditure for London Underground and £2.45bn for Rail over the next five years, underpinning its critical role in TfL’s operations and long-term goals.

Our commitment extends beyond serving customers and colleagues to include environmental stewardship and sustainability. We aspire to be a leading force for environmental responsibility in London, striving for financial and environmental sustainability while enhancing social values to ensure a resilient and high-quality life for all Londoners.

About the Role:

As the Head of Technical Strategy and Governance, you will report directly into the Director of Engineering & Asset Strategy (E&AS) and be part of the E&AS leadership team.

As a part of the Engineering & Asset Strategy senior leadership team, you will have collective responsibility for shaping and driving the vision, strategy and performance of the Directorate. You will be an inspirational leader and a proactive advocate for Engineering & Asset Strategy, championing safety, diversity and inclusion, and the environment to deliver positive outcomes and progressive change within the team and wider organisation.

As the Head of Technical Strategy & Governance, you will be responsible for the development, delivery and continuous improvement of E&AS’s technical strategy and technical frameworks to support TfL’s vision, values and strategic pillars, enabling us to deliver safer, more sustainable and more efficient solutions and greater value.

You will be responsible for assuring that decision making and delegated authority across E&AS are discharged according to our safety management systems and technical governance framework to ensure the integrity and safety of our organisation and assets.

You will lead on the assessment, assurance and escalation of technical risk to minimise any impacts to TfL and provide independent technical leadership on behalf of the Director of E&AS.

You will lead the development and ownership of the overarching technical strategy framework for E&AS, including developing technical performance measures and targets to ensure that TfL and its assets are performing safely and efficiently.

You will have overall accountability for developing and managing the framework for TfL’s technical standards in order to ensure our technical standards drive value and sustainable outcomes to support the delivery of TfL’s Green Strategy

You will be accountable for developing and managing the framework for technical governance and engineering safety assurance and assure against it in order to ensure that our regulatory and legislative requirements are discharged safely and appropriately, and that good key-decision-making is embedded across TfL.

You will be responsible for developing and managing the Engineering & Asset Strategy’s competency management framework to ensure our engineers’ competency is assessed at regular intervals to a level appropriate to their role.

You will drive innovation and efficiencies in TfL’s engineering practices through horizon scanning, research and adopting and sharing lessons and best practice with other major infrastructure organisations and the wider industry.

You will be a key representative of E&AS, working with peers across Safety, Health & Environment (SHE), General Counsel and Risk Assurance teams to deliver joint solutions and share knowledge, alongside maintaining close connections with key external agencies.

You will work closely with the E&AS senior leadership team to gain input to and build understanding of key technical frameworks and developments, and to ensure alignment between technical and asset strategies and ensure technical input into wider business planning activity.

About You:

This is a unique opportunity, and we need your skills, ideas, energy and creativity to deliver the future London needs.

You have a strong technical background, with experience of working across multiple transport infrastructure asset areas and across the value chain. You possess an excellent knowledge of relevant legislation, standards and HSE regulations, coupled with strong understanding of asset management processes and techniques.

You are experienced in balancing competing technical needs through use of judgement and supporting teams and stakeholders to make technical decisions. You are able to work in a fast-paced environment to analyse complex situations and make critical technical decisions quickly.

Alongside your technical expertise, you are a strategic thinker, who is experienced in building and delivering technical strategies and frameworks that set a strong, clear and bold vision for the future.

You have excellent relationship-building and stakeholder management skills with a proven ability to influence key stakeholders and are able to communicate highly technical concepts effectively to non-experts.

You are passionate about developing high performing, empowered teams as well as leading, developing and motivating a team of technical experts to set engineering best practice and drive continuous improvements to deliver value through engineering solutions

You maintain strong links to the wider transport industry, e.g Network Rail, Highways England, Suppliers, Consultants, Universities, and professional bodies, and have demonstrated a passion for setting and sharing best practice and driving the adoption of innovative technical solutions.

You are educated to degree standard or equivalent in the field of engineering and/or hold equivalent business experience and are a Chartered member of a professional engineering institution (or equivalent, relevant institution).

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the following:

Essential:

• Evidence of leading the development and ownership of the technical strategy framework, including developing technical performance measures and targets in order to ensure that TfL and its assets are performing safely and efficiently.
• Evidence of developing and managing framework/s for technical governance and engineering safety assurance and assuring against it in order to ensure that regulatory and legislative requirements are discharged safely and appropriately.
• Evidence of developing and managing framework/s for TfL’s technical standards in order to ensure our technical standards drive value and sustainable outcomes to support the delivery of business strategy.
• Evidence of balancing competing technical and business needs through use of judgement, leading teams and stakeholders to make technical decisions and, where necessary, escalating key risks and issues.
• Evidence of using excellent communication skills to lead multidisciplinary, high-performing teams to deliver consistent and high-quality solutions in complex and fast-moving stakeholder environments.
• Educated to degree standard or equivalent in the field of engineering and/or equivalent business experience.
• Chartered status with professional engineering institution (or equivalent institution)

Desired:

• Fellow status with professional engineering institution (or equivalent institution)

How to apply

Please submit an up-to-date copy of your CV (no more than 2 A4 pages Arial size 12) along with a cover letter (no more than 2 A4 pages Arial size 12) in a PDF format. We recommend that you consider the motivations, skills, knowledge and experience required for this role and ensure your application outlines where meet these criteria.

Closing date for applications will be Sunday 10th August 2025 (23:59)

We anticipate for interviews to take place from W/c Monday 25th August 2025

A Spotlight Session will be held on Tuesday 5th August

For a more detailed copy of the job description, and to register for the spotlight session please contact Jay from the Executive Recruitment team on talentacquisitionandexecutiverecruitment@tfl.gov.uk

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We want to represent the city we serve, which will help us become a more innovative and efficient organisation. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. We are a disability confident employer who guarantee an interview to any disabled candidate who meets all of the essential criteria.

Hybrid Working 

Hybrid working within this role enables a balance of 50 per cent of time split between the office and home over a 4-week period. Hybrid working arrangements can evolve subject to business requirements.

Additional Information & Eligibility

Probation:

In line with our Resourcing Policy (Feb 2014), internal employees are required to complete their probationary period before applying for internal TfL positions. Please ensure you have successfully completed your probation before submitting an application for this role, otherwise your application may be withdrawn.

Formal Warnings:

Internal employees with any current formal warnings are not eligible to apply for internal TfL vacancies until expiry of the warning. Ineligible applications may be withdrawn. Details of what is defined as a current formal warning can be found on Platform: https://transportforlondon.sharepoint.com/sites/Instructions-and-guidance-people-performance-and-rewards/SitePages/Applying-for-a-vacancy-with-a-formal-warning.aspx

NPL Applications:

Applications to internally advertised roles can only be accepted from temporary workers who are on PAYE terms via agency, or PAYE via Umbrella Companies. Temporary workers who are paid through their own limited companies are not covered by the Agency Worker Regulations and are ineligible to apply.

NPL members of staff are not eligible to apply to secondment opportunities.

We will make every effort to give you as much notice as possible, however some interviews/assessments could be organised at short notice.