Business Performance Manager

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Key Information

Business Performance Manager - 5490

Location : Woolwich Ferry

Circa £64,000 plus excellent benefits 

 All offers of employment are subject to satisfactory right‑to‑work checks.  Candidates must be able to demonstrate their right to work in the UK.  At the present time TfL is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.   

 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.  

Application closing date: 1st September 2026 @ 23:59 hours

This is a unique opportunity to play a key role in the future success of Woolwich Ferry, helping to deliver a reliable, resilient, and high-performing service for the communities we serve while developing your career within a dynamic operational leadership environment.

Working closely with the Operational Delivery Lead and General Manager, you will be responsible for leading performance improvement initiatives, resilience planning, workforce strategies, stakeholder engagement activities, and renewals projects. This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on a critical transport service that serves thousands of passengers and vehicles every day.

Accountabilities

• Act as the single point operational lead for all renewals projects, ensuring delivery aligns with Woolwich Ferry’s long-term vision and TfL priorities. Provide monthly governance updates and stakeholder reports. Demonstrate measurable benefits from the operation (e.g., cost savings, service and safe reliability improvements)
• Act as the single point lead for resourcing and workforce planning activities to ensure optimisation, service continuity and staff wellbeing.  Maintain a workforce plan with regular reviews and vacancy tracking, reduction on NPL reliance.
• Provide periodic attendance/absence/overtime analytics and trends with targeted interventions and recommendations for inform operational and strategic decision-making
• Identify and propose opportunities to enhance Woolwich Ferry’s service offering and commercial viability. Develop business development roadmap with tangible initiatives for implementation. Engage with internal & external partners or suppliers to explore pilot schemes. Present periodic business development updates.
• Provide periodic performance packs, including trend analysis for service availability delay causes. Propose/ capture actions to mitigate impact and improve service reliability in conjunction with other Woolwich Ferry teams.
• Propose measures to capture and evidence improvements (eg turnaround time improvement, reduction in fuel usage, minimise unnecessary delays etc) in conjunction with WF Senior Leadership Team
• Support Marine Training and Competency Manager in introduce skills mapping and a training matrix, supporting the training manager to ensure training is focused and relevant across all areas of Woolwich Ferry. 
• Support/ track/ co-ordinate delivery of change impact for all new Standard Operating Procedures, operational changes or engineering changes through the Woolwich Ferry Change Assurance Panel.
• Support the Woolwich Ferry Operational Delivery Lead on broader improvement plan activities as directed
• Strengthen stakeholder relationships to support trust, transparency, and collaboration though stakeholder mapping and engagement plans
• Develop and maintain an updated stakeholder engagement plan which includes contacts and communication pathways – accessible to all it may be relevant to 
• Develop and present quarterly performance briefing for stakeholders summarising performance, risks and improvement progress
• Improve customer experience by quarterly analysis of complaints, identify themes and propose corrective actions

Skills

• Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with people within and outside the organisation.
• Influence people across the organisation and outside
• Analyse complex data (quantitative and qualitative), draw conclusions, and produce solutions
• Successfully manage budgets as necessary
• Be a team player and motivate teams in and around you
• Ability to solve problems
• Ability to influence senior managers, stakeholders and leaders

Knowledge

• Knowledgeable and experience of the requirements of Woolwich Ferry operations and business
• Understanding of the International Safety Management (ISM) Code and international/UK legislation for passenger/freight ferry operations. Good working knowledge of Marine/Classification regulations and requirements, including local authority rules and regulations. (desirable)
• Detailed knowledge of the issues for the safe, effective and efficient provision of all Woolwich Ferry and associated landside terminals services, together with the production, adherence to, and enforcement of associated safe and efficient systems of work, plans, policies and standard operating procedures; associated compliance with International and UK legislation/regulatory requirements e.g. Maritime and Coastguard Agency, ISM Code and ISO requirements. (Required)
• Good working knowledge of line management, HR processes and Industrial Relations practices and principles.

Experience

• Extensive and recent experience in the daily operations and management of passenger/freight ferries, and their attendant landside terminals and/or other transportation services, hubs or facilities
• Experience and successful track record in the planning and management of marine and landside operational functions; the formulation, publication, and training of all staff in safety awareness, security, company procedures and their on-going development.
• Experience of analysing and interpreting data
• Enhanced personnel skills for negotiation, and achievement, of improved service levels and cost reduction.

Application Process 

• Please apply using your CV and a 1-page cover letter 

• Think carefully about the skills, knowledge and experience in the advert and cover this in your CV and cover letter

• PDF format preferred and do not include any photographs or images 

Equality, diversity and inclusion 

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and aim to reflect the diverse communities we serve. We believe that a diverse workforce enables us to deliver better services and outcomes. Our goal is to make our recruitment as inclusive as possible. As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively encourage applications from disabled people. As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we aim to offer an assessment or interview to candidates who apply via the scheme where the minimum essential criteria for skills, knowledge and experience has been met. In some circumstances, it may not be practical to offer an interview or assessment to every candidate who applies through the scheme and meet the minimum essential criteria; in these situations, we select candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than interviewing all who meet them. 

Across all recruitment activity, we recognise that selection methods may vary depending on the nature and scale of the campaign and will be applied fairly, consistently and proportionately in line with our Disability Confident commitments.   

 
Benefits  

In return for your commitment and expertise, you will enjoy excellent benefits and scope to grow.  Rewards vary according to the level of role but mostly include the below:
 
Final salary pension scheme 
Free travel for you on the TfL network 
Reimbursement of 75% of the cost of a standard class Ticket for National Rail travel from home or 75% reimbursement on a 28-day flexi ticket
30 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays 
TfL is committed to work-life balance, operating a hybrid working approach where business and role requirements allow
Private healthcare discounted scheme (optional) 
Tax-efficient cycle-to-work programme
Retail, health, leisure and travel offers 
Discounted Eurostar travel