Our people

I started my career as a Franchise Manager in the rail industry. I wasn’t working for Network Rail at the time, but I certainly knew all about them. Previously I had never really considered a career in project management, yet it was the project management elements of my role that really excited me. So, as a result, I decided to pursue this avenue further. The first thing I wanted to do was to learn a little more about the frameworks involved – so I qualified as a Prince 2 Practitioner. I then moved on to a Project Management specific role with a Local Authority, looking at how public and private initiatives could be coordinated together and implementing suitable project management processes for use internally and with third party stakeholders.

Now I had some Project Management experience behind me, I decided to join Network Rail. I knew the challenges offered with such a large project management organisation would be unlike those found anywhere else. And I wasn’t disappointed. After all, I’d always known the rail industry was one of the best places to uncover a project management career and it would be the perfect environment to utilise my project management skills.

Project Management in the rail industry can be quite complex and, at times, I find my role really challenging. But that’s why I enjoy it. The difficulty is in trying to attain pristine project management processes that work in reality. I look at the way in which we manage projects as well as developing and improving the project management capabilities of the Infrastructure Investment organisation. I’m currently working on a number of exciting developments; one of my projects requires me to develop and update our project control processes, while another requires me to look into the way we communicate our project management protocols.

The greatest aspect of my role here is the fact that I get to interact with so many different people at differing levels within the business. However these people have one thing in common - they all have bags of energy and determination to get the job done. And they need it. You need a great deal of drive and ambition to be successful here - and there are many opportunities for professional development for those that have it. In fact, if you have a proactive approach to your career, there really is no telling how far you’ll go.

As a Mechanical Engineer, my initial opportunity to work in Rail was as a Site Engineer – a career choice that’s led to many exciting openings, including the opportunity to work on the French side of the Channel Tunnel. Every experience I’d had at this stage involved large elements of project management, so when the opportunity arose to join Network Rail, I saw this as a really positive move for my career. After all, when it comes to project management, it’s hard to find anyone bigger, and I’ve since delivered projects with budgets in excess of £250m. It’s a great feeling knowing that my work and the work of my teams will last for generations. As the projects got bigger I underpinned my management experience and skills with post-graduate degrees in management, strategic leadership and an MBA. Had there been a suitable MSc in Project Management I might have saved myself a lot of study time.

I currently run two national projects – importantly titled ‘golden bullet transformation projects’. They both focus on changing the way we deliver our business.

The first project will optimise our possessions and isolations regime, which is the safety management process used to convert the railway into a construction site for essential engineering works to commence, and subsequently turn it back into a railway again afterwards. It’s a bit like laying out cones and signage on the motorway for roadwork to commence. Currently this process takes over an hour and is performed 150,000 times a year by thousands of well-trained staff. We are targeted to reduce this time to 30 minutes or less, since the extra time is strategically important to the success of Network Rail’s long-term aspirations to run a seven-day railway. Using project management, our team has scoped out and is working hard to deliver these changes. It involves almost every department in Network Rail, and requires the support and contribution from many of our industry stakeholders, contractors, customers and suppliers. It is a very interesting exciting project indeed.

The second project will revolutionise plain-line track renewals. We deliver over £500m of plain-line track renewals every year, mostly using weekend possessions (closing the track to perform maintenance) of 27 hours or more. Using project management to drive the scope and schedule, and working with a focussed integrated project team of contractors and Network Rail staff, we will modify the processes, plant, planning and people skills required to deliver plain-line track renewals in 8 hours. The project brings cutting-edge engineering into plain-line track renewals as a common practice and adopts lean engineering; a process successfully used in car manufacturing, and is an important project because it will improve the quality of a lot of people’s lives. Success means trains could operate on Saturdays and Sundays without track-renewals being in the way.

I believe project management isn’t necessarily about the tactical activity that you’re responsible for. It’s all about people, and ideally they all need to be goal-oriented. So you establish a management process that begins with defining what the project must do, costing it, scheduling it, resourcing it, and delivering it to a defined timescale that you monitor collectively as a team to ensure risks and changes are controlled. Project Management is an extremely transferable skill; cross-functionally, cross-industry and trans-globally. A good project manager is well respected, and can be well paid. Once you have these skills you can apply them to all aspects of delivering business. Personally, I’ve led projects in design, construction, electrification, IT, commercial, corporate restructuring and more recently business transformation. The common factor in each project has been project management skills to manage the relationship between scope, schedule and cost. Get that right and you’re nearly there. There are many opportunities for future development. I’ve already been promoted numerous times and have had the opportunity to move into many departments. Each move has enhanced my skills in project management, and allowed me to become confidently flexible.

One thing I must shout about though, and this is key; the best thing about working for Network Rail is that everything we do here really is worth doing. Our work helps transform many aspects of economy and public life in general. I really wish you every success. If this is your chosen path, who knows, perhaps one day we’ll both work on the same project.

My background is in Chemical Engineering, and throughout the early years of my career I was involved in engineering projects in the petro-chemical and paper industries. I‘ve also worked on the design and implementation of IT systems, and in business consulting. However, although my previous roles did involve aspects of Project Management, it wasn’t really on anything like the scale of what I’ve experienced at Network Rail.

I was initially attracted to Network Rail because the industry was increasingly high on the government’s UK agenda. There’s a great deal more investment going into Rail nowadays and that’s bringing a host of new opportunities as well as rapid change, so I wanted to be part of this success story. My work involves the co-ordination and phasing of multiple programmes of work and major projects, which is different from managing individual projects, but requires a good understanding of what Project Managers are faced with. I currently structure the multi-year programmes of work that Network Rail will deliver in Scotland in a two to five year timeframe. This involves defining what we call ‘disruptive access’, where projects require lines to be shut down. We consult with the affected train operators to get their input and buy-in in order to achieve an acceptable end result for all stakeholders involved. We also have to ensure that our plans are compatible in terms of access strategies and resource availability, with those of the rest of the UK, to ensure the national outcome is acceptable. Ensuring all these parties are happy and working together, as I’m sure you can imagine, can be quite a challenge.

I feel every successful project I work on is a great achievement. Often some of these projects can seem quite subtle to the outside world, when the behind the scenes work to complete it can be phenomenal. However, it’s a great feeling being involved in delivering the big projects too. Knowing our work brings about real change is quite a sensation.

To succeed here you certainly have to be driven and committed. Importantly however, you have to be a team player with the ability to look at issues from a number of different angles. An understanding of others perspectives is essential. Anyone that can bring Network Rail all that is certain to thrive here.

Having worked in a range of different industries, it’s the ability to see the results of my work that really excites me. In fact, I’ve done everything from helping build power stations to navel ships and there’s nothing quite like seeing the outcome. And I’m exposed to the same sensation at Network Rail. It’s the intellectual and managerial challenge combined with the tangible results that really gives me a buzz.

I was attracted to Network Rail initially because I knew the environment would be challenging. And as it’s an infrastructure industry, I knew my work would involve long-term responsibilities. The opportunity to really make an impact and influence change was incredibly appealing. I also take pleasure in dealing with a diverse range of people and manage everyone from those in the intellectually challenging side of our business who deal with engineering and complex design issues to people dealing with practical issues on site.

Today my responsibilities lie in ensuring the entire plan for UK track renewals is delivered. This involves managing around £900m of business a year and leading a team of 400 people. Essentially, I oversee all the work that project managers do and the work of our four main contractors. To date I’ve been a part of some significant changes in our processes as well as some of our most prominent projects. However, one of the biggest rewards of a job like this is the ability to help others develop – as well as the business.

This is a 24/7 operation and it’s not for the faint hearted. You certainly need courage in your convictions and you must be committed. It’s also important to understand the wider business, not just the boundaries of your own role. It’s the genuine knowledge of other people’s practices that makes a great Project Manager. People often ask me how I managed to move from ship building into railways and the answer’s always the same - as a project manager your skills are extremely transferable.