Team Leader - Electrical Engineering

Aims/Responsibilities:

Responsible for:

• Leading and managing the UK Electrical Engineering Team within Rail Consulting to deliver business objectives.
• Managing the safety and wellbeing of staff and associates.
• Managing the recruitment, development and deployment of staff and Associates, in order to deliver agreed profit targets and operational performance;
• Managing the performance of the team including productivity, project margins, and governance compliance.
• Ensuring the quality of internal and external team outputs.
• Providing strategic, engineering and technological solutions in the area of electrical engineering to help our clients and Rail Consulting Practice to succeed.
• Using the expertise of the Team and its combined diverse skills and experience, to maintain and enhance its position as the foremost team globally in consultancy services for electrical engineering.
• Ensuring continuous improvement in key business performance metrics including staff engagement, client satisfaction and business development.
• Ensuring an ever greater level of cross working with other departments within in, and external to, the practice to seek and deliver new streams of work.

The Electrical Engineering Team

The Electrical Engineering team is an industry respected group of electrical specialists who can provide technical support in design, compliance, incident investigation, vehicle refurbishments and life extension. They perform these roles utilising a range of consultancy skills including, expert judgement, hand calculation, detailed computational analysis and development of bespoke analysis routines.  The team has a wide client base including new train builders, operators, owners and overhaulers. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following.  Other duties may be assigned.

This role will report to the Practice Manager, Engineering Services. The main duties are focused around the business objectives of Business Performance, Client Satisfaction, Staff Engagement and Business Development, they include:

Staff Engagement

• Being responsible for the safety and welfare of the members of the Electrical Engineering Team, including training, mentoring and career development;
• Supporting the Practice Manager to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of staff within the Engineering Services organisation and/or working within the department to promote a culture that has safety as a fundamental consideration in everything we do.
• Ensuring that staff within the team receive regular safety briefings and that they understand and discharge their safety responsibilities.
• Carrying out performance appraisals of  direct reports and supporting their development, as well as providing focus and direction for the performance appraisal and target setting for the wider team;
• Chairing Team meetings.

Client Satisfaction

• Setting world class standards for the quality of work and consultancy advice provided by our business; and promoting a culture of client service excellence and continuous improvement in everything we do;  
• Working collaboratively with other Team Leaders to enhance our offering to clients;
• Working alongside the commercial and management teams to help in the resolution of commercial and technical issues on work in a manner which ensures client satisfaction;
• Developing plans to improve team performance in the quantity of feedback received and ultimately the level of client satisfaction achieved.

Business Development

• Establishing and maintaining a departmental business plan to support the business plans for Rail Consulting Practice, and supporting the development of business plans for Engineering Services and the wider business as required;
• Carrying out strategic reviews of the Team’s scope of work in terms of existing service area support and future service area support;
• Providing input to the Senior Management Team as required, acting as a lead for Rail Consulting Practice’s range of skills in electrical engineering focussed areas.
• Recruiting, developing and leading a team of specialist technical and engineering consultants to provide the capacity and capability within the team to deliver the business plan targets and meet emerging market demands;
• Being responsible for the business performance of the Team, ensuring productivity, headcount and project margin targets are achieved;
• Providing input to the Business Performance meetings including detailed working forecasts of workload and productivity;
• Reviewing and managing the financial and technical performance of bids and assignments within the team to identify, manage/escalate and resolve: technical, delivery, client and financial risks;
• Maintaining, developing and managing assignment governance activities within the service area to ensure compliance with the HSQE system, to uphold client service excellence and to deliver net positive margins;
• Managing (in collaboration with Client Account Managers and other Team Leaders) the forward order book, opportunities pipeline and resourcing profiles for the department, ensuring they are aligned and represent an accurate forecast.
• Maintaining a forward workload plan down to individuals and confirming that work is being carried out to time and budget;
• Leading and/or providing oversight to large scale, complex and/or strategically vital consultancy projects and assignments;
• Ensuring that Project Managers Project Directors within the team manage projects to achieve sound financial and commercial outcomes in line with the Business Management System;
• Ensuring that ‘Chinese Walls’ are being maintained. Manage conflicts of interest for staff working on assignments for different clients;
• Being responsible for marketing the expertise of the Team to internal and external clients by preparing and distributing capability statements and case studies;
• Leading the development of collaborative working practices with other products within the SNC-Lavalin group.

Requirements

Key skills and experience required for success in this role:

• Good understanding of the principles of railway vehicle electrical technology;
• A broad appreciation of the application of testing principles as applied to railway vehicles;
• Good project management capability and the ability to work to tight deadlines;
• Leadership skills – ability to lead teams through complex projects;
• Ability to develop skills and expertise of individuals and recruit where necessary;
• Proven relationships with successful delivery of projects to Rail Consulting’s client base;
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, and the ability to write clear and concise text;
• The ability to present the principles of this subject area to clients and colleagues in a clear and concise manner such that the non-specialist can make informed decisions on the most appropriate actions;
• The ability to work as part of a wider team within Rail Consulting;
• The ability to assess project and operational risks and how they can be managed (including safety, technical, contractual and financial risks).

Essential criteria are as follows:

• A degree, or equivalent in a relevant engineering discipline;

• A Chartered Engineer, or actively working towards Chartership of a relevant Professional Engineering Body;
• To have skills in leadership and assignment delivery;

He/she will have a track record that demonstrates dedication and commitment.

Language Skills

Fluent in English.

Ability to read, write and communicate in a language additional to English advantageous.

Work Environment & Local Policies

Rail Consulting performs its business within open plan offices and operates a no smoking policy.  There is a designated smoking area allocated for use by company employees.

Will be required to visit railway facilities on occasion and must comply with local procedures and safety arrangements.  You may be required to work under Network Rail Personal Track Safety Certification.

Comply with the Data Protection Act and adhere to SNC-Lavalin’s intellectual property and confidentiality regulations.

Always behave in a professional manner befitting SNC-Lavalin’s reputation.

Ensure all safety accidents/incidents are reported in accordance with the applicable procedures and corrective action is taken where necessary.

Ensure the working environment is maintained in a safe and tidy condition.

Comply fully with SNC-Lavalin’s drugs and alcohol policy.

Must comply with all aspects of the SNC-Lavalin HSQE policy and employee handbook (and its updates/successor documents).