Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to improve quality of life, by bringing people together to get the most out of life.

SWR is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier.  FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.

About the job

The holder of this post is responsible for ensuring that maintenance activities of the depot on Fleet rolling stock are carried out safely, timely and to required standards, on a daily basis in order to meet service requirements. 

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Prioritising of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance in line with available resource and support from the Co-ordinating Manager.
• Ensure targets are met in terms of performance, availability and presentation of stock for business needs.
• Assistance is given as required to engineering, technical and contracted support staff.
• Control use of materials within budget to support rolling stock maintenance.
• Plan and conduct interviews as necessary for staff selection, discipline, poor performance, attendance management, welfare, investigations etc.
• Ensure tasks are allocated to competent personnel.
• Control of work to ensure effective performance and compliance to standards, giving technical guidance to staff to staff including apprentices and contracted staff.
• Deliver staff briefings and TWYM interviews to develop staff.
• Use I.T. systems as necessary to interrogate for information on defects, workload and report on completed work, outstanding or deferred.
• Ensure recording of work is effectively controlled and reported in required timescales using systems/methods in place before rolling stock is returned to service.
• Cover for Co-ordinating Manager as required.
• Ensure all rolling stock is prepared to standards before departure.
• Ensure quality of workmanship is maintained to a high level and quality checks/competency assessments are carried out as required.
• Undertake additional tasks as required by the Depot Manager, applicable to the role. 

As a minimum, you will need to have:

• Appropriate electrical/mechanical engineering qualifications essential.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Report writing skills and a high level of literacy, numeric and I.T skills.
• Technical and practical knowledge of relevant rolling stock highly desirable.
• Understanding of safety legislation and quality procedures.
• Spent at least 3 years in a rolling stock workshop or similar engineering environment with appropriate apprenticeship served being highly desirable. 

About the location

Wimbledon Traincare Depot is a short walk from Wimbledon Park station and recently welcomed its first Class 701 train, marking a significant milestone in the £1bn transformation of suburban travel. Our current fleet operating on the suburban network (Class 455, 456, 458 and 707 trains) will be replaced over a 2 year period with 90 brand new 701's. Drivers, maintenance and other depot colleagues are currently in training to develop the new skills needed for the next generation of trains that will be fitted with all new modern technology. Wimbledon depot will eventually become the new maintenance home for the entire Class 701 fleet.

Working pattern

You will work an average of 42 hours per week over an average of 3.5 days

Four shifts on four shifts off, rotating days/nights.

0700-1900 and 1900-0700 

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Large range of exclusive retail offers
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below.  We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/