Chief Executive Officer

Job summary

This is an exceptional opportunity to lead a nationally significant regulator at a moment of real change for the rail and road sectors. As Chief Executive, you will help shape the next chapter of ORR’s impact – guiding the organisation through ongoing transformation and sector reform, and ensuring our work continues to deliver for passengers, freight users, taxpayers and road users.

You will play a central leadership role as a member of the Board and as ORR’s Accounting Officer. While previous Accounting Officer experience is not essential, the role demands someone who brings sound judgement, confident stewardship of resources and a commitment to high‑quality governance. What matters most is your ability to lead with clarity, integrity and ambition in a complex and high‑profile environment.

Representing ORR with credibility and independence, you will engage across government, industry and the public, and be accountable to Parliament for key regulatory decisions taken through the Board. With Great British Railways and the new Passenger Watchdog being established, the role requires an exceptional leader who can navigate complexity, build confidence and deliver meaningful change across the rail and road sectors.

As Chief Executive, you will balance a clear strategic outlook while ensuring the organisation’s regulatory work – from safety and compliance to performance monitoring and enforcement – remains robust and timely. You will operate in an environment characterised by scrutiny, diverse interests and continuing reform, requiring strong judgement, evidence‑based decision‑making and excellent stakeholder leadership across government, industry and devolved administrations.

Job description

In this role, you will:

• have overall responsibility and discretion for the management and delivery of the organisation, and you will be accountable to the Board for delivering strategic objectives and the annual business plan.
• directly manage eight Executive Directors and lead around 370 colleagues across multiple locations.
• be responsible for an annual budget of approximately £44 million.
• ensure ORR consistently delivers its core statutory responsibilities to a high standard, maintaining effective regulatory oversight, operational reliability and high-quality casework.
• keep the organisation resilient, capable and forward-looking as it evolves to meet emerging demands.

Person specification

For key responsibilities please see the attached candidate pack.

Additional Information

At ORR, our hybrid working means that we currently work from our workplace location a minimum of 40% of our working week, although requirements to attend other offsite locations for official business, also count towards this level of attendance. Working arrangements are subject to continuous review.

Benefits

A Civil Service Pension with employer contribution of 28.97%

Details of our employee benefits can be found in the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Find out what our colleagues have to say about their ORR careers Our people Office of Rail and Road (orr.gov.uk).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

For information on the selection process, please see the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Ellie Dugdale
• Email : ellie.dugdale@saxbam.com

Recruitment team

• Email : ellie.dugdale@saxbam.com

Further information

•If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact ORR via email: peopleservices@orr.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website here: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitme…

Attachments

ORR Chief Executive Officer Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 962kB)