Project Manager at Network Rail, Manchester, 6 Months, £Contract Rate

Network Rail is at the heart of revitalising Britain's railway. From Crossrail - Europe's largest civil engineering project - to investment in world-class stations and major programmes of electrification, we are involved in some of the most ambitious and diverse ventures that this country has ever seen. We at Network Rail are dedicated to becoming one of Britain 's best employers and believe this starts with placing the candidate at the heart of everything we do!

New project  - training team within Network Rail  - helpdesk and planning for national training  - Shared Services

As a Project Manager, your main responsibilities will be:

• Drive Change Initiatives: Lead the planning and execution of change programmes impacting shared services functions ensuring alignment with strategic objectives. 
• Take ownership of identifying and mapping out underlying issues affecting project delivery or operational performance. Work collaboratively with stakeholders to analyse root causes, define clear problem statements, and develop structured, actionable plans. Ensure that proposed solutions are aligned with strategic objectives and that implementation steps are clearly communicated, sequenced, and tracked to resolution. 
• Governance & Documentation: Ensure all change activities are well- documented and aligned with programme governance. Maintain accurate change logs, stakeholder engagement plans, and performance metrics. 
• Stakeholder Management: Act as a key liaison for stakeholders, ensuring clear, timely communication, 
• Risk & Issue Management: Proactively identify, assess, and manage project risks and issues, working closely with delivery teams to implement effective mitigation and escalation strategies. 
• Accountability & Delivery Tracking: Maintain robust action tracking across project boards, ensuring follow-through on decisions and visibility of progress across leadership teams. 

Essential Skills

• Experience in project management delivery across either public or private sectors
• Proven ability to lead and facilitate project meetings, workshops, and stakeholder engagement sessions, ensuring alignment and momentum across all parties. 
• Experience in maintaining and overseeing key project artefacts, including project plans, risk and issue registers, action logs, and governance documentation. 
• Abilty to manage challenging stakeholders and get the information required to move the project forward
• Strong self starter with a pro active confident approach to all duties

Desirable Skills

• Network Rail experience would be highly beneficial

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Network Rail is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. They welcome applications from everyone.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, Network Rail guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.