Risk Assurance and Compliance Manager

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 bring people together to get the most out of life.

About the job

To lead the development and embedding of SWRL's enterprise risk management framework. Provide strategic and operational insight to ensure that risks to the achievement of SWRL's public service mission are actively identified, understood, and managed. This role is integral to promoting resilience, informed decision-making, and
alignment with HM Treasury's Orange Book and related public sector risk standards. Lead the development of compliance and assurance policies and procedures that are maintained, relevant, and applied consistently across the business.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Enterprise Risk Management
  • Design, implement and maintain SWRL's risk management framework and policies.
  • Facilitate organisation-wide risk identification, assessment, and prioritisation.
  • Maintain strategic and operational risk registers with clear mitigation ownership.
  • Guide directorates and teams in aligning risk activities to SWRL's objectives and public value
    commitments
• Compliance
  • Ensure compliance policies and procedures are maintained, relevant, and applied consistently across the
    business.
  • Monitor legal and regulatory developments (e.g. transport, data, procurement, safety) and advise on
    implications for SWRL.
• Integration and Strategic Influence
  • Embed risk thinking in business planning, programme delivery, procurement, and transformation.
  • Support executive decision-making through clear, timely communication of risk exposures.
  • Align risk appetite and tolerance with corporate goals and public accountability standards.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Culture
  • Act as a trusted partner to risk owners across SWRL, building capability and confidence.
  • Deliver engaging training, workshops, and coaching to embed a positive risk culture.
  • Champion risk transparency and collaborative learning from events, incidents, and near misses.
• Leadership and Governance
  • Provide regular reports and risk dashboards to the Executive Team and Audit & Risk Committee.
  • Ensure risk governance structures function effectively, including escalation routes and action tracking.
  • Support integration between risk, compliance, programme governance, and emergency planning
    functions

You'll need to be:

• Strong track record in enterprise risk management in a regulated, public, or safety-critical
  environment.
• Familiarity with UK public sector guidance on risk (e.g. Orange Book, Managing Public Money).
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills—from front-line teams to executive board.
• Analytical mindset with confidence in heatmapping, key risk indicators, and scenario-based planning.
• Relevant professional qualification (e.g. IRM certificate/diploma, management risk certification).
• Sector experience in transport, infrastructure, or major programmes/public sector governance.
• Exposure to building or improving risk functions during periods of organisational change.

Working pattern

Office hours.

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
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, 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.

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/