Graduate Commercial Operations London 2024

At HS2 we offer a two-year rotational graduate programme, providing you with the opportunity to stretch and challenge yourself across various placements.  This programme is designed around enabling you to get as much experience as possible across the business, to support your personal development.  After completion of the 2-year graduate programme, graduates will transfer into a role within the business, where continued development will be supported on your journey to grow and succeed.

The purpose of Commercial Operations Directorate is to ensure that the HS2 Operating Company is set up how and when it needs to be so that it can operate as an effective, safe and commercially sustainable Infrastructure Manager.

Your placement may include a rotation within the following teams, noting that the rotational placements may vary and are subject to business requirements: 

Strategy

This team works across HS2 Ltd’s operations community to build an integrated plan and develop an overarching strategy for setting up the Operating Company responsible for running the HS2 service. This will involve establishing an overall commercial structure for the railway, which maximises value and agrees the eventual set-up of that company with Government. Some of the areas the strategy team are focused on include looking at the operational costs, value and resourcing to ensure there is a resourcing plan in place for the Operating Company. The team also owns the Operating Cost Baseline and Operating Cost Estimate. During your time in this role, you will support the delivery of plans to achieve key Commercial Operations outcomes, for example, working with stakeholders to develop an overarching strategy for the Operating Company. 

• Interface: The Interface team ensures the effective integration of all parties involved in future operations, managing the relationship with HS2’s Shadow Operator the West Coast Partnership (WCP), and the Department for Transport’s (DfT) HS2 end state teams. In this team, you will be supporting the day-to-day operational interface within HS2 Ltd and between HS2 Ltd, WCP and the DfT. This will involve supporting the running of working groups, the development of agreed ways of working on joint workstreams, planning collaboration activities and other engagement strategies to promote effective joint working between organisations.
• Energy: The Energy Team is responsible for creating and managing the strategy to ensure HS2 has enough power to operate. They are looking at how much energy will be needed through each of the stages of operation, and where that energy will come from. One element of this work will be to look at potential sites for new energy generation, assessing the suitability of available land and developing business cases to support decision making on whether HS2 Ltd will develop those sites. There may also be opportunities to gain an understanding of the procurement process for appointing energy generators, and how the technology used to power HS2 is selected. 
• Operations Group: HS2 Ltd currently has three separate functions all working on key areas linked to ensuring HS2 Ltd delivers the end state railway.  Commercial Operations, Infrastructure Management and Commercial Development. The HS2 Operations Group brings all those functions together to achieve three objectives: 1. To plan for the operating phase in an integrated and efficient way; 2. To lead the journey to establishing a standalone operating company that can operate as a safe, effective, efficient and commercially suitable Infrastructure Manager; 3. To ensure the interests of the future operators of HS2 have a strong voice in the construction programme. During your time in this role, you will be involved in elements of organisational design, business planning, and assisting the facilitation of workstreams to enable the effective integration of the Operations Group functions. 

About You

Skills:

• Planning and organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and deliver day to day tasks
• Ability to coordinate and deliver multiple tasks and responsibilities in accordance with agreed deadlines
• Communication skills and the ability to develop relationships with stakeholders
• Self-motivated and the ability to work on your own initiative and under pressure
• Ability to understand complex issues to carry out problem solving
• Ability to work collaboratively across a multidisciplinary team and with stakeholders 
• Ability to work on programmes of activity across organisational boundaries.
• Ability to produce and present materials regarding complex issues to a variety of audiences, including internal and external stakeholders at various levels.
• Ability to identify gaps or issues with existing processes or governance and identify solutions. 

Knowledge:

• 2:2 Bachelor’s degree (or non-UK equivalent) in any discipline
• IT knowledge including; Word, Excel, PowerPoint or equivalent 

Does HS2 offer sponsorship if I do not have the Right to Work in the UK? 

To be eligible to apply to the HS2 Graduate scheme for our September 2024 in-take, any applicant will need to already have the on-going Right to Work in the UK, that is not time-bound in any way. Please note, unfortunately due to the 2 year time-bound restrictions of the Post Study/Graduate Work visa, we are unable to accept any applicants who have this visa as this is an ongoing permanent role that will carry on beyond the initial 2 year graduate programme.

 Due to the nature of our organization, HS2 are not able to sponsor any applications as we do not hold the required sponsorship license from the UK Home Office and candidates are not allowed to sponsor themselves.

 We appreciate the Right to Work question can be complex to understand, so if you are unsure of your Right to Work status in the UK, please email us at HS2Jobs@hs2.org.uk and we will be happy to advise further. Please note, to enable HS2 to comply with UK Home Office policy, your Right to Work status will be checked early in the recruitment process.