Vice President, Rail Operations

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority•Austin, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Vice President of Commuter Rail Operations provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for the transition of commuter rail services from a fully contracted operating model to a directly operated organization for rail transportation and maintenance with contracting to a new contractor for maintenance of way and signal systems. This role is responsible for establishing the safety culture, operational framework, workforce strategy, maintenance integration, regulatory compliance, and performance management systems necessary to successfully internalize rail operations while maintaining safe, reliable, customer-focused service. The VP serves as a key member of the executive leadership team and leads a complex organizational transformation involving labor relations, operational readiness, governance, change management, and stakeholder coordination. In addition, the VP will oversee strategic coordination on CapMetro’s hosted railroad with contracted freight rail partners to lead initiatives that maximize return on investment across rail operations, infrastructure utilization, capital deployment, and service performance.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Transportation, Engineering, Public Administration, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
Minimum of Fifteen (15) years of progressively responsible experience in passenger rail or railroad operations, including senior executive leadership experience.
Three (3) Years experience at a class 1 freight railroad highly preferred
Demonstrated experience leading large-scale operational transformation, startup, insourcing, or transition initiatives.
Experience working within a regulated railroad environment and knowledge of FRA/FTA requirements.
Strong financial, organizational, and strategic planning experience.
Executive-level leadership and organizational transformation capabilities.
Strong strategic planning and change management expertise.
Deep understanding of rail operations, safety systems, and regulatory compliance.
Ability to lead through ambiguity and complex operational change.
Exceptional communication, stakeholder engagement, and negotiation skills.
Strong analytical and operational decision-making abilities.
Ability to build high-performing teams and establish organizational culture during transition.
Advanced knowledge of Federal, State and local regulations pertaining to railroad signaling engineering, design, construction, operation and maintenance.
Strong oral and written communications skills and excellent technical report preparation skills.
Ability to perform investigations of railroad accidents and false clear signals.
Expert level knowledge of railroad operating practices rules and procedures and their relationship to signaling / train control design, freight commuter train operation, maintenance and test.
Knowledge of Positive Train Control, railroad and/or rail transit control and wayside grade crossing signal design, operation and maintenance.
Working knowledge of the relationship of the signal / train control systems and track and rail vehicles
Must have excellent problem-solving abilities, organization, and presentation skills and excellent Intermediate skill level using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint,.
Knowledge of project management methods, principles and practices including risk analysis, scope control, and quality assurance.
Interpersonal skills and customer focus with the ability to handle daily challenges and adjust to adversity.

Nice To Haves

Experience transitioning services from third-party contract operations to direct operations.
Experience with commuter rail startup, expansion, or operational integration projects.
Experience working with governing boards, elected officials, and public-sector stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Lead the strategic transition from contracted rail operations to a direct operations model, including phased implementation planning, organizational design, risk mitigation, and operational readiness.
Develop and execute a multi-year transition roadmap enterprise transition strategy and roadmap addressing staffing, training, systems integration, policies, asset management, and service continuity.
Establish operational governance structures enterprise governance frameworks, standard operating principles, and KPIs and executive performance accountability mechanisms.
Advise the CEO, executive leadership, and governing boards on transition risks, operational impacts, and strategic opportunities long-term strategic opportunities.
Build and lead the internal rail operations workforce, including recruitment, training, certification, succession planning, and leadership development executive succession planning and organizational capability development.
Collaborate with People and Culture teams on workforce transition strategies and employee engagement initiatives enterprise workforce strategy, labor planning, and organizational change management.
Establish operational training and qualification standards enterprise-wide training and qualification standards in accordance with Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations.
Provide executive oversight for daily commuter rail operations strategic oversight of commuter rail operations through subordinate leadership, including operations, dispatch, maintenance, and service delivery.
Ensure operational performance meets or exceeds safety, reliability, on-time performance, and customer experience goals Board-approved safety, reliability, on-time performance, and customer experience goals.
Lead the development of operational control center strategy and enterprise emergency management capabilities.
Oversee incident management, service recovery protocols, and business continuity planning executive-level incident management, service recovery frameworks, and business continuity strategy.
Champion a strong, systemwide safety culture aligned with FRA, OSHA, and all applicable state regulations ensuring safe, reliable operations through executive leadership, accountability systems, and cultural reinforcement.
Lead the execution, oversight, and continuous enhancement of Rail Operations Department objectives enterprise safety strategy within the System Safety Program Plan and risk management frameworks.
Support the Authority’s Safety Management System (SMS) by embedding safety and security considerations into all operational decisions all executive decision-making processes.
Oversee the development, maintenance, and authentication governance of operating rules, timetables, bulletins, and supplemental instructions.
Direct FRA-required inspections and ensure timely implementation and closure of corrective action plans through delegated leadership and ensure timely closure of corrective action plans.
Ensure directly operated services and contractor performance comply with enterprise-wide compliance with federal railroad regulations, including 49 CFR Parts 200–299.
Serve as the Authority’s GCOR representative while ensuring enterprise adherence across divisions.
Provide oversight executive oversight of regulatory compliance programs, including drug and alcohol programs and reporting requirements.
Ensure safe operations by protecting against prohibited conduct enterprise accountability systems address prohibited conduct under Title 49 CFR 240.305.
Partner with maintenance leadership executive maintenance leadership to align rail operations with fleet availability, state of good repair objectives, and long-term infrastructure reliability.
Support the development of enterprise integration of maintenance-of-way coordination processes and operating schedules.
Collaborate on capital planning on on capital investment strategy and prioritization for rail infrastructure improvements.
Develop and manage operational budgets division-wide budgets, transition-related expenditures, and long-range financial forecasts ~~.~ aligned with agency strategy.
Oversee vendor and contractor relationships to ensure accountability and continuity of service ensuring executive accountability, performance outcomes, and risk mitigation.
Identify opportunities for and lead enterprise-wide operational efficiency, cost optimization, and performance improvement initiatives.
Oversee contracts for Maintenance-of-Way and Signal Systems strategic contract execution and transition for Maintenance-of-Way and Signal Systems.
Serve as a primary operational liaison with government agencies senior government officials, regulatory bodies, emergency responders, and community stakeholders.
Prepare and present operational updates Board-level updates, transition progress reports, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership and the Board of Directors.
Foster collaborative relationships across departments enterprise-wide alignment and cross-functional integration during organizational transformation.
Serve as the Authority’s point of contact executive point of contact for rail system agreements primarily with other governmental entities with governmental entities, including temporal separation agreements, rail business plans, and design criteria.
Establish and maintain the agency baseline enterprise baseline and governance framework for such agreements, except for license agreements and permits, engaging Legal & CCED as required.
Serve in the review process for license agreements, permits, design changes, and new rail design with executive oversight.
Make recommendations based on testing and data analysis and field observations data-driven, strategic recommendations for corrective actions to address prevent and / or mitigate address, prevent, and/or mitigate system failures.
Serve as the company representative in meetings with the FRA and provide support to engagements with support executive engagement with TxDOT and other regulatory agencies.
Coordinate with the Vice President, Capital Projects to ensure consistent application strategic alignment of design, engineering, and construction activities, and approve changes impacting infrastructure or service delivery.
Direct and manage department personnel by planning, scheduling, delegating, and overseeing employee work assignments, authorizing, coordinating, and scheduling work with vendors and consultants, conducting personnel actions, including hiring and interviewing, and overseeing hiring, training, work assignments, and performance evaluations.