Vice President, Rail Operations

To apply for this position, please send your resume directly to our recruiting partner, K&A, at  Resumes submitted through this portal will not be considered.

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 Cap Metro’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.

What you’ll be doing

Strategic Leadership & Transition Management

• 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 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.

Rail Operations Management

• 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.

Safety & Regulatory Compliance

• 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…