Year In Industry Student - Network Strategy, Planning & Analysis

About Network Rail

Join Our Team at Network Rail!

Are you ready to make a difference in people's lives? At Network Rail, we connect passengers and freight customers, ensuring safe and efficient transportation across the country. We're an organisation where people truly matter, and when you join us, you matter to us and millions of others.

You will be part of the North West & Central Region (NW&C) which consist of three routes – North West, Central and West Coast South – and a regional team supporting Regional Major Programmes & Professional services. You can learn more about our region here: North West & Central region - Network Rail.

Brief Description

Scheme: Network Strategy, Planning and Analysis

Locations: Birmingham or Milton Keynes. If you need to relocate for this role, there is no financial support available.

Contract Type: Fixed-term from September 2026 – August 2027.

Office Requirement: Hybrid – minimum 3 days per week in office.

Entry Requirements: You'll need to be in your penultimate year at university (not studying your masters), and on track to achieve at least a 2:2 in any degree subject. It is essential for successful candidates that you have the right to work full time in the UK at the start date of the scheme (September 2026 until August 2027).

Ready to apply your university learning to real-world challenges? Join us for a transformative Year in Industry placement where you'll contribute to shaping the future of Britain's railways!

About the role (External)

An exciting opportunity to gain hands-on experience in railway asset management, data manipulation, and analysis within our NW&C Systems Engineering team. You'll play a key role in developing and rolling out our Asset Visualisation and Analytics (AVA) tool, which integrates data from across the business - covering safety, train performance, capacity, revenue, and maintenance works. This data helps us understand customer and societal needs and links them to the right parts of the NW&C network, enabling smarter decisions about infrastructure management.

Depending on your skills and interests, you could also get involved in:

• Python programming

• Working with Microsoft tools such as dataflows and Power BI

• Presenting to different users across the business

• Translating and communicating data insight to asset specialists and non-technical audiences

This placement offers a rich problem-solving environment where you can apply and grow your modelling, analysis, engineering, and IT skillsets.

As a placement student in Network Strategy, Planning and Analysis, you'll:

• Tackle strategic challenges facing the rail industry, gaining a broad understanding of how different teams contribute to solving complex problems.

• Support long-term planning and data analysis to help improve our decision making.

Typical roles within this area:

• Strategic Planner – Develop route plans and ensure consistency across industry-wide planning

• Mathematical Modeller – Develop models and provide analysis of long-term plans

• Whole Lifecycle Costing Specialist – Develop Asset Management models and provide analysis of long-term plans

• Data and Reporting Analyst – Developing reports to monitor KPIs and communicate Performance

What you'll get out of it

We're passionate about developing the next generation of talent that will come into our industry, and that means we'll ensure you're surrounded by supportive colleagues and receive coaching from senior staff.

We invest in our placement students because we believe they hold the potential to become the future of our business. Over the 12 months, you'll get a rounded experience of what it takes to work in strategy, planning and analysis at Network Rail. Impress us, and we'll consider you for our graduate scheme.

How to apply (External)

Salary: £22,932 per annum, pro rata.

Closing date: Thursday 11 December 2025. Late applications will not be accepted. We may close the advert early if we receive a large volume of applicants.

Assessments: Assessment centre will take place in Milton Keynes (MK9 1EN) on Wednesday 28 January 2026. The format will consist of an interview + presentation, plus 1 form of additional exercise.

As this is a role in a regional team, regular travel across NW&C is required. Candidates should be comfortable with frequent travel to client sites, regional offices, or other business locations as needed.