Operations Strategy Jobs in Washington (NOW HIRING)

As we move America's workforce toward the future, our goal is to connect businesses and communities across the country. The safety of our passengers, our more than 20,000 colleagues, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to your efforts 

Our values of 'Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security' are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak.  By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.

This position can be based out of Washington DC; Wilmington, DE; or Philadelphia, PA. 

Job Summary:
The Assistant Vice President (AVP), Infrastructure & Operations is the senior executive accountable for the reliability, safety, security, resilience, scalability, and cost efficiency of the company's digital and operational technology foundation supporting a critical infrastructure rail and energy enterprise. The AVP defines and owns the enterprise Infrastructure & Operations strategy and operating model, establishing a multi year roadmap for cloud, hybrid infrastructure, networks, platforms, and production operations aligned to enterprise business, digital, and product strategies. The role ensures infrastructure and operations function as enabling platforms that accelerate product delivery, value streams, and business agility while improving reliability, resiliency, security, and cost efficiency. This role owns end to end infrastructure and production operations, spanning cloud and hybrid platforms, enterprise networking, platform engineering, site reliability engineering (SRE), IT service management, end user computing, disaster recovery, and industrial control and operational technology (OT) systems, including Positive Train Control (PTC), SCADA, Dispatch, and rail energy adjacent systems. The AVP ensures infrastructure, platforms, and operational practices function as resilient, safety critical foundations that support rail operations, energy dependent systems, and product aligned value streams, while meeting regulatory, cybersecurity, and compliance obligations inherent to critical infrastructure operations. The AVP provides senior operational leadership during high severity events and defines and executes a multi year Infrastructure & Operations strategy that balances operational excellence, safety, and resilience with continuous modernization

Essential Functions:
Define and execute a multi-year Infrastructure & Operations strategy and operating model that aligns with enterprise priorities and digital transformation, modernizes and standardizes cloud and hybrid platforms, improves reliability, security, agility, and cost efficiency, and partners across product, architecture, cybersecurity, and vendor teams to ensure infrastructure enables product April 13, 2026 Version: 1 Page 2 of 6 outcomes and long-term business value. 
Provide end-to-end operational leadership and governance for industrial control systems (including PTC, SCADA, and Dispatch), ensuring safe, resilient, and compliant operations through strong IT/OT alignment, safety-critical change and incident management practices, and the modernization and lifecycle management of OT platforms without compromising production readiness or risk controls. 
Establish and apply Lean-Agile Infrastructure & Operations operating models centered on Kanban and flow efficiency by optimizing Work In Progress (WIP), throughput. Align infrastructure, SRE, platform, and OT-adjacent teams to enterprise value streams to reduce operational toil through systemic improvement, automation, and data-driven flow metrics 
Establish and govern enterprise SRE practices and 24x7 production operations across IT and OT-adjacent platforms by defining SLOs, resilience targets, and dependency mapping; leading blameless post-incident reviews for systemic learning; and providing senior operational leadership during high-severity incidents with clear decision-making and executive communication. 
Build and evolve secure, scalable platform teams that deliver self-service capabilities for product and delivery teams by treating platforms as products with clear roadmaps, service levels, and adoption metrics; advancing DevOps and CI/CD practices; enforcing production readiness and safety controls; and ensuring reliability, operability, security, and cost efficiency by default. 
Governs enterprise service management, disaster recovery, resilience testing, and operational risk management across IT and OT adjacent systems. Serves as an escalation authority for operational, security, and safety risks, with accountability to delay or halt changes that pose material risk to service stability, compliance, or safety. 
Owns Infrastructure and Operations financial planning, including operating and capital budgets, vendor and managed service governance, and cost optimization practices. Builds and leads a sustainable, high-performing organization, developing leaders and culture aligned to operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement

Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor's Degree or equivalent combination of education, training and/or relevant experience. 
Plus 15+ years of relevant work experience.
15+ years of progressive leadership across infrastructure, operations, and modern engineering 
practices

Preferred Qualifications:
Bachelor's Degree or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, 
equivalent combination of education, training and/or relevant experience. Plus 15+ years of 
relevant work experience.
LPM, ITIL, PMP or similar certifications

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Strong operational command presence under pressure
Ability to translate complex technical and operational issues into executive-ready insights
Excellent people leadership and cross-functional collaboration skills
Bias for continuous improvement, automation, and reliability engineering
Willingness to support 24x7 operations, including off-hours incident response
Deep expertise in IT operations, SRE, platform engineering, DevOps, observability, automation, 
AIOps, FinOps, and IT Service Management
Demonstrated experience applying Lean, Kanban, and scaled Agile practices (SAFe) in 
infrastructure or platform contexts
Strong operational leadership in major incident management, executive communications and 
leadership presence
Demonstrated financial acumen managing large operating and capital budgets
Experience operating and supporting industrial control systems (e.g., PTC, SCADA, Dispatch) 
and other high-availability, mission-critical, or regulated environments.
Proven experience leading enterprise-scale Infrastructure & Operations modernization and 
reliability transformations.
Proven experience operating mission critical, safety sensitive, or regulated environments, 
including OT adjacent systems
Proven experience leading enterprise-scale Infrastructure & Operations modernization and 
reliability transformations

The salary/hourly range is $215,000.00 - $302,400.00. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. Depending on an employee's assigned worksite or location, Amtrak may consider a geo-pay differential to be applied to the employee's base salary. Amtrak may offer additional incentive and pay programs to recognize and reward our employees, including a short-term incentive bonus based upon factors such as individual and company performance that is commensurate with the level of the position. 

Health and Wellbeing Financial and Retirement Work and Family Life Support Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance 401K with Employer Match Generous Paid Time Off  Wellness Programs Railroad Retirement Benefits Paid Caregiving Days and Backup Care Health Savings Account Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Fertility and Family Building Benefits No-cost Personal Health Advocate Student Loan Assistance Adoption and Surrogacy Assistance Medical Plan Opt-out Credit Tuition and Education Reimbursement Paid Family Leave   Life Insurance Rail Pass Privileges   Short- and Long-term Disability Insurance Employee Assistance Program   No-cost Financial Advisor Sessions Commuter and Flexible Spending Accounts

Learn more about our benefits offerings here.

Requisition ID:166516

Work Arrangement:06-Onsite 4/5 Days Click here for more information about work arrangements at Amtrak.
Relocation Offered:No
Travel Requirements:Up to 25%

You power our progress through your performance.

We want your work at Amtrak to be more than a job. We want your career at Amtrak to be a fulfilling experience where you find challenging work, rewarding opportunities, respect among colleagues, and attractive compensation. Amtrak maintains a culture that values high performance and recognizes individual employee contributions.

Amtrak is committed to a safe workplace free of drugs and alcohol. All Amtrak positions requires a pre-employment background check that includes prior employment verification, a criminal history check and a pre-employment drug screen.

Candidates who test positive for marijuana will be disqualified, regardless of any state or local statute, ordinance, regulation, or other law that legalizes or decriminalizes the use or possession of marijuana, whether for medical, recreational, or other use. Amtrak's pre-employment drug testing program is administered in accordance with DOT regulations and applicable law.

In accordance with DOT regulations (49 CFR 40.25), Amtrak is required to obtain prior drug and alcohol testing records for applicants/employees intending to perform safety-sensitive duties for covered Department of Transportation positions. If an applicant/employee refuses to provide written consent for Amtrak to obtain these records, the individual will not be permitted to perform safety-sensitive functions.

In accordance with federal law governing security checks of covered individuals for providers of public transportation (Title 6 U.S.C. 1143), Amtrak is required to screen applicants for any permanent or interim disqualifying criminal offenses.

Note that any education requirement listed above may be deemed satisfied if you have an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Amtrak is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/color, to include traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to, hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, such as lactation), national origin/ethnicity, disability (intellectual, mental and physical), veteran status, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, genetic information, citizenship or any other personal characteristics protected by law.