Lead Driver (Full Time) - Fort William

Start date March/April 2025.

Ember is the UK's first fully-electric, zero-emission coach company. We launched in October 2020 and are now running multiple routes across Scotland, including Aberdeen to Edinburgh and Dundee to Glasgow.  We’ll soon be adding others across Scotland, with connections to Inverness just around the corner, and we're delighted to confirm that Fort William will be our next location. 

We're building the future of public transport — convenient, affordable, connected and zero-emission. Our goal is to make it easier and more enjoyable to get from A to B with Ember than it is with your own car.

Ember is a tech company, not a traditional bus operator. We've built a platform that coordinates our entire operation – everything from monitoring vehicles and controlling chargers to selling tickets and calculating ETAs. This allows us to use electric buses more intensively than anyone else in the world, leading to a massive reduction in emissions. It also helps us provide a much better passenger experience, with innovative features like demand-responsive stops.

We’re still small but growing fast, with new routes in the pipeline and a fleet of 78 fully electric coaches. Our focus is on staying lean, increasing efficiency and delivering the best product experiences. We’ve raised equity from some of Europe’s leading climate VCs and are looking for mission-driven individuals who want to get on board and help take us to the next level.

We're now looking for a Lead Driver in Fort William to help us to build and support a small team of the best and most professional drivers in Scotland. Whether you have a passion for electric vehicles or simply for great customer service, we'd love to hear from you. We'll be forming a pioneering team in the area and it's really important to us that we find people who are truly motivated to be a key part of a company that is proving that things can be done differently.

Responsibilities

As Lead Driver, you'll be the senior person on the front-line. Many of your shifts will be driving our coaches yourself, and leading by example in the way that this can and should be done. Not only will you be responsible for keeping the coach moving, you'll be the main point of contact for customers if they have any issues or need help, and you'll be setting the standard for what good really looks like in all of these aspects.

You'll also act in a Supervisory capacity at a local level, and some of your shifts and duties will reflect that. You will be involved in the ongoing recruitment and training of new drivers, with support from the wider Ember team up the road in Inverness. Fort William will be one of our smaller Ember Hubs with a team of up to 8 people, and the Lead Driver will be a key part of ensuring the day to day success of this tight-knit group.

Our Fort William team will be based a little further from central functions like Engineering. For that reason, we're looking for resourceful and motivated individuals who will be solution-focussed and highly motivated to get any day to day challenges resolved. The Lead Driver should embody these qualities.

You can also expect to:

• Be the primary communicator in Fort William, and act as a voice for the team when needed

• Undertake some elements of routine HR. That might mean holding a probationary review, playing a part in screening interviews, or recognising the need for some refresher training within the existing team, and ensuring that this is delivered

• Help us to build and maintain strong relationships with local suppliers, partners and other operators

• Ensure we deliver the best possible service. You’ll be splitting your time driving and as the person on the ground responsible for running a high-quality operation 24/7 and ensuring we delight our customers. This means ensuring our coaches run on time and are in great condition, inside and out. You’ll work with our drivers, operations and maintenance teams, and you'll definitely get your own hands dirty sometimes.

We've built lots of new technology to help ensure customers get the best experience possible.  That means you'll need to be open to learning new systems and using them in the correct way.

As a small business, we put a lot of trust into our local teams.  We expect the whole team to take pride in the work that you do and this will involve light cleaning duties throughout the day to keep our coaches in top condition.  We are also evolving fast, so love people that want to give input into how we can do things better and who do this in a thoughtful, constructive way.

Benefits

• A salary of up to £40,000 per annum, depending on your experience
• Free CPC renewal for full time and part time drivers
• 28 days paid annual holiday
• Flexible annual leave - request your own holiday dates rather than being assigned them
• Up to 10 days unpaid annual leave
• 20 days paid leave for sickness, jury duty, parental or other unplanned leave
• Established progression paths at a fast-growing company
• Friendly culture
• You'll be driving a state-of-the-art electric coach
• You’ll contribute to a hugely positive environmental impact, with every journey reducing emissions and traffic

Hours

Ember run a 24/7 service across Scotland, seven days per week, and you'll need to be able to rotate between a wide variety of shifts. We'll try to make these as sociable as possible and we'll give you five weeks’ notice of what the rota looks like so you have plenty of time to plan. We also frequently have overtime opportunities available at shorter notice.

Next Steps

Get in touch if you think you might be the right fit or learn more about Ember at www.ember.to.

Requirements

You will need to meet these basic requirements:

• Full PCV licence: Category D as a minimum
• Up to date CPC and a digital tachograph card (or able to get both quickly)
• Able to demonstrate high-quality driving, including smooth braking and a commitment to safety
• Flexibility to work early, late or night shifts on any day of the week. In return, we'll try to make these as sociable as possible and agree them well in advance