Metrolinx is connecting communities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Metrolinx operates GO Transit and UP Express, as well as the PRESTO fare payment system. We are also building new and improved rapid transit, including GO Expansion, Light Rail Transit routes, and major expansions to Toronto’s subway system, to get people where they need to go, better, faster and easier. Metrolinx is an agency of the Government of Ontario.

At Metrolinx, equity, diversity and inclusion are essential to living our values of serving with passion, thinking forward and playing as a team.

Transit Strategy and Insights helps Metrolinx make better decisions about transit investments, policies and priorities. Across our transit portfolios, we combine forecasting, market intelligence and strategic analysis to understand travel needs, evaluate options and advise leaders throughout the investment lifecycle.

We are looking for a Lead, Ridership Insights to help turn investment in our future transit network into sustained ridership. You will investigate demand, explain ridership gaps, and identify the service connections, station access, fares and surrounding development needed to realize an investment’s potential. Your analysis will help teams act on opportunities that span organizational boundaries.

This is a senior individual contributor position with manager-level scope and accountability. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Transit Strategy, you will independently lead complex assignments, conduct hands-on analysis and provide expert advice to senior leaders. You will build our ridership insights capability and work across Metrolinx to turn evidence into action.

If you enjoy getting into the data, asking difficult questions and bringing people together to solve consequential transit problems, we want to hear from you.

What will I be doing?

Lead complex analyses to identify ridership drivers, diagnose performance gaps and determine the conditions needed to realize future ridership potential. Test competing explanations and assess opportunities across service connections, transfer quality, fares, station access and transit-oriented development.
Translate findings into prioritized recommendations for existing services and planned investments. Assess potential ridership impact, cost, feasibility, timing and dependencies, working with forecasting and investment analysis specialists to inform decisions.
Build an integrated evidence base linking ridership and fare payment data with service, capital project, land-use and market information. Conduct hands-on analysis, define measures and quality checks, and partner with data owners and technology teams on integration, including near-real-time inputs where useful.
Work with accountable teams across Metrolinx to advance priority recommendations, agree actions and milestones, and resolve dependencies. Support transit agency and municipal engagement through established relationship owners, escalating unresolved issues with clear options.
Develop clear insights and recommendations for senior and executive audiences. Use concise briefings, presentations and visualizations to explain what the evidence means, the decisions required, and the implications, trade-offs and uncertainty.
Establish measures to track enabling conditions and evaluate interventions. Account for external influences and shifts between services when assessing ridership changes and use findings to improve recommendations.
Strengthen ridership insights capability through reusable analytical tools, documented methods, technical review and coaching. Evaluate and pilot automation, advanced analytics and AI to improve the speed and quality of insight, validating results and providing human interpretation.

What Skills and Qualifications Do I Need?

Completion of a degree in economics, statistics, data science, business or a related field with a strong analytical emphasis, or a combination of education, training and experience deemed equivalent.
Significant, progressively responsible experience applying analytics to complex business or customer questions. Demonstrated success independently leading quantitative analysis, translating findings into actionable insights, and influencing business or investment decisions.
Strong hands-on skills in querying, combining and analysing complex datasets using SQL and tools such as Python or R, or equivalent capabilities. Experience with reproducible analysis, data quality assessment and visualization tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
Sound knowledge of statistical analysis and evaluation methods: testing hypotheses, assessing uncertainty and distinguishing association from causation. Ability to combine quantitative evidence with customer research and business context to explain behaviour.
Demonstrated experience analysing drivers of customer behaviour and demand and assessing how service, access, pricing and external conditions affect outcomes. Ability to apply that experience to transit and critically assess forecasts and their underlying assumptions.
Strong strategic problem-solving and judgment: translate ambiguous questions into focused workplans, prioritize the analysis that matters, and recommend feasible actions that improve ridership and investment value.
Ability to influence without direct authority, challenge assumptions constructively and build agreement across technical and business teams. Experience advancing recommendations through implementation partners and tracking results.
Demonstrated experience translating complex analysis into clear insights and actionable recommendations for senior and executive audiences. Ability to develop concise presentations, briefing materials and visualizations that explain business implications, trade-offs and uncertainty, and support decisions.
Experience with transit or mobility data, spatial analysis, benefits realization, or applied machine learning and AI is an asset. Candidates from other sectors who can apply relevant analytical depth to transit challenges are encouraged to apply.

Don’t Meet Every Requirement?

If you’re excited about working with Metrolinx but your past experience doesn’t quite align with every qualification of this posting, we encourage you to apply. You just might be the right candidate for this or other roles. We are always looking for great talent to join our team.

We invite all interested individuals to apply and encourage applications from members of equity-deserving communities, including those who identify as Indigenous, Black, racialized, women, people with disabilities, and people with diverse gender identities, expressions and sexual orientations.

Accommodation:
Metrolinx is an equal opportunity employer and committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are also committed to offering reasonable accommodation to job applicants in accordance with applicable legislation. If you require assistance or an accommodation at any point during the hiring process, please contact us at: 416-202-5601 or email [email protected].

Application Process:

All applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada. Metrolinx will be using email to communicate with you for all job competitions. It is your responsibility to include an updated email address that is checked daily and accepts emails from unknown users. As we send time-sensitive correspondence, we recommend that you check your email regularly. If no response is received, we will assume you are no longer interested in pursuing the opportunity. Please be advised that a Criminal Record Check may be required of the successful candidate.

For Internal applicants, with the recent implementation of the Internal Mobility Policy, the internal recruitment process has changed for non-union roles. Candidates must be in their current role for 12 months prior to applying for another role and each applicant must be in good standing (not participating in a Performance Improvement Plan). Please review all provisions of the policy before submitting your application.

Should it be determined that any background information provided is misleading, inaccurate or incorrect, Metrolinx reserves the right to discontinue with the consideration of your application.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.

WE ARE AN EQUITABLE AND INCLUSIVE EMPLOYER.

Minimum Pay Range: $110,854.00

Maximum Pay Range: $153,872.00

Metrolinx

Lead, Ridership Insights

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Metrolinx

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