Senior Operations Manager – (Senior Leadership Role)

Innovative Service Group
c£100-120,000 plus bonus & package

This is a rare, high-impact opportunity for an ambitious, commercially astute operational leader to join one of the UK’s most innovative business and consumer service groups. Created as part of continued growth and a broader restructuring into new business units, the role offers genuine influence, significant scale and a clear route towards senior executive leadership.

For over two decades, the organisation has led its specialist market, delivering unique, high‑value services to major corporate clients while maintaining a highly trusted position with consumers. Their success is built on independence, bespoke solutions and a principled commitment to continuous improvement, underpinned by humility, passion and a relentless focus on doing the right thing for clients, consumers and colleagues alike.

Internally, the same people‑first ethos is evident. The culture is upbeat, fast‑paced and collaborative, with high standards and strong support. Following a £2m investment in their Head Office, the environment is designed to help teams perform at their best, with flexible working practices, excellent facilities, and meaningful learning and development. Progression is driven by ownership and ambition; opportunity is limited only by appetite and capability.

The business is now seeking a Senior Operations Manager to lead a significant operational function of around 250 colleagues, taking accountability for performance, service quality and customer experience across both B2B and high‑volume B2C channels. This appointment creates a critical layer of leadership within one of the Group’s largest and most strategically important divisions.

The Role

Reporting into the senior leadership and partnering closely with the COO and SLT, the Senior Operations Manager will shape and deliver the operational strategy, ensuring service excellence, consistent communication and a standout customer experience. This is a strategic leadership role with real operational accountability: you will drive performance, refine processes, strengthen cross‑functional alignment and lead continuous improvement at scale.

While teams and processes are performing well, there is significant scope to further elevate consistency, efficiency and strategic impact, including smarter resource planning, sharper management rhythms and greater use of automation and emerging technologies, without losing the human connection that differentiates the organisation.

Commercial and operational ownership is central. The role carries accountability for income streams and cost control, budgeting and contribution, and for maintaining competitiveness across cost, service quality and product range.

Key Objectives

• Lead, inspire and develop high‑performing operational teams across your area of responsibility.
• Own the quality of all operational and BAU outputs: planning, delivery, performance management and continuous improvement.
• Refine, communicate and deliver the operational and customer relationship strategy.
• Strengthen communication, cohesion and cross‑functional collaboration to reinforce a high‑performance culture.
• Champion efficiency, cost‑effectiveness and consistently high service standards.
• Enhance systems, processes and automation to support sustainable growth.
• Lead transformational change with clarity, pace and discipline, using data and evidence to drive decisions.
• Role‑model the organisation’s values and set the standard for leadership behaviours.

Specific Responsibilities

• Lead a team of 70+ directly, with wider influence across the broader operational community.
• Ensure client and customer obligations are met, including during periods of challenge, change or peak demand.
• Oversee resource planning, recruitment, training, capability building and capacity management.
• Build clear operational routines, disciplines and performance rhythms that create accountability and momentum.
• Partner with commercial teams to onboard and integrate new clients effectively and profitably.
• Work closely with technology teams to improve system capability, workflow efficiency and product performance.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex customer/consumer issues, ensuring calm, fair and timely resolution.
• Monitor operational risk and compliance requirements, ensuring regulated obligations are consistently met.

Leadership and Culture

This role is defined by people leadership. You will coach and develop leaders, empower managers and build engagement across teams. You will set the tone for standards, communication and ways of working, creating a culture that is transparent, outcomes‑focused and supportive, where colleagues are clear on expectations and proud of performance.

Each team member operates within a learning and development framework. You will set, review and drive development plans, build capability and confidence and raise the overall bar on leadership quality, creativity and service.

Key Personal Leadership Focus

• Identifying and delivering high‑impact, measurable change.
• Creative, pragmatic problem‑solving at pace, with strong attention to detail.
• Adaptive leadership suited to fast growth and evolving priorities.
• Developing, motivating and retaining high‑performing teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and a customer‑first mindset.
• Data‑led decision making, operational optimisation and risk awareness.
• Translating strategic intent into clear delivery and sustained results.

The Individual

Chemistry and attitude matter as much as experience. This is a pivotal leadership appointment in a fast‑paced, entrepreneurial environment, and the successful candidate will be instrumental in shaping energy, tone and culture, as well as operational success. You will combine gravitas with momentum: calm under pressure, decisive, collaborative and relentlessly constructive.

We are seeking a proven operations leader (typically with a minimum 5+ years’ senior leadership experience) with strong commercial awareness and financial accountability, ideally gained within a regulated, service‑led environment such as the energy sector or a closely related, regulated sector. 

You will have led sizeable teams and/or business units, managed volume performance and service quality, and delivered measurable improvements in efficiency, engagement and customer experience.

You will be an influential communicator and an inspirational people leader, able to set clear standards, manage sentiment, coach managers and build highly motivated, high‑performing teams. Experience of employee engagement measurement and improvement (e.g., survey results) would be advantageous.

Knowledge and Experience

• Leadership experience within a regulated, service‑led environment (domestic or non‑domestic energy strongly preferred), with P&L/budget responsibility.
• Demonstrable delivery of income streams and cost control to drive meaningful contribution (up to c. £2m).
• Strong grasp of operational performance management in a high‑volume environment (quality, “right first time”, customer experience).
• Ability to analyse performance data, extract insight and translate it into clear actions and improved results.
• Strong written and verbal communication; credible presenting complex information to different audiences.
• Passion for developing colleagues, building capability and embedding a culture of continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of regulatory/compliance requirements and the discipline to uphold them consistently.

Skills and Competencies

• Respected, influential, high integrity; able to operate under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Demonstrable ability to influence across levels and functions.
• Creative problem solving with strong analytical capability.
• Effective, balanced decision making, decisive and collaborative.
• Excellent attention to detail and an ability to create clarity from complexity.
• Skilled in producing and delivering reports, presentations and performance updates.

Personal Attributes

• Customer focused; honest; reliable; adaptable.
• Confident, proactive and able to use initiative.
• Driven, resilient and self‑motivated; learns quickly from setbacks.
• A team player who can constructively challenge for the common good.
• Entrepreneurial, energised by pace and change, with a “just do it” mindset, and a sense of humour.

Opportunity and Career Development

The role offers an accelerated pathway toward executive leadership, supported by mentoring from highly experienced senior leaders and exposure to strategic decision‑making. It also offers the chance to lead at scale in a business with strong momentum, clear differentiators and a culture that genuinely invests in its people.

This is a chance to shape a high‑performing operation, strengthen customer experience, and play a defining role in the next phase of growth for a market‑leading organisation. In turn, this becomes a career-defining opportunity to likewise take your career to its next phase of growth and development.