Operations Lead

Operations Lead
Location: Knutsford, WA16 9EU
Hours of Work: 40
Contract Type: Permanent

Our client, a leading provider of facilities services in the UK, is seeking an experienced and customer-focused Operations Lead to provide senior operational leadership across a complex, high-profile campus environment.

Job Overview

Reporting to the Campus Lead, the Operations Lead will be responsible for leading Soft FM operations, with a particular emphasis on cleaning services, while ensuring safe, seamless and high-quality service delivery across multiple service lines, including logistics and landscaping.

This is a key leadership role requiring a visible and credible operational leader who can translate strategic objectives into operational excellence, build strong stakeholder relationships, and foster a culture of accountability, engagement and continuous improvement. The successful candidate will play an important role in driving service excellence, operational resilience and a high-quality workplace experience, while ensuring compliance, commercial performance and team development objectives are achieved.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and maintain operational control across all Soft FM services, ensuring exceptional service delivery and operational excellence across the campus.
• Drive a customer-centric culture, regularly reviewing service performance and identifying opportunities for improvement and added value.
• Provide leadership and direction to multi-disciplined teams across cleaning and janitorial services, logistics and landscaping.
• Ensure full compliance with Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) policies, procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Develop, coach and inspire teams to achieve high levels of performance, accountability, engagement and service excellence.
• Manage operational budgets, workforce planning and resource deployment to maximise productivity and financial performance.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, senior stakeholders, suppliers and wider business leadership teams.
• Identify and implement continuous improvement initiatives that enhance customer outcomes, operational efficiency and overall business performance.

Person Specification

• Previous operational leadership experience within a complex, multi-service environment.
• Strong background in managing cleaning services, ideally within corporate, hospitality, higher education or similarly high-standard environments.
• Proven experience leading and developing large and diverse teams.
• Strong customer focus with the ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships at all levels.
• Sound financial acumen, including budget management, workforce planning and resource optimisation.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders.
• Good understanding of health, safety and compliance requirements.
• A continuous improvement mindset with the ability to drive operational excellence and innovation.