Role Purpose
The Central Operations Manager is responsible for leading the day to day delivery of Central Operations, ensuring consistent support across the branch network and wider business. The role acts as the operational hub between branches, support functions and senior leadership, driving service excellence, process compliance, communication effectiveness and operational efficiency.
The Central Operations Manager provides leadership to the Central Operations team, owns operational governance and performance, and ensures that service requests, escalations, projects and communications are managed effectively. The role is critical in maintaining business continuity, improving processes and delivering a high quality internal customer experience.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Leadership
- Lead the day to day operation of the Central Operations function.
- Ensure all operational activities are delivered in line with agreed service levels and business priorities.
- Act as the primary escalation point for operational issues and branch support requirements.
- Drive operational consistency across the branch network through standard processes and governance.
- Monitor service performance and take corrective action where required.
- Ensure operational risks are identified, managed and escalated appropriately.
Team Management
- Recruit, develop, coach and performance manage the Central Operations team.
- Create a high performing culture focused on service, productivity and accuracy.
- Conduct regular one to ones, development reviews and team meetings.
- Ensure team workload is managed effectively and resources are aligned to business demand.
- Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
Branch and Stakeholder Support
- Build strong working relationships with Branch Managers, Regional Sales Managers, Divisional Directors and support functions.
- Ensure branches receive timely, accurate and consistent support.
- Act as a central point of coordination for operational issues, incidents and business critical communications.
- Support the implementation of operational initiatives and change programmes.
Process Improvement and Governance
- Review and improve operational processes to remove complexity and increase efficiency.
- Identify opportunities for automation and standardisation.
- Implement controls, audit trails and governance frameworks to ensure compliance.
- Maintain and review standard operating procedures and process documentation.
- Ensure regulatory, company and operational policies are followed.
Communications and Coordination
- Oversee the delivery of operational communications across the business.
- Ensure key updates are clear, consistent and delivered through the appropriate channels.
- Coordinate operational calendars, action plans and business activities.
- Support the management of business incidents and cross functional responses.
Performance Management and Reporting
- Monitor operational KPIs, service levels and performance metrics.
- Produce regular management reports and insights for senior stakeholders.
- Analyse trends and identify opportunities to improve service delivery.
- Use data to support informed decision making and resource planning.
Business Improvement and Projects
- Lead operational improvement initiatives and transformation projects.
- Support the implementation of new systems, technology and service models.
- Work with stakeholders to improve customer experience and operational effectiveness.
- Ensure projects are delivered on time and achieve intended outcomes.
Key Performance Indicators
- SLA achievement
- Query resolution times
- Escalation volumes
- Process compliance levels
- Team productivity and quality measures
- Operational cost efficiencies
- Project delivery milestones
- Audit and governance compliance
Skills and Experience
Essential
- Proven experience in an operational management role.
- Experience leading teams in a fast paced environment.
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Experience managing competing priorities and operational escalations.
- Excellent analytical and problem solving abilities.
- Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially Excel, and operational reporting tools.
- The successful candidate must be able to perform VLOOKUPs and create pivot tables in Excel.
- Ability to drive continuous improvement and change initiatives.
Desirable
- Experience within automotive aftermarket, logistics, retail or multi site operations.
- Knowledge of service desk or workflow management systems.
Personal Attributes
- Customer focused and service driven.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Organised and highly resilient.
- Commercially aware.
- Proactive and solution orientated.
- Influential communicator.
- Calm under pressure.
- Committed to continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Success in the Role
A successful Central Operations Manager will create a highly effective operational support function that delivers excellent service to branches, maintains strong governance, drives operational efficiency and enables the wider business to perform at its best.