Head of Service: Waste Operations

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Environment, Planning and Economy Service for a dedicated and experienced professional to undertake the role of Head of Service: Waste Operations on a temporary basis until the end of March 2028 (with the potential for an extension to this date). This role has been created to ensure that the operational and people elements of the service are fully covered whilst the substantive postholder is seconded into a waste strategy role for the Council over the same time period.

Our Benefits

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family.
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances.
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings.
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth.
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day.
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network.
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards.
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes.

What will you be doing?

This role offers a unique opportunity to lead and manage the waste disposal operations within the Place and Sustainability Directorate at Cambridgeshire County Council, ensuring the delivery of high-quality waste services that support sustainable economic development and growth, and protect and enhance the environment for all communities. The postholder will be line managing officers within the waste team, including the RECAP Waste Partnership Manager, and leading on all of the day-to-day operational tasks and duties for the Council's regulatory duty as a Waste Disposal Authority. The postholder will also be managing the relationship with the Council's Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI) Contractor to ensure operational waste management duties are carried out in line with the contract. This is an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience in a senior leadership role and contribute to the strategic development and delivery of waste management services at a county level. The role reports directly to the Service Director for Environment, Planning and Economy.

About you

We are looking for an experienced senior leader with a strong track record of managing complex, regulated public services at scale. The postholder should be confident operating at a strategic level while ensuring high-quality, safe and compliant day-to-day service delivery. The postholder should bring clear strategic thinking, be able to translate national policy, legislation and organisational priorities into effective operational plans, service improvements and measurable outcomes for communities; while being comfortable in leading change, managing risk and making evidence-based decisions in a politically sensitive environment. The successful candidate should have substantial experience of contract or commercial management, including oversight of major, long-term contracts and productive relationships with contractors and partners. They will demonstrate strong financial acumen, with experience of managing significant budgets, driving value for money and securing funding where appropriate. The postholder needs to be a credible, visible leader, skilled at motivating and developing senior managers and building high-performing teams, with a clear commitment to inclusive, compassionate leadership and staff wellbeing. Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills are essential, including the ability to engage effectively with elected members, government bodies, regulators, partner authorities and local communities. Ideally, the candidate will have direct experience in waste management or environmental services, including policy, infrastructure, planning and partnership working. However, candidates without direct waste experience will be considered where they can demonstrate strongly transferable leadership, commercial, regulatory and service-delivery expertise from comparable complex service areas, alongside the ability to quickly build technical knowledge and provide confident professional leadership. The role requires degree level qualification or equivalent professional experience.

About us

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don't meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don't be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network "IDEAL" and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager to discuss any adjustment needs. Through a Guaranteed Interview Scheme, we will offer an interview to all applicants who disclose a disability and meet the essential criteria for a job vacancy. On your application form you can indicate you are disabled. Some examples of reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.