Regional Operations Director - North and Scotland in Manchester

Levy is the vibrant and exciting sector of Compass Group, the world's largest catering company. We work at some of the greatest venues in the world, delivering legendary experiences in food, drink, and hospitality. In the UK, we are proud to have a wealth of long-standing partnerships with venues across sport, entertainment, and events. Our partnerships include venues such as Wimbledon, Twickenham, Edgbaston, Tottenham Hotspur, NEC, Aston Villa FC, Scottish Event Campus (SEC), O2 and ExCel London. We are culinary champions - it's what we do and it's what we are passionate about. At the core of our work is the belief that sustainably sourced great food and drink, coupled with exceptional service is key to creating legendary experiences. Focused on 'doing the right thing' for our people and the planet, sustainability, wellbeing, diversity, and inclusion are at the heart of what we do. We have a commitment to being Net Zero by 2027, are official partners of the British Paralympic Association, and are proud to pay all our team members at least the Real Living Wage or London Living Wage.

Role Purpose: As Operations Director for the North & Scotland, you will lead the operational performance, strategic direction and client partnerships across several venues in the North/Northwest. This is a senior leadership role focused on driving performance at scale, balancing world class matchday delivery with long term commercial growth, operational excellence and client relationship management. Reporting to the Regional Business Director, you will work in close partnership with Venue Directors/General Managers and central functions to shape and deliver both short-term priorities and long-term strategy, ensuring Levy continues to set the standard in premium sport and hospitality environments.

• Strategic Vision & Transformation: Set and deliver a clear long term strategy for catering and hospitality across conferences, exhibitions, premium and retail operations. Lead venue wide strategic planning, ensuring alignment with client ambition, Levy priorities and sustainability commitments. Act as a trusted strategic partner to the Client, contributing to broader venue and campus wide discussions beyond catering delivery. Use market insight, customer data and competitor analysis to keep the venue ahead of industry trends. Present strategic recommendations and investment cases to senior stakeholders, supported by robust commercial and performance data.
• Commercial Growth & Partnerships: Design and execute growth strategies to increase revenue, spend per head and commercial returns across all hospitality formats. Identify and develop new commercial opportunities including partnerships, experiential concepts and innovation initiatives. Lead strategic pricing, revenue optimisation and margin improvement programmes. Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Culinary, E15 Insights, Projects and Commercial teams to deliver compelling go-to-market propositions. Position the venue as a benchmark venue within the UK events and hospitality market through differentiated commercial strategies.
• Strategic Operational Oversight & Guest Experience: Provide senior oversight and assurance of operational readiness, quality and consistency across all events. Set clear standards for food, service, sustainability and compliance, holding operational leaders accountable for delivery. Champion a guest-first culture, ensuring hospitality excellence is embedded across the venue. Maintain strong governance across Health & Safety, food safety and brand standards.
• Performance, Efficiency & Continuous Improvement: Introduce and embed data-led KPIs to drive productivity, quality and financial performance. Lead cross-functional process improvement initiatives to simplify ways of working and improve effectiveness.
• Leadership & Culture: Lead, inspire and develop a high-performing senior leadership team capable of operating with autonomy and commercial accountability. Shape venue structures that flex to event demand and complexity. Mentor future leaders and support succession planning to build long-term resilience. Role-model Levy leadership behaviours, fostering a culture of trust, accountability and innovation.

• Experience: Significant senior leadership experience within complex, high-profile hospitality, events, catering, retail or venue environments, ideally across Stadia. Proven track record of shaping and delivering long-term strategic vision alongside commercial growth, transformation and operational excellence. Experience operating at executive and board level, presenting strategic recommendations, business cases and performance insights to senior stakeholders and clients. Demonstrated success leading change programmes, innovation initiatives and growth strategies that deliver sustainable commercial and guest experience outcomes. Strong background working within matrixed organisations, collaborating across commercial, operational and functional teams to deliver shared objectives. Experience managing senior stakeholder relationships in demanding, high-visibility environments, acting as a trusted advisor rather than solely a delivery lead.
• Knowledge, Skills & Professional Capability: Highly developed strategic thinking and analytical capability, with the ability to translate insight, data and market intelligence into clear, executable plans. Strong commercial and financial acumen, including experience building investment cases, pricing strategies, revenue optimisation models and margin improvement plans. Confident using data, performance metrics and customer insight (e.g. E15-style analytics) to drive decision making, performance improvement and growth. Deep understanding of guest experience design, premium hospitality, retail and event operations within a modern venue context. Strong grasp of sustainability, technology enablement and innovation as drivers of long-term venue performance and competitive advantage. Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills, with the credibility to operate effectively at board, client leadership and partner level.
• Leadership & Personal Attributes: Senior, credible leader with the presence and judgement to operate at enterprise level while maintaining a strong connection to delivery standards. Collaborative and inclusive leadership style, able to align diverse teams and stakeholders behind a shared strategic direction. Passionate about developing leaders and building high performing, strategically minded teams with strong commercial accountability. Comfortable operating in fast paced, high profile environments with competing priorities and complex stakeholder dynamics. Resilient, adaptable and forward thinking, with a strong appetite for innovation, continuous improvement and "jumping the curve" rather than preserving the status quo. Role models Levy values and leadership behaviours, fostering a culture of trust, accountability, psychological safety and ambition.