Operations Manager

This is a role for an experienced operational leader who can turn performance data into action, develop strong Business Managers and Team Managers, build high-performing teams and ensure services remain focused on the people and employers they support. Alongside operational delivery, you'll play a key role in driving regional employer engagement, sales and business development. You'll oversee Account Management and employer-facing teams, strengthen strategic employer relationships and ensure opportunities are converted into vacancies, skills provision and apprenticeship starts. You'll own regional budgets and P&L performance while maintaining the standards expected by commissioners, prime contractors, employers, partners and Get Set UK., Your focus is sustainable operational performance, employer growth and better outcomes, not simply short-term numbers. You'll set clear expectations for Business Managers and Team Managers, review performance and customer outcomes, identify where delivery is falling behind and ensure corrective action happens. You'll use management information to understand what is driving performance rather than relying on headline figures alone, using data to identify trends, risks, opportunities and areas requiring intervention. You'll coach and challenge Business Managers and Team Managers, helping them develop capable, accountable teams that deliver consistently for participants and learners. Alongside performance, you'll be responsible for maintaining contractual quality, safeguarding and compliance standards, ensuring operational risks are identified and addressed before they become bigger problems. Employer engagement, Sales and business development A significant part of the role will be leading our regional employer strategy. You'll oversee Account Management, Employer Engagement and Sales activity across the region, ensuring teams build strong, long-term relationships with employers and maintain a healthy pipeline of opportunities. You'll set clear expectations around employer engagement activity, pipeline development, conversion and account management, using data to understand where performance needs to improve and ensuring teams remain accountable for results. You'll also be expected to personally develop senior and strategic employer relationships, opening doors with key organisations and representing Get Set UK confidently in the external market. Your employer relationships should directly support our delivery by generating:

• Vacancies and employment opportunities for Restart participants.
• Work experience, sector-based and academy opportunities.
• Employer-led training and skills demand.
• New apprenticeship opportunities and apprenticeship starts.
• Longer-term strategic partnerships and repeat business.

You'll work closely with our Skills and Apprenticeships teams to connect employer demand with our academies and wider training provision. A particular focus will be ensuring that our academies create clear progression routes into employment and apprenticeships, working with employers to understand workforce requirements and converting those needs into suitable training and apprenticeship solutions. You'll oversee regional apprenticeship business development activity, ensuring the Account Management and Sales teams develop strong pipelines, improve conversion and build sustainable employer accounts. Performance and people You'll create a culture where Business Managers and Team Managers understand what good performance looks like and are confident taking ownership of their results. You'll establish effective performance rhythms across the region, ensuring managers understand their data, take timely action and maintain clear improvement plans where required. You'll develop management capability through coaching, challenge and support, while dealing directly and fairly with underperformance. You'll ensure workforce capacity, structure and deployment are aligned to contractual and commercial requirements, making informed decisions about resources where performance or demand changes. Quality, compliance and safeguarding You'll ensure services operate consistently within contractual, regulatory and organisational requirements. You’ll maintain oversight of quality, compliance, safeguarding and operational assurance, working closely with relevant central teams and ensuring actions arising from audits, reviews or performance concerns are completed promptly. You'll promote a strong culture of continuous improvement, ensuring lessons from performance, customer feedback, quality reviews and employer engagement are translated into improvements in delivery. Commercial and financial performance Commercial responsibility is an important part of the role. You’ll manage regional budgets and P&L performance, balancing service quality, contractual delivery, productivity and commercial sustainability. You'll understand the financial drivers behind your contracts and services, identify areas of pressure or opportunity and make appropriate decisions around resources and priorities. You’ll also look for sensible opportunities to strengthen and grow provision, including new employer relationships, apprenticeship opportunities, employer-led skills activity and other areas of sustainable regional growth. External relationships You'll build credible relationships with commissioners, prime contractors, employers, local authorities, community organisations and other key partners. You’ll represent Get Set UK professionally and confidently, building trust with stakeholders and identifying opportunities where stronger collaboration can improve outcomes or support growth. You'll also ensure our regional employer proposition is clear and joined up, so employers experience Get Set UK as one organisation rather than a collection of separate programmes.

What success looks like

Within your first 6-12 months, we expect you to have:

• Strengthened accountability and performance management across the region.
• Developed the capability and confidence of Business Managers and Team Managers.
• Built stronger performance disciplines across delivery, Account Management and Sales teams.
• Established a consistent approach to performance, quality and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated measurable progress against Restart and Skills contract measures.
• Strengthened the regional employer pipeline and improved employer engagement activity and conversion.
• Built deeper strategic relationships with key employers across the North West.
• Increased the flow of vacancies and employment opportunities supporting Restart outcomes.
• Increased employer-led opportunities connected to our academies and skills provision.
• Developed a stronger pipeline of apprenticeship opportunities and starts.
• Improved Account Management disciplines, employer retention and repeat business.
• Demonstrated strong operational and financial control.
• Maintained reliable compliance, safeguarding and quality standards.
• Built services and teams that consistently support people towards sustainable employment and skills outcomes.

Working realities

This is a hands-on regional operational leadership role. Regular travel across our North West offices will be required to support Business Managers, Team Managers and frontline teams, review delivery, meet employers and engage with commissioners and other stakeholders. As we predominantly deliver face-to-face services, having a visible leadership presence across the region is an essential part of the role. You’ll be balancing participant outcomes, contractual requirements, team performance, employer needs, quality, compliance and commercial pressures. Priorities can compete, so you’ll need to make evidence-based decisions, address underperformance directly and remain accountable for the result. You should also be comfortable operating externally, developing new employer relationships and supporting your Sales and Account Management teams to convert opportunities into tangible outcomes.

• Senior operational leadership experience within employability, skills, welfare-to-work, apprenticeships, training or a closely related contract-driven service.
• Evidence of leading Business Managers, Team Managers and multi-disciplinary delivery teams to achieve financial, contractual and outcome-based KPIs.
• Strong working knowledge of DWP-funded employability provision, ideally including Restart, and experience operating within regulated quality, compliance and assurance frameworks.
• Experience managing operational budgets and P&L accountability, including making evidence-based decisions around resources, productivity and priorities.
• Strong experience of employer engagement, business development or sales within employability, skills, apprenticeships or a related sector.
• Evidence of building strategic employer relationships that generate vacancies, recruitment opportunities, training demand and commercial growth.
• Experience leading or overseeing Account Management, Employer Engagement or Sales teams, including pipeline management, activity, conversion and performance.
• An understanding of apprenticeship growth and employer-led skills solutions, with the ability to connect employer demand to apprenticeship, academy and training provision.
• Experience managing relationships with commissioners, prime contractors, employers and other external stakeholders.
• Strong analytical capability, including confident use of Excel and Power BI to interpret performance information and present clear recommendations to senior or executive audiences.
• Confident working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, with the ability to learn and adapt to other software and digital systems, A relevant management or leadership qualification.
• Further qualifications in employability, skills, apprenticeships, business or operational management.
• Direct experience across both Restart and adult skills provision.
• Experience of apprenticeship business development or employer-led training solutions., Ambitious, Be Proud, Be Considerate, Be Inspiring, and Own It, and they shape how we work with colleagues, participants and partners.

Eligibility and inclusion

You must have the full right to work in the UK. Sponsorship is not available for this role. Any offer will be subject to satisfactory references, right-to-work checks, pre-employment vetting, a minimum of a Standard DBS check and any other safeguarding or security checks required for the role. Get Set UK is a Disability Confident and Equal Opportunity Employer. Reasonable adjustments are available throughout recruitment.

We are part of Palladium, a global group operating across more than 90 countries, combining strong local delivery with international scale, knowledge and reach.