Head of Operations

As the Head of Operations, you will be a senior leader within the UK Service Business Management Team, responsible for shaping and delivering the operational strategy across a diverse and complex portfolio. You will lead multidisciplinary teams including Project Managers, Project Planners, Quantity Surveyors, Contract Management specialists, and our expanding Switchgear Delivery team—ensuring project excellence nationwide. In this pivotal role, you will balance strategic direction with operational oversight, ensuring that all projects are delivered safely, efficiently, and commercially. You will cultivate a culture of high performance, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement to strengthen the organisation’s service delivery capability.

How you’ll make an impact:

• Provide senior leadership and oversight for a broad portfolio of Transmission & Distribution upgrade projects across the UK, owning the full delivery lifecycle from planning and procurement to commissioning and close‑out.
• Drive a proactive, industry‑leading safety culture, working to continuously elevate behavioural safety, compliance, and operational maturity.
• Deliver operational excellence, ensuring all projects achieve or exceed schedule, cost, quality, and customer satisfaction objectives.
• Shape and implement operational strategy, contributing to long‑term planning, policy development, process improvement, and service integration across the business.
• Lead financial and resource planning, developing action plans to optimise performance, manage cost, and ensure efficient use of staffing and capability.
• Ensure operational governance, assurance, and compliance, overseeing quality, responsiveness, and performance standards while initiating corrective action when required.
• Prepare and present operational and financial reporting, including monthly, quarterly, and annual KPIs for senior leadership.
• Act as a visible safety leader, reinforcing safe systems of work, engaging teams on site visits, and promoting accountability across all operational functions.
• Lead structured monthly project reviews, ensuring transparency, ownership, and clear mitigation planning around risks, issues, and opportunities.
• Own workforce planning and capability management, forecasting resource needs and playing a key role in recruitment, succession planning, and professional development.
• Strengthen cross‑business collaboration, aligning activities with other business units, ensuring effective knowledge sharing, and embedding lessons learned into future programmes.

Your Background:

• Extensive experience in senior Operations and/or Project Management leadership roles within a complex, technical, or engineering‑focused environment.
• Strong understanding of Field Service operations, with the ability to manage and differentiate between project‑based and field‑based delivery streams.
• Proven people leader with a strong track record of motivating, mentoring, and developing technical and operational teams.
• Highly developed organisational, strategic planning, and decision‑making skills, with experience driving operational transformation or large‑scale change.
• Strong knowledge of legislation and requirements related to utility assets, site health & safety, CDM, and environmental compliance.
• Experience within the electrical distribution, T&D, or similar industry with significant exposure to HV/EHV equipment, site operations, and safety‑critical environments.
• Thorough knowledge of CDM regulations and associated duties.
• NEBOSH or equivalent HSE qualification (desirable).
• SAP experience (Project Cockpit, project cost analysis, ROC) preferred.

Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader in electrification, powering a sustainable energy future through innovative power grid technologies with digital at the core. Over three billion people depend on our technologies to power their daily lives. With over a century in pioneering mission‑critical technologies like high‑voltage, transformers, automation, and power electronics, we are addressing the most urgent energy challenge of our time – balancing soaring electricity demand, while decarbonising the power system. Headquartered in Switzerland, we employ over 50,000 people in 60 countries and generate revenues of around $16 billion USD. We welcome you to apply today.