Operations Manager in Ipswich

If "we've always done it this way" makes you want to run for the hills, this could be the job you've been looking for! This isn't a role where you'll be expected to sit in an office and produce endless reports. There are already experienced Dispatch & Warehouse Managers running the day-to-day operations. Your role will be to lead them, challenge them, improve what's there and make sure the sites are performing consistently.

As Operations Manager you'll have overall responsibility for the operational performance of 2 sites, covering everything from productivity, labour utilisation and cost through to dispatch performance, stock accuracy, health & safety and continuous improvement. You'll have a handful of direct reports, with a wider team of 40. The plant operation in particular brings significant seasonal peaks, changing volumes and the added challenge of getting a living product to customers in the right condition and at the right time.

A big part of the role will be looking at what's happening across both sites and asking some fairly straightforward questions:

• Why are we doing it this way?
• Where are we losing time or money?
• What could work better?
• And how do we actually make the change happen?

You'll lead continuous improvement across processes, layouts and workflows, as well as overseeing seasonal workforce planning and the relationship with agency providers. There's also an ERP migration coming up, so you'll play an important operational role in helping both sites adopt new processes and systems.

You might be an Operations Manager from FMCG, food manufacturing, fresh produce, e-commerce, fulfilment, logistics or another high-volume, labour-intensive environment where getting things right matters. What's more important is that you've managed a sizeable operational environment and can demonstrate that you've actually improved it.

You’ll ideally have experience of:

• Leading warehouse, dispatch, fulfilment or distribution operations
• Managing through other managers rather than only directly managing operational teams
• Working with seasonal or fluctuating volumes and labour requirements
• Improving productivity, labour utilisation, cost and service levels
• Continuous improvement and process optimisation
• Managing KPIs and using data to identify and close performance gaps
• Health & safety and operational compliance
• Working with agency labour and external providers
• Implementing or improving systems and processes

We're less interested in whether you've got a particular Lean qualification and more interested in what you've actually changed.

We're not looking for someone who arrives with all the answers and feels the need to tell everyone about them. You will need personality, confidence and enough gravitas to lead and challenge experienced managers, but you'll also need to be approachable. Most importantly, you'll be the kind of person who is happy to get involved. If you enjoy finding a better way of doing things, working with people to make it happen and seeing a tangible result from your work, we'd like to hear from you.

If you want to have a chat before submitting your CV, call Lucy on (phone number removed) or email.