Operational Capacity Planner

Develop, maintain and continuously improve operational capacity planning frameworks across SBG, ensuring that resource availability is accurately modelled, risks to delivery are identified in advance and that capacity decisions are evidence-based. The Operational Capacity Planner will act as a key analytical partner to operational leaders, translating demand signals into actionable capacity plans that support the organisation’s growth strategy and service excellence commitments.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain short, medium and long-term operational capacity plans across key business functions, incorporating demand forecasting, productivity assumptions and known pipeline activity.
• Work closely with operational managers and senior stakeholders to gather and validate demand inputs, challenge assumptions and translate business objectives into resource requirements.
• Build and maintain capacity modelling tools and dashboards that provide real-time visibility of resource utilisation, headcount, and capacity gaps across teams.
• Identify capacity risks and constraints in advance, producing scenario models and options appraisals that support senior decision-making on recruitment, prioritisation and workload balancing.
• Collaborate with the Transformation Office, HR and Finance to ensure capacity plans are aligned with the wider change portfolio, headcount budgets and organisational design decisions.
• Produce regular reporting on capacity and demand against plan for operational leadership, highlighting key trends, risks and recommended mitigations.
• Support the delivery of change and transformation programmes by modelling the capacity impact of proposed changes to process, technology or organisational structure.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of demand drivers across the business, including regulatory requirements, market activity, seasonal trends and strategic growth initiatives.
• Continuously improve capacity planning methodologies, data sources and tooling to increase accuracy and reduce planning cycle time.
• Act as a subject matter expert on capacity planning best practice, coaching operational managers in planning techniques and supporting the development of a data-driven planning culture across SBG.
• Undertake ad hoc analytical tasks and projects as required to support operational and strategic decision-making.

Critical behaviours required:

• Highly analytical and numerate, with a natural inclination to question assumptions and seek evidence-based answers.
• Collaborative and consultative approach, working across functional boundaries to gather inputs and build shared ownership of plans.
• Ability to engage a range of stakeholders and communicate complex analysis at all levels of the organisation.
• Proactive and forward-thinking, anticipating problems before they arise and acting with urgency to resolve them.

Personal profile:

Qualifications required:

• Degree-level education or equivalent demonstrable experience in an analytical or operational planning discipline.
• Professional qualification or accreditation in workforce planning, operations management or a related analytical discipline.

Experience required:

• Demonstrable track record in operational capacity planning, workforce planning or resource management in a complex, multi-function environment.
• Proven experience in building and maintaining capacity models and producing regular management reporting on resource and demand.
• Experience of engaging with senior operational stakeholders to translate business strategy into resource plans.
• Previous experience in Financial Services, retail distribution or the IFA market.
• Experience of capacity planning in an environment undergoing significant transformation or rapid growth.

Our Approach to Risk Management:

You will require an awareness of operational and regulatory risk which may impact on SBG. You will be responsible for reporting to your line manager any risk which may impact on the business.

Three Lines of Defence Risk Management Model:

You will be required to deliver your role competently and comply with the relevant standards and procedures, ensuring that SBG delivers a service where suitable advice is given to the end consumer, which is adequately recorded and ultimately promotes good customer outcomes. This can either be through direct influence or in a support services capacity.

The Consumer Duty Principle:

You will be required to highlight to your line manager procedures and processes that may impact on SBG’s ability to deliver good outcomes for retail customers and/or may lead to foreseeable harm. Where possible and relevant to your department, put forward suggestions that could positively impact the outcomes achieved by retail customers.

Information Security:

You will need to be aware of all information security principles, policies and procedures and ensure these are followed on a day-to-day basis. You will be required to remain vigilant at all times and report any security concerns, suspicions and/or breaches in a timely manner.

Critical Knowledge Required:

• Proven knowledge of operational capacity planning methodologies, demand forecasting techniques and workforce modelling approaches.
• Understanding of operational performance metrics and how capacity decisions translate to service delivery outcomes.
• Familiarity with Financial Services operational environments, ideally with exposure to Mortgage, Protection or IFA distribution.
• Understanding of the regulatory context in which SBG operates, including Consumer Duty implications for operational resource planning.