Operations Manager
Job Introduction
Lead a Service That Changes Lives
At Triage, we help people overcome barriers to employment, build confidence, develop skills and move towards brighter futures.
We're looking for an ambitious, people-focused Operations Manager to lead the delivery of our employment support services, helping young people access meaningful opportunities and achieve sustainable employment.
This is more than an operational management role. You'll lead a high-performing service that helps young people move into meaningful employment, while developing colleagues, building employer partnerships and driving exceptional contract performance.
Success in this role depends on your ability to engage both employers and young people. You'll help businesses recognise the value of offering funded work placements and inspire young people to seize opportunities that can lead to long-term careers. Through strong partnerships and effective delivery, you'll help turn potential into sustainable employment outcomes.
If you're passionate about developing teams, creating high-performing services and making a genuine difference to people's lives, we'd love to hear from you.
Why Join Triage?
At Triage, you're more than just an employee. You'll become part of a supportive organisation that helps people transform their lives through employment, skills and opportunity.
Our benefits include:
• Car allowance
• Your birthday off every year
• Additional annual leave for length of service
• Two paid volunteering days each year
• Employee discounts, rewards and wellbeing support
• Confidential Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Pension and life assurance
• Work anniversary recognition
• Ongoing training and professional development opportunities
• Career progression within a growing organisation
Your development matters to us
At Triage, we don't just offer jobs. We build careers. We're committed to developing our people through training, coaching, mentoring and opportunities to grow within the organisation. Many of our colleagues have progressed into new roles, gained qualifications, and expanded their skills whilst making a positive difference to the lives of others.
You'll become part of a team that:
- Supports and encourages one another
- Shares ideas and best practice
- Celebrates success together
- Lives our values every day
About the Role:
You'll be accountable for performance across referrals, engagement, job outcomes, sustainment, quality and compliance measures, ensuring contractual targets are achieved whilst delivering an outstanding participant experience.
This is a hands-on leadership role where you'll work closely with delivery teams, employers, DWP and local partners to drive performance, overcome challenges and continuously improve the service.
Employer engagement is fundamental to the programme's success. Every participant will progress into a funded work placement, making strong employer relationships essential. You'll work closely with employers and employer engagement colleagues to develop opportunities that meet workforce needs whilst helping young people access meaningful routes into sustained employment.
Alongside supporting and developing Performance Managers, you'll collaborate with Operations Manager colleagues across Triage to share best practice and contribute to wider organisational success.
Every day brings a different challenge, but every day offers the opportunity to help shape brighter futures.
What We're Looking For:
We're looking for someone who combines strong operational leadership with a genuine passion for helping people achieve their potential.
What You'll Bring:
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Experience developing high-performing teams and supporting colleague growth.
• Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building abilities.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use data to drive decision-making.
• A proactive, resilient and solution-focused approach.
• The ability to balance competing priorities while maintaining high standards.
Essential Requirements
• Experience managing employability, skills, welfare-to-work, youth employment or other publicly funded programmes.
• Proven experience leading and motivating teams to achieve performance targets.
• Experience using management information and data to drive service improvement.
• Strong understanding of participant-centred support and employment progression.
• Experience developing effective relationships with employers and stakeholders.
• Knowledge of compliance, quality assurance and audit requirements.
• Understanding of safeguarding, equality and diversity, health and safety and data protection requirements.
• Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications and performance systems.
• Ability to travel locally and regionally as required.
Desirable
• Knowledge of local labour market conditions and employer recruitment needs.
• Experience managing managers or aspiring leaders.
• Experience working with DWP-funded contracts.
• Experience leading multi-site delivery teams.
What You'll Be Doing:
Leadership & People Development
• Lead, motivate and inspire a high-performing team to achieve excellent participant outcomes.
• Support, coach and develop the region's Performance Manager to drive performance and service excellence.
• Lead by example, demonstrating Triage's values in everything you do.
• Create a positive, supportive and accountable culture where colleagues can thrive.
• Support recruitment, induction, training and ongoing professional development activities.
• Conduct observations, reviews and performance discussions to support colleague development.
Operational Performance
• Oversee performance against contractual targets and key performance indicators.
• Monitor referrals, engagement, commencements, job outcomes, sustainment and participant progression.
• Analyse performance data and management information to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
• Implement improvement plans to maximise performance and quality.
• Ensure effective caseload management and consistent delivery standards across the service.
Participant & Employer Outcomes
• Ensure participants receive high-quality, personalised support that helps them overcome barriers and achieve their goals.
• Champion the programme with employers, developing strong relationships that create funded work placement opportunities and sustainable employment pathways.
• Spearhead engagement with large-scale regional and national employers, leading comprehensive employer needs analyses to co-design bespoke workforce solutions and high-volume placement pathways.
• Support teams to promote the programme in a way that attracts, engages and retains young people throughout their journey.
• Work with employer engagement colleagues and local businesses to develop a robust pipeline of opportunities that meet participant aspirations and employer needs.
• Champion the use of the employer database as a core performance-management tool, ensuring data integrity to track conversion rates, monitor account lifecycles, and enhance overall service performance.
• Ensure participants receive effective job matching, in-work support and progression planning to maximise long-term outcomes.
Partnerships & Stakeholder Engagement
• Develop effective relationships with DWP, Jobcentre Plus and local partners.
• Represent Triage at stakeholder meetings, forums and contract reviews.
• Support the promotion of the programme across the local area.
• Build collaborative relationships that strengthen referral pathways and improve participant outcomes.
Quality, Compliance & Continuous Improvement
• Ensure all activity meets contractual, audit and quality requirements.
• Promote excellence in safeguarding, data protection, health and safety, equality and diversity practices.
• Monitor quality standards and support continuous improvement activity.
• Share learning and best practice with colleagues across Triage to drive service improvement.
Who You Are:
You'll thrive in this role if you are:
• An inspiring and approachable leader.
• Passionate about helping people succeed.
• Positive, resilient and adaptable.
• Committed to developing others and achieving high standards.
• Collaborative and supportive of colleagues across the wider organisation.
• Motivated by making a genuine difference in people's lives.
Why This Role Matters:
Behind every performance target is a young person looking for an opportunity to build a better future. Through your leadership, you'll help create opportunities that enable young people to develop confidence, gain valuable workplace experience and progress into sustainable employment.
The relationships you build with employers, the support you provide to colleagues and the quality of service you lead will have a lasting impact on individuals, businesses and local communities.
If you're looking for a role that combines leadership, performance, partnership working and genuine social impact, this is an opportunity to be part of something meaningful.
About Triage:
Triage provides information, advice, guidance, training and support to help people move into work, develop their skills and build sustainable careers.
We work across Scotland and England, partnering with employers, local authorities and communities to create opportunities and deliver positive social impact.
Our Values
Everything we do is guided by our values:
• We thrive together
• We do something amazing every day
• We never give up
• We know our knowledge is power
• We act with kindness
If these values resonate with you, you'll fit right in.
Additional Information:
This job description is intended as a guide to the main responsibilities of the role. You may be required to undertake additional duties consistent with the nature and level of the position.
For the successful candidate, this role will require a satisfactory enhanced disclosure check appropriate to the level of responsibility involved. We handle all disclosure information in line with the relevant safeguarding legislation and the DBS Code of Practice, ensuring a fair and transparent process for all applicants. Cost will be reimbursed through our onboarding and internal expense process.
As a Disability Confident Leader, we wish to engage and encourage people with a disability or long-term health condition to work for us, ensuring they have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. We will interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the job and make reasonable adjustments to ensure candidates are not disadvantaged in any way. If this applies to you, you can request consideration under this scheme during the application process.
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