How would you like an Ops Director job with full autonomy to shape a business going through a growth phase with the view to possibly owning the place?

You’ve got an MD that says full autonomy and actually means it, and not only that, there’s progression opportunities to take over from him when he looks to step back in a few years – and he’s someone that actually wants you to want his job and doesn’t feel threatened by you telling him you’re gunning for it.

You’d be coming in as the Operations Director responsible for the day to day running of the site. A while back, they were a very traditional business and have spent the last few years transitioning to more modern processes and ways of operating, however there are still some people that might need a bit more convincing than others when you start making changes (where’s the challenge if there isn’t though?).

You’ll be shaping the Operations of the business in a way that aligns with current and future growth plans and visions, and will have full backing from your MD to implement your ideas in order to do so. 

A big part of your role will be driving efficiency improvements as they probably aren’t the most cost effective at the minute and need to look at improvement projects due to losing a couple of recent tenders on price. They also have a big market for adding servicing contracts on to their offering which they don’t currently fulfil, so you’d play a part in coming up with a way of doing that in the aim to maximise profits. Another element will be focused on NPI and new tech development to modernise processes and drive improvements in different areas.

There are a couple of other sites that pretty much run themselves as well, you’ll technically be responsible for them but they don’t require much management so it’s more of a hands-off responsibility, but there are aspirations in the business to acquire more small companies to run in the same way, they’ve probably had it pretty lucky with the 2 they have, so I’d imagine you’ll have experience of small acquisitions/multi site management to help you kick any future ones into shape. 

It's quite flat structured at the minute so you’ll have the opportunity to develop an infrastructure of mid-tier managers and delegate some of your responsibilities over time to diminish as much reliance on one single person, once you’ve established a stronger set up, there’ll be the opportunity to move into more of an MD role in a few years’ time.

In terms of what they’re after from you, you’ve been described as needing quite a ‘robust’ personality to be able to overcome the pushback/resistance you’re likely to get from some, and strong production experience specifically within bespoke or assembly environments will be of big benefit for you, you’ll be a motivator and a driver as well as someone that people can learn from to strengthen the workforce as a whole. 

Salary wise you’re looking at around the £90k mark and will be based outside of Wakefield.