Business Operations Manager

Role Purpose

To provide effective operational governance, commercial coordination and business-unit control across Support Services. The role will ensure that customer commitments, financial milestones, procurement requirements, resource demands and internal actions are visible, prioritised and progressed. The position manages and improves the business operating framework and is distinct from the Service Coordinator / Buyer role, which remains responsible for day-to-day purchasing, logistics, scheduling support and transactional administration.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the consolidated operational plan and coordinate weekly and monthly business reviews.
• Maintain an integrated view of workload, engineering capacity, customer commitments and operational risks.
• Develop accurate management information covering order intake, revenue, margin, invoicing, cash, backlog, utilisation and delivery.
• Coordinate quotation, purchase-order, variation and invoice-milestone visibility without exceeding delegated commercial authority.
• Work with Finance and Service Managers to improve forecasts and reduce completed but uninvoiced work.
• Identify resource constraints and support decisions on overtime, subcontract support, recruitment and temporary cover.
• Standardise appropriate processes, trackers and reporting across service teams.
• Provide management oversight, prioritisation, coaching and escalation support for the Service Coordinator / Buyer function.
• Maintain operational risks and actions, support audits and ensure compliance with company procedures.
• Build effective relationships with Finance, Commercial, Procurement, HR, Engineering and Project teams.

Key Deliverables

• Consolidated workload and capacity plan.
• Accurate monthly revenue and operational forecasts.
• Clear order, variation and invoicing status.
• Timely escalation of delivery, supply-chain and commercial risks.
• Standardised management reporting.
• Documented business-continuity and functional-cover arrangements.
• Reduced overdue actions and administrative delays.

Authority and Boundaries

• May coordinate planning, management information and administrative priorities.
• May chase actions, escalate overdue commitments and recommend improvements.
• May manage agreed direct reports and represent the unit at delegated meetings.
• May not commit the company commercially, approve unauthorised expenditure, accept contractual liabilities or override competent technical and safety decisions.
• Does not remove engineering-delivery accountability from Service Managers.

Essential Experience and Knowledge

• Experience in business operations, service coordination, project support or a comparable operational environment.
• Strong planning, organisation and cross-functional coordination capability.
• Good commercial and financial awareness, including forecasts and invoice milestones.
• Ability to analyse information and produce clear management reports.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Competence with Microsoft 365 and relevant business systems.

Desirable Experience

• Engineering, maintenance, technical-services or project-delivery environment.
• Procurement, supplier coordination or commercial administration.
• Previous line-management or team-leadership experience.
• Knowledge of revenue forecasting, margin, work in progress and service-management systems.

Personal Attributes

• Commercially aware and delivery-focused.
• Structured without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Confident in challenging missed actions and unclear ownership.
• Proactive, discreet and comfortable operating across management and engineering teams.

Performance Measures

• Forecast accuracy.
• Value and age of completed but uninvoiced work.
• Percentage of completed work invoiced within target.
• Overdue operational and commercial actions.
• Quality and timeliness of management reporting.
• Effectiveness of resource plans and functional-cover arrangements.
• Internal stakeholder feedback and development of the coordination function.