Operations Manager (Ref: 21920)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

Location: Bournemouth Combined Courts of Justice, Deansleigh Road, Bournemouth, BH7 7DS

Proud to serve. Proud to keep justice going.

Our Operations Managers play a vital role in delivering justice. This is a high-profile leadership position. You will proactively lead service delivery, providing teams with clear direction, ensuring that business activities are well-coordinated to increase productivity and deliver high-quality services. We are seeking an experienced leader who will lead by example, champion change, and cultivate a culture of resilience and adaptability, empowering teams to thrive while building strong, collaborative relationships with all stakeholders.

About us

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family Courts and Tribunals in England and Wales as well as the reserved unified tribunals across the United Kingdom. Our roles support our service users and colleagues within HMCTS, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice. We’re looking for individuals who are committed to public service and making a difference in people’s lives to deliver justice.

About your role

The role of a manager is at the heart of HMCTS operations, shaped by the Civil Service Line Management Standards. It’s rewarding, challenging, and essential to our success.

We’re looking for managers with the experience and desire to develop high performing teams, providing clear direction on performance and attendance and creating a culture of fair reward and recognition.

This role sits within HMCTS’ Southwest region. You will be responsible for the strategic oversight of Crown, Magistrates, and Civil, Family and Tribunal work.

You will support your Deputy Head of Operations to meet operational needs and deliver performance objectives by translating national priorities into local plans.

The role provides visible leadership across operational areas, driving service delivery and team productivity. Your presence supports engagement, accountability, and alignment with organisational goals.

You will give clear direction and focus and align and co-ordinate activity to increase productivity and deliver a quality service across Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth.

You will model inclusive leadership. You will identify development needs and implement targeted growth plans to improve individual and business performance, ensuring teams are equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, and capabilities to excel.

Championing change and embedding a culture of continuous improvement, you will proactively use workforce planning, providing clear direction and focus to build teams that are resilient and adaptable.

You’ll foster a collaborative culture and communicate, support, and deliver HMCTS and MoJ strategic objectives, translating them into actionable local plans to deliver measurable results.

Please refer to the role profile attachment to understand more about this key leadership position.

Essential knowledge, skills and experience

• Proven experience in a challenging operations or management role with the ability and willingness to adapt and learn at pace.
• Demonstrable people management and coaching skills, leading, developing and managing teams to drive performance in a service-focused environment to deliver measurable results.
• A strong leader, with the ability to manage resource allocation, lead teams through change with the confidence to make informed and timely decisions and drive continuous improvement.
• Ability to build relationships and manage key stakeholders at all levels, able to negotiate, persuade and influence.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to create a collaborative and inclusive culture.
• Confidence to make independent decisions and resolve complex problems. This includes learning and using data driven tools to identify trends and challenges to generate solutions.
• Ability to collaborate across the business to deliver local priorities and HMCTS and MOJ strategic objectives.

Lead criterion at application stage: Statement of Suitability. An initial sift based on the statement of suitability may be held if a large number of applications are received.

Your development

As a leader, our HMCTS Leadership Development offer is designed to help you build a confident, capable team and make a real difference to how we work and grow. From bite-sized learning and interactive workshops to deeper insights through our Accountability & Decision-Making framework, we’ll equip you to lead with impact, inspire and drive performance across the organisation.

If you are ready to take on a challenging and rewarding role with real purpose, apply today.

Further details:

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum.

These operational roles are customer facing, requiring successful applicants to be office based to provide HMCTS services to the public.

This is a business-critical role requiring full time hours only, Monday – Friday.

Further information

Whilst the post holder will be based at Bournemouth Combined Courts of Justice, there will be a requirement to work flexibly across other local HMCTS sites, namely Poole Magistrates Court and Weymouth Combined Court. Where applicable, travel time and associated expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with HMCTS policies and procedures.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Describe your experience of managing performance across an operational service where there were competing priorities, resource pressures & stakeholder expectations? What was your role, what actions did you take, & what outcomes did you achieve?
• Describe your experience of managing performance across an operational service where there were competing priorities, resource pressures & stakeholder expectations? What was your role, what actions did you take, & what outcomes did you achieve?
• Your experience and achievements will be assessed against the role requirements at interview

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,914, HM Courts and Tribunals Service contributes £12,432 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

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