Operations Manager

Manchester, North West England, United Kingdom The Growth Company The Growth Company's (GC) Employment team are looking to appoint an Operations Manager to join the Jobs Guarantee programme.

Support Young People to gain valuable work experience.

The Jobs Guarantee is a government-backed programme designed to help young people aged 18 to 24 overcome long-term unemployment. Through fully funded, six-month paid placements, participants gain valuable work experience, training, mentoring, and tailored support to help them build confidence, develop new skills, and move into sustainable employment. Placements are paid at the National Minimum Wage for up to 25 hours per week. Employers taking part gain the chance to reduce recruitment costs, bring in fresh ideas and develop talent for the future.

Please note that this role is being advertised subject to contract award, until an outcome is confirmed, your application will be treated as speculative.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the successful delivery of employment and skills contracts, ensuring performance targets and contractual requirements are met.
• Drive the placement and sustainment of customers into sustainable employment outcomes.
• Build strong relationships with employers to understand recruitment and training needs and generate opportunities for customers.
• Lead, support and develop a team of Service Managers to achieve high levels of performance and service delivery.
• Take full accountability for the financial performance and profitability of a contract portfolio, including budget management.
• Ensure the delivery of high-quality, customer-focused services that make a positive difference.
• Maintain high standards of compliance, probity and integrity across all areas of service delivery.
• Oversee delivery across multiple sites and stakeholders within an agreed geographical area.

About You:

• You are a confident and resilient leader with experience managing large and diverse teams.
• You are results driven and have a proven track record of achieving performance outcomes.
• You thrive in complex environments and can effectively manage multiple stakeholder relationships.
• You take a proactive approach and use your initiative to drive continuous improvement.
• You are passionate about supporting people into employment and improving life chances.
• You adopt a collaborative and developmental approach to people management.
• You can work successfully within commercially driven, performance-based environments.

Skills Required:

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience managing teams at scale.
• Experience managing significant budgets and financial performance, including P&L responsibility.
• Ability to confidently present information to commissioners, employers and senior stakeholders.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to produce reports to a high standard.
• Sound understanding of financial information and performance data.
• Good knowledge of the employability, employment and skills sector.
• Working knowledge of people management principles and employment legislation.
• Confident user of ICT systems and digital tools.

We are currently unable to provide sponsorship for work permits or visas. Therefore, we can only consider candidates who already have the legal right to work in the UK.

Artificial intelligence can assist you during the application process, but every example and statement you include must be honest, accurate, and based on your own real experiences. If plagiarism is detected, meaning you present someone else's ideas or experiences, or AI-generated content, as your own, your application may be withdrawn, and internal applicants could face disciplinary action.

At GC, safeguarding the welfare of all individuals including vulnerable adults and young people is a top priority, and we expect all staff to uphold this standard. All appointments follow Safer Recruitment Procedures, including a DBS check carried out by Due Diligence Limited (DDC Ltd), at no cost to the successful candidate.

Please note: It is a legal offence to apply for a role involving regulated activity if you are on the Barred List.

We are committed to increasing workforce diversity and offer a guaranteed interview to applicants who meet the essential criteria and either have a disability or are from a diverse ethnic community.

If this applies to you, you can request consideration under this scheme during the application process. Your request will be shared only with the Hiring Manager and Internal Recruitment Team.

We also aim to make our recruitment process inclusive and accessible. If you need reasonable adjustments or have any general enquiries at any stage or the recruitment process, please contact [email removed] or call us on [phone removed].

Examples include:

• Meeting the hiring manager or touring the venue in advance.
• Extra time for tasks.
• Interview questions shared beforehand.
• Accessibility software or equipment for assessments.

We're proud to support the Ban the Box campaign, which helps people with convictions access job opportunities. As part of this, we've removed questions about convictions from the initial application stage.

GC is committed to fostering a culture of flexibility and agile working. Many roles will increasingly support full agile arrangements. If you require more permanent flexibility, we encourage you to discuss this during your interview so your request can be considered early in the process.

All GC colleagues will work in line with the Health and Safety at work act and the GC Health and Safety Policy.