Operations Manager - Waste Services
10 days ago
Rugby
Operations Manager – Waste Services (Interim / Service Recovery) Location Office-based, 5 days per week Duration 3 months initial contract (likely extension) Rate Flexible – please state your day rate The Role We are seeking an experienced Operations Manager to take immediate, hands-on responsibility for stabilising and improving Waste Services within a local authority setting. This is a frontline, operational role, not a purely strategic or advisory position. You will be embedded within the service, working closely with managers, supervisors, and crews to restore performance, improve standards, and ensure reliable day-to-day delivery. Key Responsibilities • Take direct control of day-to-day waste service operations, • Identify service failures, inefficiencies, and performance issues, and implement immediate practical solutions, • Provide visible, hands-on leadership to frontline teams, supervisors, and managers, • Improve route efficiency, workflows, and operational processes, • Ensure compliance with health & safety, statutory requirements, and council standards, • Monitor service performance, KPIs, and outputs, reporting regularly to senior leadership, • Support resource planning, task allocation, and prioritisation across the service, • Act as a key escalation point, resolving operational issues quickly and effectively What We’re Looking For, • Proven experience managing waste, refuse, recycling, or environmental services operations, • Strong track record of improving or stabilising underperforming services, • Experience working in a local authority or contractor environment (e.g. waste services providers such as Biffa, Veolia, SUEZ, Amey), • Hands-on leadership style, comfortable working directly within depot and frontline operations, • Strong understanding of fleet, routes, depots, and service delivery, • Ability to lead teams, solve problems quickly, and drive measurable improvement, • Excellent organisational and stakeholder management skills What Success Looks Like, • Service performance stabilised with clear, measurable improvements, • Operational control and structure re-established, • Backlogs reduced and key service failures resolved, • Teams working consistently to defined processes and standards, • Practical recommendations implemented for longer-term sustainability Additional Information, • This is a high-impact interim assignment requiring immediate on-site presence, • You will work under the direction of senior leadership but will be expected to take ownership of operational decisions, • Ideal for candidates who thrive in fast-paced, turnaround environments