Operations Optimisation Manager
£80,000 - £85,000 plus great benefits (Work Level 4)
Manchester city centre, in this role you'll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and coming into the office at least once a week
We're looking for someone who's passionate about improving outcomes and making things better to join us as an Operational Optimisation Manager in our Co-op Business Services (CBS) team.
CBS is made up of a number of diverse teams dedicated to delivering high-quality, reliable and cost-effective business services across Co-op. In this role, you'll be right at the heart of CBS—working across multiple service areas to help us run smarter, more efficient operations that deliver brilliant outcomes for our colleagues, member and customers.
Why this role matters
This role sits at the centre of how CBS operates. By reducing complexity, promoting consistency, and enabling service teams to work more effectively, you'll help us deliver better outcomes for our internal and external customers. You'll be supporting the delivery of Co-op's wider strategic vision and making a real impact across the organisation.
If you love solving problems, leading people, and driving meaningful change, this could be the role for you.
What you'll do
* Lead a team of 8, supporting them to deliver great results and grow their skills
* Drive cross functi0onal continuous improvement and root cause analysis across CBS
* Plan resources effectively to make sure we've got the right people in the right place at the right time
* Use automation and digital tools (like Power Apps and Microsoft 365) to simplify and improve how we work
* Work closely with service owners and heads of service to make sure we're delivering efficient, customer-focused services
This role would suit people who
* Have strong experience in shared services or business services environments
* Understand end-to-end service delivery and how to optimise it
* Have led teams before and know how to get the best out of people
* Are great at building relationships and managing stakeholders
* Can communicate clearly and influence others
* Have a good head for commercial thinking and spotting opportunities to improve
Why Co-op?
If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).
* An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
* 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
* A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
* Private healthcare for you and your family
* Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
* Coaching and training to support your career development
* Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn
Building a diverse environment
We're actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.
We'll ask whether you'd like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.
If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we'll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.
You can find out more about our recruitment process at
You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme at Disability Confident Scheme - Co-op Colleagues and more about our commitments to diversity and inclusion at Diversity and Inclusion
Please note that we may close applications for this role early.
As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.
CBS