Sector Lead (Operations / Commercial Growth)
Operations Director / COO Profile / GM
Reporting to: Sector Group Director
Strong - P&L Mgt, Growth/Sales Leadership/Operations and commercial mgt.
Package: Neg + 40%-50% bonus + car + private healthcare +
Location: Midlands Ideally (as 3-4 days a week on the road meeting the SME's in the group)
The Opportunity
This is not a standard Ops role. This is a super Group SME role - helping the GM/MD's drive sucessful growth in both Commercial, P&L and Operations in their SME (£2m to £20m T/O)
You’ll be joining a fast-growing UK group acquiring and scaling specialist SME businesses across high-precision engineering and scientific instrumentation. Each company operates autonomously. Your role is to raise performance across the portfolio without disrupting what makes each business successful.
Think influence over control, impact over hierarchy.
The Role
As Sector Lead, you’ll act as a hands‑on catalyst for performance and growth across multiple operating companies.
You won’t have direct line management of MDs or GMs. Instead, you’ll work alongside them to drive measurable improvements in operations, commercial performance, and profitability.
The brief is simple: improve margins, sharpen commercial execution, and elevate operational performance across the group.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Performance and Manufacturing
* Identify and drive improvements across cost, throughput, quality, and working capital
* Introduce scalable KPIs and performance frameworks across SMEs
* Support implementation of continuous improvement initiatives where they add value
* Improve forecasting and alignment between operations and commercial teams
Commercial Performance and Margin Growth
* Diagnose and improve sales performance including win rates, pipeline quality, and conversion
* Strengthen pricing discipline and introduce value-based pricing where appropriate
* Identify and eliminate margin leakage through data‑led analysis
* Improve CRM usage, pipeline governance, and key account management
* Support development of recurring revenue and service‑led models
* Identify best practices across the group and drive adoption
* Facilitate cross‑company collaboration, workshops, and performance reviews
* Build sector‑level dashboards, benchmarks, and performance visibility
* Contribute to strategic planning and annual review cycles
Growth and Market Expansion
* Support market entry and expansion initiatives
* Conduct structured market and competitor analysis
* Build robust commercial cases for growth opportunities
What We’re Looking For
Background
* Senior experience within precision engineering, scientific instrumentation, or technical B2B environments
* Experience in commercial leadership, operations, general management, or strategy roles
* Exposure to multi‑site, group, or portfolio environments is advantageous
* PLC or private equity experience helpful but not essential
* Proven track record of improving margin, revenue, or operational performance
Capability
* Able to influence without authority and build credibility quickly
* Strong commercial and operational instincts
* Comfortable working with data and identifying performance gaps
* Experience operating in decentralised or autonomous business structures
* Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
* Resilient, credible, and able to operate at pace
Success Looks Like
* Improvement in gross margin and EBITDA across the portfolio
* Increased sales effectiveness and stronger pricing discipline
* Enhanced operational KPIs and working capital performance
* Greater collaboration and knowledge‑sharing across SMEs
* Clear contribution to overall sector value creation
Why This Role?
If you’re someone who prefers driving change over talking about it, this is a role where you can have real impact.
You’ll work across a group of niche, high‑quality engineering businesses with the backing to improve performance, unlock growth, and scale effectively..
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