DE&S/SDA Operations Manager

At Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA), we manage a vast range of projects to supply and maintain vital equipment and services for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Together, we deliver essential defence programmes – and strive for what’s next. Because it helps keep our military at the top of their game and our nation safe, now and in the future.

We support all of our people to be at their best – because if our people thrive, we all succeed together.

Join us at Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) or the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) as an Operations Manager. Our mission is to provide our military personnel with essential, life-saving equipment and capabilities to overcome the challenges of the front-line. We are committed to saving lives, boosting the economy, and protecting our way of life. Apply now and help to make a difference.          

In your role as an Operations Manager, we will guide, support, and train you in the delivery of a capability, equipment, or service to meet our defence clients’ requirements using your knowledge of supply and demand, contract management and project management skills and techniques.  

You’ll solve problems and deliver a range of time-sensitive tasks. Building strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders is crucial, while ensuring that your actions directly contribute to supporting military operations. With a proactive mindset and a focus on continuous improvement, you’ll analyse management information to provide valuable insights that enhance our performance. Supporting teams, you’ll foster a culture of learning from experience, creative thinking, and open-mindedness, encouraging innovation and a constant pursuit of improved quality.

These roles are based in our offices in Bristol and in-office attendance will be expected as required.

We offer great benefits including – a market leading employer pension contribution, performance-based bonuses, a flexible working environment, together with training and development opportunities to enable you to build a career in DE&S/SDA. We also have a wide range of staff networks, where you can meet new people, share perspectives, and celebrate differences, too. You can be sure that when you join us, you’ll be joining a real community.

Due to security requirements, some of these posts are reserved for Sole UK Nationals only and some will require more in-depth security checks (Developed Vetting).                           

Responsibilities

Will typically include –

• Supporting the delivery of projects and in-service support for equipment used by the armed forces
• Working collaboratively with a range of internal and external stakeholders to implement solutions through a cross-team effort
• Contributing to the placement and management of contracts, and monitoring supplier performance to ensure agreed contractual obligations are met, in terms of quality, timeliness, and reliability of goods or services
• Assisting in supervising resources, monitoring actual spend and updating forecasts accordingly to ensure the support meets our military customer requirements fully and within the agreed budget
• Applying agreed governance arrangements for the delivery of the service, aligned with best practice and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Helping with investigations where the required KPIs are not being achieved to the required quality, standard or timescales, and helping to identify the issues and taking appropriate action
• Supporting Continuous Improvement activity

To be successful with your application, you’ll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria:

Demonstrable experience of –

• working within at least one of the following fields: Operations Management, Project Management, Supply Chain Management, Business Management, Engineering, Through Life Support
• preparing plans for service delivery and ensuring agreed service levels are met – whilst remaining within time, cost, and quality parameters
• organisational, influencing and communication skills
• delivering contract requirements and budgets including monitoring actual spend and updating forecasts accordingly

In addition to the responsibilities above, the following technical competences and behaviours will be assessed at interview:

• Continuous Improvement for Optimised Support – Supervised Practitioner
• Service Delivery Management – Supervised Practitioner
• Leadership – CSBC3
• Communicating and influencing – CSBC3

• 25 days’ annual leave +1 day a year up to 30 days, 8 bank holidays and a day off for the King’s birthday
• Flexible and hybrid working wherever possible, to support your work-life balance (though some attendance to the stated site is required)
• Market-leading employer pension contribution of around 27%
• Annual performance-based bonus and recognition awards
• Access to specialist training and funded professional qualifications
• Support for progression
• Huge range of discounts
• Volunteering days
• Enhanced parental leave schemes
• DE&S Little Book of Big Benefits: https://bit.ly/3FEb54v
• SDA benefits: https://bit.ly/3ne9QTm
• Further Information: https://bit.ly/3K26Xhl
• Terms and Conditions: https://bit.ly/3yUwcM1

Job contact :

• Name : Aaron Frith – DE&S/SDA Talent Acquisition Specialist
• Email : aaron.frith102@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : aaron.frith102@mod.gov.uk