Head of Operations

We are looking for a hardworking and ambitious new Head of Operations to join our rapidly growing family-owned footwear business, Pavers. This is the most senior operations role in the business, and we are looking for a commercially astute individual with experience of high growth environments to take over the leadership and oversight of the function and develop it into a source of commercial advantage. This role is based at our Head Office in York and will lead our warehousing (internal and 3rd party), stock control, inbound supply chain, and outbound logistics teams, and report directly to the Managing Director. With a turnover of over £200m, having grown almost 50% since 2019, and with significant further growth planned, we are looking for a tenacious leader who is not afraid to challenge and drive change, implement process improvement, and bring people with them through collaboration, engagement, and clear communication.

As a member of the Senior Operating Group, you will be expected to work collaboratively with your peers to drive the business’ profitability and processes. You will have responsibility for significant stakeholder management, supporting employees, recruitment, retention, engagement, and nurturing development amongst the teams to align with the culture and values at Pavers, always leading by example, and not being afraid to get hands on when required. You will need to design and execute operational and capital investment plans and deliver them to budget. Whilst the role will involve a lot of financial performance monitoring, forecasting, data analysis and efficiency work, people are at the heart of the business. As a leader you’ll need to motivate your management team and instil a culture of accountability in all key areas, creating improvements and future-proofing solutions.

Pavers has been trading for over 50 years and is a highly profitable family owned-and-run retail business with a strong balance sheet, over 185 retail locations, and a rapidly expanding digital presence. We also own the Jones Bootmaker, Padders, and Herring Shoes footwear businesses, remain acquisitive, and employ over 1700 people. We are one of the UK’s Top 10 Retail Employers according to Best Companies, are Carbon Neutral, have donated more than £1.5m to charity in the past 4 years, and are currently in the final stages of B Corp accreditation.

**Key Responsibilities and Duties of the Head of Operations**:

- Provide strategic and operational leadership and motivation to direct and indirect reports within the Operations team to motivate both individual and team performance and productivity
- Develop and own the operations budget, monitor, and report monthly to the Senior Operating Group
- Drive operational KPIs, maximise outputs and efficiencies
- Implement best practice process change and management techniques to increase efficiency and safety
- In conjunction with the Trading team, plan the forecasting for future capacity and growth of the supply chain
- Co-ordinate all external storage activities
- Proactively monitor and manage all inbound/ outbound activity
- Own the resource capacity and I/O forums
- Assess and develop future operational plans including 3PL solutions
- Co-ordinate cross functional activities to reconcile variances to plan
- Identify root cause analysis and instigate solutions for improvements and cost efficiencies
- Stock control management both centrally and across the Retail estate
- Recruit, develop, coach and manage the operations team management, embedding a culture of excellence and continuous improvement
- Utilise financial and operational data to improve profitability and control costs
- Improve and embed processes, systems and policies in support of organisational goals
- Formulate and implement departmental and organisational policies and procedures to maximise output & monitor compliance to rules, regulations and procedures
- Collect, analyse, and report productivity data
- Examine and improve our auditing and stocktake processes
- Sign off and approval of all operations expenditures

**Qualifications & Skill Requirements to be our Head of Operations**:

- Extensive experience in all facets of warehousing, inventory management, inbound/outbound logistics, preferably in a Retail, military, or manufacturing setting
- Ability to operate as an effective tactical as well as strategic thinker
- Strong mentoring, coaching experience to a team with diverse levels of expertise
- Experience and management of inventory and supply chain systems
- Proven track record of success facilitating progressive organisational change and development within a growing organisation.
- Ability to manage multiple inputs - channels/products
- Excellent judgement and creative problem-solving skills including negotiation and conflict resolution skills
- Superior management skills: ability to influence and engage direct and indirect reports and peers
- Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and pre