Operational Section Lead

**Job reference number** **308835**

Starting salary £53,657 per annum plus £1,045 night shift allowance per month, plus up to 10% annual bonus potential, company pension scheme with highly competitive contribution rates and generous annual leave offering of 25 days plus bank holidays
Permanent, Full time, 41 hours per week

Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, Langley, Slough, SL3 8AQ

When you’re part of Royal Mail, you’re part of something special. We all have an important part to play in delivering for the Nation and keeping our communities and worldwide countries connected.

Royal Mail International Operations is based at HWDC (Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre), one of the UK largest, and most efficient automated Hubs in the UK. Worldwide import and exports items are processed through HWDC, which operations 24/7 to strict customs and aviation security specifications and connects over 195 countries worldwide.

To support the smooth running of the operation, we have an exciting opportunity to join the International team as a Section Lead, covering the Night Shift (Monday to Friday, 22.00 - 06.00)

**About the role**

With line manager responsibility for a large team of approx.180 mangerial and frontline staff across the night shift, you’ll be accountable for the management of safe operations across the section including Pic (person in charge) responsibilities for HWDC operation and to ensure shift compliance with DfT standards in line with United Kingdom Government legislation in respect of Aviation Security. Additionally, you'll deputise for the Shift Manager when required, to include annual leave periods.

Key responsibilities will be to ensure that risk assessments for the shift are completed, safe systems of work are in place, and that the process is compliant with safety requirements and operates in a safe manner, always following the set principles of Continuous Improvement.

With support of the Shift Manager, you will implement planned budgetary improvement actions and drive the achievement of metrics and targets for the four scorecard areas - people, customer, efficiency and financial. Alongside this, you will be accountable for co-ordinating & maintaining manpower planning activity for your section through the resource team - ensuring frontline managers undertake effective planning, considering traffic forecast & staff attendance.

Working with Ops Control and the Engineering team leads, you will maximise the volumes of automated mail and drive improvements in machine performance. You will also undertake regular performance reviews with your own team, ensuring visibility of performance throughout the shift and supporting a culture where everyone knows how they can make a difference.

You will also work with the relevant Trades Union representatives to create effective partnerships which both support people to deliver great performance and create a harmonious working environment where everyone feels valued. In addition, you will work with Customs and Revenue Protection to ensure impact of Customs interventions is minimised with regards to overall customer experience.

**About you**:
You need to demonstrate the following skills and experience on your CV:

- Proven experience of successfully running a large operation, ideally from a highly automated parcels/letters work environment and achieving scorecard targets
- Experience of leading and inspiring a large team and line managing frontline managers
- Experience of deploying operational change and successfully leading people through change
- Commercial appreciation - understands the challenges facing the business and able to communicate the big picture to influence others
- Creativity, problem solving and a good understand Continuous Improvement tools and techniques
- Planning and project management skills - able to develop a plan, understand the risks, monitor progress and deploy the plan to time
- Strong data analysis and ability to evaluate process performance, using KPIs/metrics to identify trends and shifts in performance and develop solutions
- Stakeholder management and influencing skills - able to build effective relationships at all levels
- Strong presentational skills and confident in using Microsoft Office programmes including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
- Safety - PIC trained and experience of safety tools and techniques
- Ability to step up and deputise for the Shift Manager as and when required

**Next Steps**

Trust forms the foundation of everything we do in Royal Mail. We want to be transparent about what kind of qualities we are looking for and build trust from the very beginning of your journey with us. If selected, the first step is your interview, and we mean ‘your’ interview. We want to give you the opportunity to shine. To enable you to do this, we will provide you with your interview questions ahead of the interview taking place. This will allow you time to prepare, and ensure you have your best example