Job title: Operations & Customer Experience Manager

Salary: PO2 £39,862.00 - £42,839.00

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Location: Leeds Building Services – LS14 1NZ

Leeds Building Services (LBS) is the in-house service provider for construction, repairs and maintenance works across the Council. The service currently delivers Responsive Repairs, Maintenance and Planned Works to Council Houses across various parts of the City and Council Assets across 800 sites including Schools, the Civic Estate, Offices, Sports and Leisure Centers and Children’s Homes across the Authority.

As an Operations & Customer Experience Manager, you’ll thrive on working collaboratively with colleagues, promoting equality and diversity within the service, contributing to the overall ethos, work and aims of the service, and championing service excellence.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

About you

As an Operations & Customer Experience Manager, you will bring to the role:

Experience managing teams and driving performance.
Experience of service improvement and implementing new ways of working.
Experience in social housing, local authority or public-sector environments.
Ability to analyse data and make evidence-based decisions.
Ability to use scheduling and repair management systems.

About the role

This is a great opportunity to move into a vibrant and forward-thinking environment supporting the delivery of a diverse range of construction services. This role will appeal to you if you have a genuine interest in the delivery of public services and a commitment to continuous improvement and delivery of a high-quality service

As our next Operations & Customer Experience Manager, you’ll successfully ensure customers remain central to service delivery by driving a modern, high-quality customer vision, leading efficient scheduling practices, and enabling a right-first-time approach to repairs.

The role is integral to our team to help make Leeds a better place for all.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Complete the online application form.

Read our guidancefor further advice on completing your application.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role, contact our internal recruitment team at LBS.Recruitment@Leeds.gov.uk

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose: The postholder will provide strategic and operational leadership for customer experience and the scheduling of responsive repairs across Leeds Building Services. The role ensures customers remain central to service delivery by driving a modern, high-quality customer vision, leading efficient scheduling practices, and enabling a right-first-time approach to repairs. Using customer insight, operational data and strong people leadership, the postholder will support continuous improvement, champion service excellence and embed a culture of quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction throughout the workforce.

Responsibilities

The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Leadership & People Management

Lead the Scheduling and Business Support/Customer Care teams, ensuring high-quality line management aligned with Council policies.
Manage performance, conduct appraisals, identify training needs and provide coaching.
Support workforce planning, organisational development and service-wide cultural change.
Build positive relationships with staff and trade union representatives.

Customer Experience & Complaint Resolution

Lead all customer-related activity, promoting a consistent, customer-centred culture across LBS.
Oversee customer enquiries, ensuring timely communication and effective resolution.
Lead complaint investigations, including home visits.
Act as the lead contact for Ombudsman enquiries.
Ensure vulnerable customers are identified and supported.
Deliver staff training and promote high standards of customer care.

Scheduling & Operational Delivery

Lead the scheduling of responsive repairs to ensure effective resource allocation and productivity.
Oversee programming activity for consistency across operational teams.
Act as the primary point of contact for scheduling priorities and operational queries.
Ensure Health & Safety considerations are incorporated into scheduling.
Act as the central coordination lead for the out of hours service, ensuring a consistent, controlled and customer-focused approach across all operational delivery periods.
Provide leadership and structured support to out of hours operatives and supervisors, including facilitating regular briefings, toolbox talks and management meetings to drive consistency, communication and service standards.
Establish clear operational expectations and governance arrangements for out of hours activity, ensuring alignment with organisational policies, procedures and local agreements.

Performance, Data & Service Improvement

Produce and present performance reports across key areas.
Identify trends and coordinate improvement plans.
Support delivery of KPIs and contractual obligations.
Contribute to digital transformation projects.
Analyse out of hours service data to identify performance trends, risks and inefficiencies, including the transfer of incomplete or delayed work from daytime operations.
Develop and implement reporting mechanisms to provide assurance on out of hours activity, supporting continuous improvement and evidence-based decision making.

Systems Leadership & Digital Development

Act as lead officer for system development, troubleshooting and configuration.
Ensure effective and consistent system use by staff.
Support digital improvements and data quality.

Stakeholder Engagement & Representation

Build strong relationships with commissioning teams, tenants and stakeholders.
Represent LBS at community events and forums.
Lead development of promotional content and case studies.
Ensure customer voice informs service design and improvement.

Compliance, Governance & Safeguarding

Act as Safeguarding Lead Officer for LBS.
Ensure compliance with legal, regulatory and policy requirements.
Promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
Maintain professional standards and uphold Council values.
Audit out of hours timesheets and approvals to ensure payments are accurate, justified and compliant with local agreements, policies and financial controls.

Qualifications:

GCSE level 4 Maths and English or equivalent.
A full driving license is essential for this role.

Essential requirements: It is essential that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post. Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate that they meet all the essential requirements.

Relevant experience in customer service, operational delivery and/or scheduling.
Experience managing teams and driving performance.
Experience handling high-profile complaints.
Strong ICT, numeracy and literacy skills.
Experience of service improvement and implementing new ways of working.
Experience in social housing, local authority or public-sector environments.
Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
Ability to analyse data and make evidence-based decisions.
Knowledge of customer satisfaction and conflict resolution.
Understanding of Health & Safety legislation including CDM.
Understanding of HR processes.
Ability to use scheduling and repair management systems.

Essential Behavioural & Other Characteristics

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct.
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of
Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon.
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council equality and diversity policies.
Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health and Safety Policies.
Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities.
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
Participate in appraisal, training, and development activities.
Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity policies of Leeds City Council.
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol, and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.

Desirable Requirements: It is desirable that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post. Candidates are not required to meet all the desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between acceptable candidates.

Formal customer service training.
Knowledge of Connect, Civica, CAP, PSTeam or similar systems.
Understanding and experience working within political environments.