Overview
Operational Excellence Manager – Peterborough
Job Title: Operational Excellence Manager
Location: Peterborough
Are you passionate about driving operational excellence in complex IT environments? Do you enjoy bringing clarity, accountability and continuous improvement to multi-vendor services, using data, insight and modern technology?
ABF Business Technology Services are looking for an Operational Excellence Manager to play a pivotal role in shaping how we govern, assure and continuously improve IT services across a global, multi-vendor landscape. Working closely with Service Delivery, Business Partners and senior stakeholders across the Group, you’ll help ensure our services deliver measurable value, an excellent customer experience, and align tightly to ABF’s strategic goals.
What you’ll be doing:
- Establishing and owning governance, performance and operational excellence frameworks across internal teams and external partners
- Assuring service quality by defining, monitoring and challenging cross-vendor SLAs, KPIs and XLAs, holding partners to account where required
- Acting as a unifying assurance function across a complex multi-vendor environment, helping remove silos and strengthen collaboration
- Working with Service Delivery Managers, Service Owners and Business Partners to deliver frictionless, customer-focused IT services across cultures and geographies
- Identifying, prioritising and driving continuous improvement initiatives using data, automation, AI and modern improvement techniques
- Creating clear, executive-ready dashboards and insights that bring together internal and supplier performance data
- Benchmarking suppliers and internal services to identify opportunities for improvement and value realisation
- Ensuring operational improvements align with wider business strategy, translating objectives into measurable business outcomes
What you’ll bring:
- Proven experience in operational excellence, business performance or continuous improvement within an IT environment
- Experience designing and embedding governance, quality and performance frameworks in a multi-vendor environment
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with experience using data visualisation tools (e.g. Power BI), translating data into meaningful insights and decisions
- Working knowledge of ITIL v4, Lean and modern improvement approaches that leverage data, automation and AI
- Familiarity with major ITSM tools such as ServiceNow (desirable, not essential)
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trust at all levels of the organisation
- Commercial awareness and the confidence to challenge constructively and hold partners accountable
Location
Hybrid, a mix of office and homeworking. This role will be based at our Peterborough offices on the Lynchwood Business Park. The office has recently been renovated and along with a modern work environment has great public transport links, free onsite parking, free drink facilities, free lunch option each day and a great team culture.
About the Company
Associated British Foods Business Technology Services are continually reviewing our benefits to ensure our staff feel rewarded…
Associated British Foods is a global giant when it comes to the world of food processing and retail. Our ingredients division is the world’s second-largest producer of both sugar and baker’s yeast and our grocery brands occupy leading positions across the globe meaning that, in the UK, nine out of ten households use our brands.
Associated British Foods Business Technology Services (BTS) was first established in 2008 to deliver a centralised IT infrastructure and service to our fellow ABF businesses. We have now grown and operate in over 185 locations spread across 23 countries supported by a fantastic team of nearly 200. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we’re looking for people who are eager to join us in supporting and delivering this vision.
We want you to be a part of our future and to support you, so below are a handful of some of our benefits that are offered to our employees.
- AB Foods BTS match up to 10% pension (contributory)
- Up to 10% Bonus
- Opportunity to buy up to 5 days holiday per calendar year
- Discounts on ABF products such as Twinings, Silverspoon, Pataks and Ryvita
- 24/7 free and confidential access to an Employee Assistance Programme to support you as and when necessary
- Free lunch option available every day
- Access to a staff shop with discounted ABF brand products
We’re looking for dedicated and conscientious people who embrace and live our values. If you are an individual who thrives in a collaborative, trusting and pioneering work environment, ABF could be the right company for you.
All recruitment activities into our ABF BTS team are supported by our AB Agri business.
Making your application
Ready to apply? Great! Simply register your details and upload your CV via our careers website – it usually takes just a few minutes. Please do not delay making your application. In the event of a high candidate response to this vacancy we may close the application period before the date shown and without notice.
So that we can support you to perform at your best, please let us know of any adjustments that may be required throughout the recruitment process by emailing careers@abagri.com
As part of your application, we ask you to answer some equal opportunities questions that help us to monitor how inclusive our recruitment process is and identify areas we can improve in. This information is anonymised, separate from your application and is never seen by the hiring panel. You can choose not to answer these questions with no impact on your application.
ABF BTS recruitment is supported by our AB Agri group and we politely request no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We have a PSL and do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
