Managing Director

Managing Director

About the Role

Our client is a substantial, market-leading organisation operating a large-scale, multi-site business across the UK and Ireland. With a significant workforce and a complex, fast-moving operation, this is a business where strong leadership, commercial discipline and operational excellence are critical every day.

This is a significant leadership role with responsibility for a sizeable workforce, complex operations and performance across multiple locations. The successful candidate will be the senior leader, with clear accountability for service, people, operational performance and profitability.

We are particularly interested in leaders who have successfully managed large, operationally intensive businesses where pace, complexity, customer service and tight commercial control are part of everyday life.

The Job:

• Take overall responsibility for the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of a large-scale, fast-moving operation, resolving issues quickly and maintaining performance in a demanding environment.
• Own operational performance across service, productivity, resource utilisation, efficiency and cost control, ensuring the business consistently delivers against its commercial and customer commitments.
• Provide visible and decisive leadership, setting clear standards, establishing accountability and ensuring managers and teams understand what good performance looks like.
• Work closely with the commercial team and wider leadership group to support customer retention, business growth and competitive positioning, while maintaining appropriate operational and financial discipline.
• Lead, coach and develop a strong operational management team, building capability, improving performance and strengthening succession planning across the business.
• Maintain a strong focus on people, culture and engagement, ensuring the organisation continues to attract, develop and retain high-quality employees.
• Balance the strengths of an established, entrepreneurial and locally led business with the governance, standards and expectations of a larger international group.
• Act as a key member of the senior leadership team, contributing beyond day-to-day operations to the future strategy, development and performance of the wider business.

The Person:

• Senior leadership experience in a large, operations‑intensive environment (e.g. manufacturing, distribution, transport, logistics, or similar).
• Proven ability to run high‑volume, time‑pressured operations where the real challenge is scale and relentlessness, not technical complexity.
• Track record of leading sizeable teams and dealing with constant day‑to‑day operational issues.
• Hands‑on operational leader who likes being close to the action, not just in the boardroom.
• Commercially aware, linking operational decisions to cost and profitability.
• Resilient, calm under pressure, decisive.
• Direct, transparent communicator; comfortable with senior stakeholders who are direct.

If you’re an experienced operations or commercial leader, with operations experience, looking to take on a large, profitable and demanding business with real scale and autonomy, we’d like to hear from you.

Please send your CV using the appropriate method, or alternatively call Neal Lucas for a confidential discussion.