City Lead - Glasgow

Ember; Glasgow; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 70,000; Full time

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Job summary

Ember in Glasgow is seeking a driven leader to head our Driver and Hub Support teams. You will recruit, manage and retain the strongest driving team in the area while shaping our Ember Hub blueprint for Scotland.

You’ll take day-to-day ownership of our 24/7 service in Glasgow, balancing hands-on leadership with process improvement and technology-driven growth as Ember scales to new locations across Scotland.

Qualifications

• HR experience and strong leadership required.
• Experience leading driver and hub teams in a 24/7 operation.
• Excellent organisational and problem-solving skills.
• Willingness to work late or early shifts as needed.
• Ability to establish scalable processes for future hubs.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire the Driver and Hub Support teams in Glasgow.
• Act as line manager for Ember drivers and hub staff, handling HR, shifts, and training.
• Ensure a high-quality 24/7 service with on-time, well-maintained coaches.
• Define and roll out the Ember hub playbook for future locations.

Skills

HR leadership

Leadership

Organisational skills

Problem solving

Communication

Tools

Spreadsheets

HR software

Job description

About Ember

We're building the future of public transport — convenient, affordable, connected and zero-emission. Our goal is to make it easier and more enjoyable to get from A to B with Ember than it is with your own car.

Ember is a tech company, not a traditional bus operator. We've built a platform that coordinates our entire operation – everything from monitoring vehicles and controlling chargers to selling tickets and calculating ETAs. This allows us to use electric buses more intensively than anyone else in the world, leading to a massive reduction in emissions. It also helps us provide a much better passenger experience, with innovative features like demand-responsive stops.

We’re still small, with a handful of routes and 78 buses. The challenge is to scale this 50x whilst staying lean, increasing efficiency and delivering an even better product experience. We’ve raised equity from some of Europe’s leading climate VCs and are looking for mission-driven individuals who want to get on board and help take us to the next level.

The role

We're looking for the right person to lead and inspire our Driver and Hub Support teams in Glasgow. The role will touch all aspects of the business, and you'll be confident in recruiting, managing and retaining the strongest driving team in the area, as well as helping us to establish and refine the Ember Hub blueprint which will be rolled out in locations across Scotland over the next 12 months.

A primary goal is that each of our Hubs is genuinely industry-leading in every aspect, and we're looking for a candidate who possesses the right combination of qualities to make that happen. You won't do that alone, but you'll have the innate drive to lead the way in establishing and evolving processes that ensure the very highest of standards and experiences for our customers and our employees alike.

You'll be very at home with taking local responsibility for the day to day success of our 24/7 service in Glasgow, and will have a technical curiosity that helps you to play a key part in the growth story of a public transport company with technology at its very heart.

Diversity and equality

At Ember, we support diversity across our team and customers. We work to ensure every employee feels respected and able to give their best, whether temporary, part-time or full-time. We’re happy to offer flexible working patterns where they make sense, are compassionate when it comes to time off and offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave.

Read more about our approach in our Equal Opportunities Policy.

What’s on offer

As well as a salary of up to £70,000 per annum, depending on your experience, you'll be eligible for share options through a share scheme.

How do I apply?

Apply using the form, providing a CV and a cover letter explaining why you're the one.

Responsibilities

Your core responsibilities will be to:

• Help us to develop, support and grow our industry-leading team of drivers, maintaining the highest standards across the team.
• Act as linemanager for all Ember drivers and hub support staff in Glasgow. This means handling HR, shift assignment and cover, and supporting the team's training and development.
• Ensure we deliver the best possible service. You’ll be the person on the ground responsible for running a high-quality operation 24/7 and ensuring we delight our customers. This means ensuring our coaches run on time and are in great condition, inside and out. You’ll work with our drivers, hub and maintenance team, and get your own hands dirty sometimes.
• Help to define the playbook of what a 'best in class' hub looks like and support the expansion of future hubs.

We also expect you to be flexible and proactive in helping the company to thrive. As a fast-growing company, it's inevitable that unexpected issues will come up and our success will be down to how you respond.

Requirements

We're looking for humble, ambitious people who will enjoy the challenge of working in a fast-scaling company and embracing new technology. This is more important than your exact background or experience.

You will need to meet these basic requirements:

• A strong sense of what good really looks like whatever the topic, problem, or issue. After all, good is good.
• An instinct and curiosity that draws you to problems and drives you to find a solution, rather than hoping someone else picks it up
• A master of organisation – nothing is dropped or missed, but sometimes it’s put on the back-burner because it isn’t a priority and can be compartmentalised
• Willingness to get hands on and back yourself to work through any problem, including those outside of your realm of expertise
• A natural calmness, resilience and flexibility in the face of the kind of unexpected challenges that will sometimes arise in a fast-growing organisation
• Proven HR experience and excellent leadership skills
• Solid IT skills, including using spreadsheets and other online systems
• Flexibility to work late or early shifts, any day of the week, on occasion. In return, we'll try to make these as sociable as possible and agree them well in advance

Nice to have

• Experience in working with C, V or D level colleagues to provide excellence in reporting and communication
• Leadership experience within the Transport Industry