Hybrid Strategic Customer Operations Lead

Pentland Brands; Sunderland; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 54,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Flexible start/finish times

Generous holiday allowance

Product discounts

Sample sales

Enhanced family-friendly policies

Healthcare support

Gym and fitness discounts

Cycle to work

Job summary

Pentland Brands in Sunderland is seeking a Customer Operations Team Leader to guide a team of Customer Operations Executives, directly supporting strategic accounts and ensuring service excellence.

You will collaborate with the Customer Operations Manager to drive daily performance, improvements, and commercial alignment across orders, shipping, and forecast-based planning, in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in a customer-facing or account management role, ideally within a supply chain or commercial operations environment.
• Proven ability to coach and develop teams, and to meet performance metrics (OTIF, SLAs, customer satisfaction).

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and motivate a team of Customer Operations Executives, conducting regular PDRs and promoting Pentland Principles.
• Act as primary point of contact for strategic customer accounts, building trust and driving operational excellence.
• Ensure smooth order placement and delivery, using exception reports to identify and resolve issues promptly.
• Manage in-season order requests and prioritise fulfilment to meet commercial and customer needs.
• Handle order lifecycle processes including cancellations, returns, credits, debits, VAS, and distribution centre requirements.
• Coordinate cross-functionally with merchandising and shipping teams in Asia for direct delivery exports when needed.
• Contribute to commercial discussions by sharing insight from customer interactions to inform forecasting and service improvements.

Skills

Leadership

Customer relationships

Communication

Problem solving

OTIF

Job description

Pentland Brands in Sunderland is seeking a Customer Operations Team Leader to guide a team of Customer Operations Executives, directly supporting strategic accounts and ensuring service excellence.

You will collaborate with the Customer Operations Manager to drive daily performance, improvements, and commercial alignment across orders, shipping, and forecast-based planning, in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment.