Lead Shift Operations Manager - High-Volume Logistics

Relay; West Midlands; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Relay is seeking an experienced Operations Manager to lead 50–100+ frontline operatives at a Hybrid Sort Centre in the West Midlands. You’ll own shift plans, deploy people, ensure throughput, quality and safety, and drive continuous improvement on busy lines.

You will report to the Site Manager, stay on the floor during shifts, implement changes like new robotics or client onboarding, and build robust controls, metrics and handovers to close gaps quickly.

Qualifications

• Scaled something from zero: a site, a market, a process or a program.
• Managed a physical operation: quick commerce, grocery, e-commerce fulfillment, last mile, 3PL, food production, airport ground handling, rail.
• Communicate in both directions and have strong people management skills: briefing 80 operatives at shift start and talking to senior leadership the same day.
• Built a mechanism that held: a control, a cadence, a metric, a document standard.
• Own numbers rather than report them: name a metric you created or redefined and explain changes.
• Understand frontline work: led frontline teams or worked embedded near frontline population.

Responsibilities

• Deliver shift plan end to end: people deployment, throughput, quality standards, and health & safety compliance.
• Lead, develop, and performance-manage a frontline team of 50–100+ operatives.
• Build mechanisms that hold the operation together: controls, cadences, metrics, SOPs, change management.
• Plan ahead for future shifts: labour, training, and anticipated risks.
• Own end-of-shift handover; communicate what happened, what is at risk, and what the next shift needs.
• Stay decisive through volume peaks, outages, and labour gaps; triage and restore flow quickly.
• Present and write briefs, escalations, handovers or post-incident reviews clearly.
• Implement changes into live operation, e.g., robotics, new sortation tech, onboarding clients.

Skills

People management

Frontline leadership

Operations management

Change management

Problem solving

Communication

Job description

Relay is seeking an experienced Operations Manager to lead 50–100+ frontline operatives at a Hybrid Sort Centre in the West Midlands. You’ll own shift plans, deploy people, ensure throughput, quality and safety, and drive continuous improvement on busy lines.

You will report to the Site Manager, stay on the floor during shifts, implement changes like new robotics or client onboarding, and build robust controls, metrics and handovers to close gaps quickly.