Operational Excellence Manager

SAGA PLC; Folkestone; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car allowance

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Saga Academy access

Pension scheme matched to 10%

Annual bonus up to 15%

Colleague discounts

Job summary

Saga plc is seeking an Operational Excellence Manager to drive data-led process improvements across our insurance operations. You will lead cross-functional teams, embed changes effectively, and manage supplier relationships to maximise value while reducing waste and cost.

You will work in a hybrid setup, spending time both at home and in the Folkestone office, with a focus on delivering tangible improvements for customers and colleagues alike.

Qualifications

• Experience in Insurance industry is essential.
• Lean six sigma to at least green belt.
• Experience in change management and leading an agile programme.
• Strong strategic thinking and leadership capabilities.
• Excellent communication and business acumen.
• Proven practical problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive continuous improvement across operational processes and practices, reducing waste and cost whilst improving customer and colleague experience.
• Partner with the customer experience and data teams to ensure all change is joined up, understood, measured, and embedded effectively.
• Lead structured problem-solving workshops to deep dive into issues, identify root causes and propose robust future solutions.
• Line manage analysts, providing clarity on roles, priorities and performance.
• Own operational readiness for changes affecting processes, ensuring changes land well and are measured.
• Manage supplier relationships within Saga's framework to maximise value.
• Act as a conduit between operations and technology to prioritise issues and opportunities.

Skills

Lean Six Sigma

Change management

Agile programme

Strategic thinking

Leadership

Business acumen

Communication skills

Problem solving

Job description

As our Operational Excellence Manager, you'll play a key role in helping Saga become simpler, smarter and more efficient. You'll use data, insight and structured problem-solving to understand opportunities, redesign processes and deliver meaningful improvements across our Insurance business, reducing cost and risk while making things better for both our customers and colleagues. Reporting to our Head of Data, AI & Operational Excellence, you'll bring people, data and technology together to turn ideas into practical change. From challenging how we work today to making sure new processes are embedded and delivering the right outcomes, you'll be pivotal to our continuous improvement agenda. If you enjoy getting to the root of a problem, bringing people together and turning complexity into better ways of working, this could be the role for you. We work in a hybrid way at Saga both at home and in the office. This role requires you to be working from our Folkestone office at least once a month allowing us to collaborate and share success as a business.

Role Responsibility

• Driving continuous improvement across operational processes and practices, reducing waste and cost whilst improving customer and colleague experience
• Partnering with the customer experience and data teams to ensure all change is joined up, understood, measured, and embedded effectively
• Lead structured problem-solving workshops to deep dive into issues, identify root causes and propose robust future solutions
• Line managing analysts ensuring they have clarity on their role, responsibilities, priorities and performance.
• Owning operational readiness for changes affecting operational processes ensuring changes land well and are appropriately measured
• Act as the supplier relationship manager for key operational suppliers ensuring the relationship is managed within Saga's supplier relationship framework and maximised to drive the most value for Saga
• Act as a key conduit between operations and technology to ensure technology issues or opportunities are commonly understood and prioritised

As our Operational Excellence Manager, you will have strong process and data analytical skills, coupled with proven stakeholder and supplier management experience.

Previous experience in the Insurance industry is essential to understand the regulated areas of the operation.

Other skills and experience include:

• Experience of change management and leading an agile programme
• Lean six sigma to at least green belt
• Strategic thinking
• Leadership Skills
• Business Acumen
• Communications skills
• Practical problem solving

Over the past 75 years we have become the UK's specialist provider of products and services to people aged over 50 in the UK. We're the most trusted brand amongst UK consumers in this demographic, recognised for high-quality products and exceptional standards of service. Our product portfolio includes cruises, holidays, insurance, personal finance products and our Saga Magazine.

Our focus on delivering exceptional products and service empowers our colleagues to create moments that are personal and special for our customers and for each other and our values underpin our approach and help guide us to deliver our purpose. We're committed to making sure that colleagues can be their best, be themselves and make a difference - more than anywhere else. We have done this by creating a truly inclusive culture, where all colleagues can bring their full and authentic selves to work and be treated with dignity and respect in an environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. Thanks to our people, Saga was awarded with a Gold for Best Customer Centric Culture in 2025. This is testament to the great culture we've built together. This award belongs to all our colleagues who collectively make Saga a fantastic place to work.

Benefits available for this role

• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Option to purchase additional leave - 5 extra days
• Pension scheme matched up to 10%
• Company performance related annual bonus - Up to 15%
• Car allowance £4,800 per annum
• Private medical insurance after 1 years' service
• Life assurance policy on joining us, 4 x salary
• Wellbeing programme
• Colleague discounts including family discounts on cruises, holidays and insurance
• Range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups and entertainment companies
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leaveGrandparents leave
• Income protection
• Access to Saga Academy, our bespoke learning platform