Senior Customer Contact Centre Manager

IAG Loyalty; Warrington; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

IAG Loyalty in Warrington is seeking a Senior Contact Centre Manager to lead a large multi-channel operation spanning voice, digital and back-office services. You will own end-to-end performance, capacity decisions and evolving operating models while connecting performance, workforce, technology and commercial priorities.

You’ll operate at a senior level, shaping strategy, setting direction and ensuring accountability across Customer Experience, Product, Technology and Transformation teams as

Qualifications

• Senior operational leader with accountability for end-to-end contact centre performance.
• Experience across voice, digital and back-office channels.
• Ability to shape operating model and workforce planning.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Set the culture and leadership standard for Customer Contact and create accountability across channels.
• Own Customer Contact performance end-to-end including service delivery, capacity and resilience.
• Be the visible senior leader for the contact centre with clear decisions and credible leadership.
• Set operational direction and translate priorities into plans across daily to long-term horizons.
• Lead through your leadership team, building accountability at every level.
• Take a whole-system view of the contact centre, connecting workforce planning, demand, technology and processes.
• Anticipate risks and evolving capabilities beyond immediate issues.
• Shape the future operating model considering new channels, automation and changing customer needs.
• Bring a credible operational voice into cross-functional decision-making with partners such as CX, Product and Technology.
• Ensure transformation works in live operations with proper staffing, processes and controls.
• Set and champion high standards for quality and customer experience across every channel.

Skills

Operations leadership

Multi-channel

Strategic thinking

Change management

Stakeholder management

Performance metrics

Job description

Who we are

We’re IAG Loyalty, one organisation with two ambitious, growing divisions across Loyalty and Holidays. Each has its own goals, strategy and team, but together we’re united by a shared vision: to create a more rewarding world of travel and experiences.

Our Loyalty division is home to Avios, the global loyalty currency, enabling millions of members to collect and spend rewards across travel, retail and financial services.

Our Holidays division, including British Airways Holidays and Iberia Vacaciones, connects customers to thousands of destinations worldwide through seamless, end to end travel experiences.

We’re on an exciting journey of growth and transformation. We’re going places.

The opportunity

This is a senior operational leadership role with responsibility that goes well beyond running the day-to-day contact centre.

As our Senior Contact Centre Manager you’ll lead a large, multi-channel customer contact operation spanning voice, digital and back-office services. You’ll be accountable for end-to-end operational performance, from today’s service delivery and capacity decisions through to how our future operating model needs to evolve.

We’re looking for someone who can move comfortably between operational detail and strategic leadership. You’ll understand the metrics behind a high-performing contact centre, but your impact will come from looking beyond them, connecting performance, workforce, customer journeys, technology, commercial priorities and organisational design to make better decisions for the whole operation.

You’ll lead through layers of operational management, setting clear direction and creating accountability rather than becoming the person solving every frontline issue. At the same time, you’ll be a senior operational voice across the business, influencing Customer Experience, Product, Technology and Transformation teams and making sure operational implications are understood before decisions are made.

As new digital channels, AI-enabled journeys and automation become part of how we serve customers, you’ll help shape what the operation needs to become, including the roles, capacity models, KPIs and leadership approach required to support it.

This is an opportunity for an experienced operational leader who wants broad ownership, meaningful influence and the chance to shape a contact centre operating model through a period of significant change.

The Blend

This role is based in our Warrington office in our Loyalty division.

We call our approach to hybrid working The Blend—it’s about giving you the flexibility to choose where you do your best work while staying connected with your team and the wider business.

You’ll spend at least two days each week in the office, with the rest of your time working from home. Depending on your role and priorities, you may also work from one of our other offices or partner locations.

What you’ll get up to

• You’ll set the culture and leadership standard for Customer Contact, creating an environment where people understand what great looks like, feel accountable for delivering it and are proud of the experience they create for our customers.

• You’ll own Customer Contact performance end to end, taking accountability for service delivery, capacity, operational resilience, customer outcomes and commercial performance across voice, digital and back-office channels.

• You’ll be the visible face and senior leader of the contact centre, bringing credibility and confidence in your interactions with colleagues and senior stakeholders, and being comfortable making clear decisions and standing behind them.

• You’ll set the operational direction, not just manage the daily numbers, translating business priorities into clear operational plans across daily, weekly, monthly and longer-term horizons.

• You’ll lead through your leadership team, setting expectations for Operational Leads and Team Managers, building accountability at every level and making sure decisions are taken at the right point in the organisation.

• You’ll take a whole-system view of the contact centre, connecting workforce planning, customer demand, technology, process, role design and commercial performance rather than treating them as separate operational disciplines.

• You’ll anticipate what is coming next, identifying emerging operational risks, changes in customer behaviour and future capability requirements rather than relying on reactive interventions when performance changes.

• You’ll shape the future operating model, considering how new channels, automation, AI-enabled journeys and changing customer needs should influence roles, skills, leadership structures, capacity and ways of working.

• You’ll bring a credible operational voice into cross-functional decision-making, partnering with Customer Experience, Product, Technology and Transformation teams and constructively challenging plans where operational consequences have not been fully considered.

• You’ll ensure transformation works in the real world, translating new propositions and technologies into sustainable live operations with appropriate staffing, processes, measures, controls and ownership.

• You’ll set and champion high standards for quality and customer experience, ensuring those standards are understood and consistently delivered across every channel, team and level of the operation.

What we need from you

• You’ve led large-scale customer contact operations with broad accountability, ideally spanning multiple channels, customer journeys and operational disciplines rather than a single service area.

• You’re comfortable leading through layers of management, setting direction through senior operational leaders and managers rather than relying on your own direct involvement to create a high-performing culture.

• You can demonstrate strategic operational thinking, showing how you’ve anticipated future requirements, shaped operating models or influenced longer-term decisions rather than only responding effectively to immediate issues.

• You’ve operated beyond frontline delivery, with experience owning or materially influencing the wider contact centre operating model, including workforce management, performance, process and technology

• You know how to connect workforce decisions to wider strategy, understanding how product changes, channel shift, automation or new customer journeys can change demand, handling times, roles and capacity requirements.

• You can simplify complexity for senior audiences, turning detailed operational information into clear choices, risks and recommendations that support better business decisions.

• You can balance operational excellence with transformation, protecting performance today while helping the organisation make the right decisions for tomorrow.

• You’re commercially minded, able to balance customer experience, operational efficiency, cost-to-serve and sustainable performance when making decisions.

• You’re comfortable with ambiguity and accountability, able to establish direction and make decisions when there isn’t a fully defined answer or leadership roadmap.

We might not be right for you if:

• You’re looking for a role focused mainly on keeping today’s operation running smoothly; you’ll do that here, but you’ll also be expected to shape what the operation needs to become.

• You prefer to lead by staying close to every detail; success in this role means empowering your leadership team while keeping sight of the bigger picture.

• You’d rather receive a fully formed strategy than help create one; this is an opportunity to bring your experience, judgement and point of view to an evolving operating model.

• You prefer influencing within a clearly defined remit; this role cuts across teams and priorities, so you’ll need to build credibility and bring people with you.

Diversity and Inclusion

Our vision is to create a more rewarding world of travel and experiences. Delivering that requires diverse thinking and inclusive leadership.

We are committed to building a workplace where people feel they belong and are valued for their perspective. Inclusion drives better decisions, stronger performance and more innovative outcomes.

We actively encourage applications from people with different experiences and backgrounds, and are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is fair, inclusive and accessible.