Senior Operations Manager

3761 Barclays - BX - UK; Knutsford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Barclays in Knutsford is seeking a Senior Operations Manager to lead the Client Readiness function within Corporate Client Servicing. You will guide a team to deliver client outreach campaigns, maintain service standards, and support client experience at scale.

You will drive digitisation, manage end-to-end operations, and collaborate with stakeholders across levels while strengthening risk controls and delivering performance excellence across permanent and temporary resources.

Qualifications

• Proven experience (5+ years) in scale leadership within a Client Service environment.
• Extensive knowledge of servicing, operations, and systems best practices.
• Advanced problem-solving and decision-making skills in complex environments.
• Considerable expertise in project and change management methodologies.
• Understanding of the Corporate Bank’s product set and strategic digital roadmap.
• Solid knowledge of risk and governance frameworks, including regulatory requirements and operational risk tools.
• Proven people management capability, including performance development, coaching, and feedback.
• Experience of virtual team leadership and adaptability to manage multiple outreach campaigns across different workstreams simultaneously.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Embark on a transformative journey as a Senior Operations Manager for our Corporate Client Readiness function within Corporate Client Servicing at Barclays.
• Lead the Client Readiness function that engages, enables, trains, and supports clients through key product, digital channel, and industry changes.
• Oversee the entire function, guiding the team to deliver multiple client outreach campaigns simultaneously, ensuring deadlines are met.
• Balance evolving demands of clients and the business while maintaining high-quality client experience and service standards.
• Shape the future of the function by digitising manual processes and driving innovation across the client servicing landscape.
• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders at all levels, influencing outcomes and managing risk and governance.

Skills

Leadership

Operations

Client service

Stakeholder management

Change management

Digital roadmap

Risk governance

People management

Problem solving

Virtual leadership

Adaptability

Collaboration

Digitisation

Job description

Job Description Purpose of the role

To manage operations within a business area and maintain processes, risk management initiatives and compliance with relevant regulators.

Accountabilities

Identification of trends and opportunities to improve areas and develop new process and procedures through the monitoring and analysis of operation data and performance metrices.

Management of operations for a business area and promote efficient processes, risk management and compliance initiatives to support the bank's operations.

Collaboration with internal stakeholders (including business leaders, project manager and SMEs) and external stakeholders (including vendors and service providers) to support business operations and promote alignment with the bank's objectives and SLAs.

Management of operational professionals and provide guidance, coaching and support to improve colleagues' delivery quality.

Management and development of KPIs to measure the effectiveness of operation functions, utilising data and technology to support the identification of areas that require improvement.

Compliance with all regulatory requirements and internal policies related to customer experience.

Creation of a safe environment for colleagues to speak up, actively and regularly encourage and solicit feedback to ensure people agenda remains focused on the right areas.

Management of attrition by working closely with HR in implementing retention initiatives for work force.

Vice President Expectations

To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and elevate breaches of policies/procedures.. If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements.. If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard.

Leadership Behaviours

• L – Listen and be authentic
• E – Energise and inspire
• A – Align across the enterprise
• D – Develop others

OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.. Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment. Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda. Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does. Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business. Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies. Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions. Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes. Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes. All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Role Description

Embark on a transformative journey as a Senior Operations Manager for our Corporate Client Readiness function within Corporate Client Servicing at Barclays. In this high-impact leadership role, you will lead the Client Readiness function that engages, enables, trains, and supports clients through key product, digital channel, and industry changes. You will oversee the entire function, guiding the team to deliver multiple client outreach campaigns simultaneously, ensuring deadlines are met while maintaining a high-quality client experience and service standards. You will lead at scale, bringing considerable operational discipline to balance the evolving demands of both clients and the business. This role requires oversight of end-to-end client engagement, outreach, and associated processes, ensuring efficiency, consistency, and service performance against key performance measures. You will also play a key role in shaping the future of the function by identifying opportunities to digitise manual processes and drive innovation across the client servicing landscape. A core part of the role involves building and maintaining ample relationships with stakeholders at all levels, navigating complex organisational structures, and influencing outcomes. You will lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team that consists of Permanent and temporary resource, fostering collaboration and accountability while maintaining a good focus on performance, delivery, and service excellence. Operating in a dynamic environment, one of the key challenges will be keeping pace with ongoing Change and Transformation programmes, while ensuring operational excellence is not compromised. Your ability to adapt, think strategically, and lead through change will be essential.

Qualifications and Experience

• Proven experience (5+ years) in scale leadership within a Client Service environment
• Extensive knowledge of servicing, operations, and systems best practices.
• Advanced problem-solving and decision-making skills in complex environments.
• Considerable expertise in project and change management methodologies.
• Understanding of the Corporate Bank’s product set and strategic digital roadmap.
• Solid knowledge of risk and governance frameworks, including regulatory requirements and operational risk tools.
• Proven people management capability, including performance development, coaching, and feedback.
• Experience of virtual team leadership and adaptability to manage multiple outreach campaigns across different workstreams simultaneously.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.

Highly Valued Skills May Include

• Demonstrated adaptability to ongoing change and transformation programmes.
• Excellent collaboration skills across cross-functional teams.
• Strategic and forward-thinking mindset, particularly around digitisation and process improvement.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job‑specific technical skills.

Location and Working Model

This role is based in Knutsford, with a hybrid working model of working a minimum of 3 days per week in the office.

Our Work Experience

Our Work Experience is the combination of everything that's unique about us: our culture, our core values, our company meetings, our commitment to sustainability, our recognition programs, but most importantly, it's our people. Our employees are self-disciplined, hard working, curious, trustworthy, humble, and truthful. They make choices according to what is best for the team, they live for opportunities to collaborate and make a difference, and they make us the #1 Top Workplace in the area.