Ticketing Operations Lead

Transport for Greater Manchester; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A local transport authority in Greater Manchester is seeking a Ticketing Operations Lead to oversee customer-facing ticketing systems and ensure seamless travel experiences. The ideal candidate will have leadership experience in retail payment systems and a strategic mindset towards digital innovation. This permanent position offers a competitive salary between £70,906 and £79,805 and incorporates hybrid working options.

Benefits

28 days annual leave, increasing with service

Free travel on buses across Greater Manchester

Local Government defined pension scheme

Enhanced family-friendly leave policies

Wellbeing support and career development

Qualifications

• Proven leader managing high-availability, customer-facing retail and payment systems.
• Experience managing complex technology solutions.
• ITIL certified and Service Desk experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the customer-facing ticketing systems including payment solutions.
• Manage operational excellence across ticketing platforms.
• Present insights and dashboards to senior leadership.

Skills

Leadership in customer-facing systems

Incident and problem management

Communication and collaboration

Proactive approach

Digital innovation

Education

ITIL certification or equivalent experience

Job description

Overview

Are you ready to play a key role in supporting how our residents and visitors move across Greater Manchester? We’re looking for a dynamic Ticketing Operations Lead to take the reins of our dynamic payment systems and ensure seamless, secure, and smart travel experiences across the Bee Network.

What You'll Do

• As the Ticketing Operations Lead, you’ll be at the heart of our customer-facing digital and physical ticketing systems—from contactless EMV payments and mobile apps to smartcards and real-time vehicle tracking. You’ll lead a team, drive operational excellence and work closely with cross functional teams including IS, Customer Experience and Operations to deliver a world-class ticketing experience.
• Ensure the customer comes first!
• Lead incident and problem management across all ticketing platforms
• Monitor system health and performance, ensuring uptime and reliability
• Present strategic insights and performance dashboards to senior leadership
• Manage vendor relationships and compliance including SLAs
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and external partners
• Drive fraud prevention, revenue protection and continuous improvement
• Ensure compliance with PCI DSS, GDPR policies and standards including transport regulations

What You'll Lead

• A dedicated team including Operations Manager, Incident Manager, Field Equipment Officers, and Analysts
• Annual operations budget and strategic planning
• Relationships with Service Providers, Visa, Mastercard, Merchant Acquirers, and platform providers

For more info see Job Profile below.

Please note: We operate a hybrid working policy and there is a requirement to work a minimum of 2 days a week from the office base.

Who are we?

This role sits in the Ticketing Team at TfGM in the Customer & Growth Directorate. We are a diverse, multi-disciplined team driving forward significant change. You will work with a range of colleagues at all levels across TfGM and will report into the Head of Ticketing.

What You'll Bring

What you do and how you do it is important whatever type of role you work in at TfGM and even small behaviours and actions can have a really big impact. At TfGM, our behaviours bring to life our values of Deliver, Care and Adapt.

What We're Looking For

• A proven leader of high-availability, customer-facing retail, payment and information systems
• Experienced in managing complex integrated technology solutions provided by internal and external providers
• ITIL certified (or equivalent experience) and Service Desk experience
• A clear communicator and collaborator with a customer focussed approach
• Proactive, resilient and passionate about integrated transport and digital innovation
• Experience in public transport or regulated payment industries
• Proven experience of mentoring and developing high-performing teams
• A strategic mindset with a hands-on approach

What We Can Offer You

We are offering the opportunity to work in a forward thinking, fast paced product team and to be part of leading the future of integrated transport ticketing in Greater Manchester.

This is a permanent role and comes with a salary of £70,906 - £79,805 per annum depending on experience.

At TfGM we encourage candidates to discuss flexible working options at any stage of the recruitment process. We are happy to #talkflexibleworking to help colleagues maintain a healthy work life balance.

Our Benefits Include

• Generous annual leave starting at 28 days (plus bank holidays), increasing with service, with options to buy more.
• Free travel on buses across Greater Manchester, plus rail or Metrolink travel to and from work.
• Local Government defined pension scheme with life cover of 3x salary and options to boost your contributions.
• Enhanced family-friendly leave policies, including those supporting fertility treatment, alongside flexible and hybrid working and a special leave policy to support a range of unexpected events. Please note that qualification criteria may apply, including a requirement to have been employed with the organisation for a minimum specified period of time.
• Discover more benefits including wellbeing support, Personal and Career Development, Flexible working, financial support and more on our website

What’s next?

Ready to lead the future of ticketing operations? If you believe you have the skills and experience required, we’d really like to hear from you. Apply now and help us deliver smarter, safer, and more connected journeys for everyone. When completing your application, please ensure that you provide clear examples against the criteria questions, all appointments will be based on merit.

We embrace AI to enhance our operations and to innovate our services. However, we value human talent and are looking for passionate individuals to join our organisation. Please ensure you personally complete your application and read all the instructions carefully to maximise your chances of success. Applications that rely too heavily on AI may be rejected during shortlisting, however we understand that AI may be used as a reasonable adjustment, if using AI to support your application, please give a brief explanation why to help ensure fair selection process.

If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme, please indicate this within the About You or Supporting Statement section of your application.

TfGM is proud to be an equal opportunities employer that encourages and celebrates diversity. We want to recruit and retain a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and welcome individuals from all backgrounds by committing to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. We will offer support and reasonable adjustments if required and we also have a Guaranteed Assessment Scheme which you can find out more information on here.

For this opportunity, you must be able to prove you have the right to work in the UK - if in doubt please visit the following link Employers' right to work checklist - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Please note we are not a licensed sponsor.

Please note we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.

NOTE TO AGENCIES we will be accepting direct applications only for this role. No fee will be paid if a candidate is hired for this position as a result of an unsolicited agency or search firm referral CV.

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