Workshop Manager

Solus Accident Repair Centres Company; Sunderland; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Bonus opportunity

Company pension

33 days holiday

Aviva discounts

Save As You Earn

Parental leave

Wellbeing focus

Job summary

Solus Accident Repair Centres Company is seeking a Workshop Lead to influence day-to-day workshop performance, ensuring flow, quality and team confidence while keeping customers at the heart of repairs.

You will lead with calm judgement, collaborating with Production, Parts and Customer Service leads, mentoring technicians and upholding health, safety, and best‑practice standards across the workshop.

Qualifications

• Technical understanding and credibility in a repair environment.
• Ability to support, guide and influence technicians.
• Collaborative, practical approach to solving problems.
• Clear communication across teams.
• Strong focus on quality, safety and customer outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Act as a visible point of support within the workshop, promoting quality and right‑first‑time repairs
• Help maintain clear priorities and smooth repair flow across disciplines
• Work alongside Production, Parts and Customer teams to remove blockers
• Encourage consistent standards and best practice across the workshop
• Support colleagues through guidance, mentoring and hands‑on problem‑solving
• Contribute to identifying training needs and opportunities to improve ways of working
• Help ensure health, safety and process standards are understood and followed

Skills

Technical credibility

Support technicians

Cross-team collaboration

Clear communication

Quality & safety focus

Job description

Overview

At Solus, the Workshop Lead plays a pivotal role in how the workshop performs day to day. This position sits at the heart of the repair environment, supporting flow, quality and team confidence while keeping the focus on what matters most to customers.

The Workshop Lead works closely with the Production Lead, Parts Lead and Customer Service Lead to ensure the workshop operates as a joined‑up team rather than individual functions. You help create clarity, consistency and momentum across the workshop, enabling technicians to do their best work and repairs to progress right first time.

This role is about influence— setting standards through presence, judgement and support, and contributing to a positive, collaborative culture within the workshop.

Responsibilities

As Workshop Lead, you’ll support the technical teams and the wider site by keeping work flowing and standards clear.

You’ll:

• Act as a visible point of support within the workshop, promoting quality and right‑first‑time repairs
• Help maintain clear priorities and smooth repair flow across disciplines
• Work alongside Production, Parts and Customer teams to remove blockers
• Encourage consistent standards and best practice across the workshop
• Support colleagues through guidance, mentoring and hands‑on problem‑solving
• Contribute to identifying training needs and opportunities to improve ways of working
• Help ensure health, safety and process standards are understood and followed

This is a role where technical credibility, calm judgement and teamwork are key.

Qualifications

You’ll bring:

• Technical understanding and credibility within a repair environment
• The ability to support, guide and influence technicians
• A collaborative, practical approach to solving problems
• Clear communication and confidence working across teams
• A strong focus on quality, safety and customer outcomes

Every Solus site is different, but our expectations around teamwork and standards are consistent. Workshop Leads are trusted to help set the tone within the workshop and support how the site performs as a whole.

At Solus, you’ll find:

• A respected role with real impact on repair quality and team confidence
• Close collaboration with site leadership and operational teams
• Opportunities to develop leadership skills over time
• A culture where how you support others matters as much as what you know

Solus, who are owned by Aviva, are one of the UK leaders in vehicle repairs, returning cars to the road in just 11 days on average and a 4.6/5 star customer rating. With an award‑winning apprenticeship programme and winners of other recognised industry awards Solus are proud to be shaping the future of vehicle repair.

Why Join Solus?

We have so much to offer when it comes to being a Solus colleague:

• Competitive salary based on location, skills, experience, and qualifications.
• Bonus opportunity tied to your performance and the overall success of Solus.
• Company pension scheme with employer contributions.
• 33 days’ holiday (including bank holidays), with the option to buy or sell up to 5 days.
• Save money with up to 40% discount on Aviva products and other retailer discounts.
• Share in Aviva’s success through the Aviva Save As You Earn scheme.
• Supportive policies including parental and carer’s leave.
• Wellbeing focus with tools like Group Income Protection and 24/7 GP access.

At Solus, we value inclusivity and welcome all applicants. If you’re excited but don’t tick every box, we encourage you to apply—your unique skills might be just what we need.

We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants meeting the minimum criteria—just email us after applying to let us know.