Operations Managers

Ministry of Justice; United States; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Leave: 25–30 days

Pension schemes

Training and development opportunities

Job summary

Ministry of Justice in the South East region seeks an experienced Operations Manager to lead service delivery for Kent Magistrates' Courts. You will guide teams, translate national priorities into local plans, and drive performance with visible leadership across operational areas.

The role requires strong people leadership, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to deliver results in a dynamic public service environment. Hybrid working and travel may be involved.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in an operations or management role.
• Strong people management and coaching skills.
• Ability to manage resources and drive continuous improvement.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management across levels.
• Data-driven decision making and problem solving.
• Ability to collaborate across the organisation to deliver local priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop teams to deliver high-quality justice services and improve productivity.
• Provide clear direction on performance, attendance, and outcomes.
• Manage resources and drive change with timely, informed decisions.
• Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• Utilise data tools to identify trends and drive improvement.
• Support local delivery aligned with national priorities and MOJ/HMCTS objectives.

Skills

People management

Stakeholder management

Change leadership

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Decision making

Job description

About the role

Our Operations Managers play a vital role in delivering justice. This is a high-profile leadership position. You will proactively lead service delivery, providing teams with clear direction, ensuring that business activities are well-coordinated to increase productivity and deliver high-quality services. We are seeking an experienced leader who will lead by example, champion change, and cultivate a culture of resilience and adaptability, empowering teams to thrive while building strong, collaborative relationships with all stakeholders. The role of a manager is at the heart of HMCTS operations, shaped by the Civil Service Line Management Standards. It's rewarding, challenging, and essential to our success. We're looking for managers with the experience and desire to develop high performing teams, providing clear direction on performance and attendance and creating a culture of fair reward and recognition. This role sits within HMCTS' South East Region and is responsible for the strategic oversight of Kent Magistrates' Courts across the region. You will support your Deputy Head of Operations to meet operational needs and deliver performance objectives by translating national priorities into local plans. The role provides visible leadership across operational areas, driving service delivery and team productivity. Your presence supports engagement, accountability, and alignment with organisational goals.

Working arrangements

These operational roles are customer facing, requiring successful applicants to be office based to provide HMCTS services to the public. Non-contractual hybrid working is currently available. Hybrid working arrangements will be determined by the business and will only be available when it has been established that delivering the service from home can be done effectively. We cannot facilitate requests for a particular work from home/working in the office schedule. Standard full-time working hours are 37 hours per week. This is a business-critical role requiring full-time hours. Occasional travel to other courts may be required. Whilst the post holder will be allocated to a specific office base, there may be a need for flexibility to work on an ad hoc or regular basis at other local HMCTS sites/courts. Where applicable, associated travel cost/time will be applied in line with organisational policies. Regular travel across Kent will be required.

Security checks

Level of security checks required DBS Basic.

Key responsibilities

• Proven experience in a challenging operations or management role with the ability and willingness to adapt and learn at pace.
• Demonstrable people management and coaching skills, leading, developing and managing teams to drive performance in a service-focused environment to deliver measurable results.
• A strong leader, with the ability to manage resource allocation, lead teams through change with the confidence to make informed and timely decisions and drive continuous improvement.
• Ability to build relationships and manage key stakeholders at all levels, able to negotiate, persuade and influence.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to create a collaborative and inclusive culture.
• Confidence to make independent decisions and resolve complex problems. This includes learning and using data driven tools to identify trends and challenges to generate solutions.
• Ability to collaborate across the business to deliver local priorities and HMCTS and MOJ strategic objectives. HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family Courts and Tribunals in England and Wales as well as the reserved unified tribunals across the United Kingdom. Our roles support our service users and colleagues within HMCTS, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice. We're looking for individuals who are committed to public service and making a difference in people's lives to deliver justice.
• The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

Interview process

Interview dates are expected week commencing 9th of November. Interview stage assessments will include behavioural questions such as Leadership, Communicating and Influencing, Making Effective Decisions. Strengths will be assessed. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here.

Benefits and culture

A Great Place to Work for Veterans The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces. For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans.

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

• Annual Leave: Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years' service. There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rated basis.
• Pension: The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.
• Training: The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.
• Networks: The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed directly to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
• Support: A range of 'Family Friendly' policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
• Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
• Moves: For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on www.GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
• Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
• Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Complaints procedure

Working for the Civil Service: The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order:

To Transformative Business Services (0345 241 5359 Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or email [e-mail]

To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team ([e-mail])

To the Civil Service Commission (details available here)

Equal Opportunities

As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the