Location: Hemel Hempstead (Hybrid / Field-based / Regular Travel)
Position Type: Permanent, Executive Committee (ExCo)
Reporting To: Managing Director, UK & Ireland
The Opportunity
Are you an inspirational operational leader with a track record of running large-scale, geographically dispersed field service teams?
My client is Europe’s largest provider of unattended self-serve convenience retail and digital vending solutions, serving millions of consumers daily across 16 countries. In the UK, they operate a sophisticated 24/7 food, drink, and technology network trusted by over 3,500 corporate, education, healthcare, and high-traffic clients.
The UK business is undergoing a major commercial transformation into a highly automated, data-led, unattended retail platform.
You will sit directly on the Executive Committee and own the end-to-end strategy, execution, and profitability of the national service and technical field operations
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Your Mandate: Key Responsibilities
1. Operational Leadership & Service Strategy
- Field & Technical Operations: Lead a large, multi-site national field service workforce across all unattended retail, micro-market, and automated solution platforms.
- Performance Cadence: Embed a high-performance, accountable culture driven by clear daily, weekly, and monthly execution metrics.
- Compliance & Safety: Maintain absolute operational compliance across all health and safety legislation, food safety standards, and Operator Licence (O Licence) fleet regulations.
2. Technology & Field Service Transformation
- Tech-Led Execution: Accelerate the transition toward a predictive, data-driven service model by leveraging telemetry, real-time dashboards, and remote diagnostics.
- Efficiency & Logistics: Optimise national field scheduling, routing, and fleet utilisation to improve service density and lower the cost-per-service call.
- Continuous Improvement: Standardise technical processes and engineer training to maximise machine uptime, availability, and first-time fix rates.
3. Financial Management & Commercial Growth
- P&L & Budget Ownership: Direct accountability for major operational budgets covering Fleet, FTE, and inventory controls to drive EBITDA growth.
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner with the Procurement & Supply Chain Director and Finance teams to eliminate operational waste, reduce stock loss, and lower the cost-to-serve.
- Client Retention & SLAs: Secure high-value account retention by ensuring flawless contractual SLA compliance and robust service recovery plans.
What You Bring
We are looking for a visible, hands-on executive leader who balances strategic transformation with rigorous, day-to-day execution discipline.
Experience & Qualifications:
- Executive Field Operations Leadership: A proven track record of managing massive, geographically dispersed field service, engineering, or route-based logistics workforces.
- Sector Expertise: Background in automated retail, vending, FMCG, food service, multi-site retail, or scale facilities management.
- Transformation & Tech Credentials: Experience leading digital transformation programmes, particularly embedding automated planning tools, telemetry, or predictive maintenance systems.
- Commercial Acumen: Strong financial experience managing large operational budgets with a direct understanding of how field efficiency influences P&L outcomes.
- Fast-Paced Environments: Experience operating within matrix structures or performance-driven, PE-backed corporate environments is highly desirable.
Key Performance Indicators
- Performance in this pivotal executive role will be measured against a balanced scorecard:
- Service Excellence: Machine uptime %, SLA compliance %, and first-time fix rates.
- Productivity & Efficiency: Route productivity, engineer utilisation, and reduced cost-to-serve.
- Financial Impact: Operational EBITDA contribution, strict budget execution, and year-on-year gross margin improvement.
- Compliance: Zero-harm health and safety metrics, O Licence compliance, and outstanding audit pass rates.
If you are a performance-driven leader looking for the autonomy to shape a business’s commercial future, I’d love to hear from you.
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