| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Operations |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | DGM Operations |
| Direct reports | Operations Manager, Assistant Operations Manager, Operations Supervisor |
| Experience | 10 to 13 years in operations, with 4 years managing managers or a team of 100 or more |
Senior Operations Manager job description template
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Job title: Senior Operations Manager
Department: Operations
Reports to: DGM Operations
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Senior Operations Manager runs a large site, a complete line of business or a group of three to five operations teams, each led by an operations manager. The role owns service levels, productivity and cost for that unit and turns the DGM's targets into shift plans, staffing and daily reviews. A good senior operations manager fixes recurring problems for good instead of firefighting the same issue every week.
Key responsibilities
- Convert monthly targets from the DGM into weekly plans for each team, covering headcount, shift coverage and productivity norms.
- Review team dashboards every morning and hold managers accountable for backlog, service level and quality misses.
- Approve shift rosters, overtime and leave plans for the unit so coverage holds on peak days.
- Lead root cause analysis on recurring failures and follow corrective actions until the problem stops repeating.
- Set productivity norms per role or per machine and review them twice a year against actual output.
- Manage the unit's operating budget for manpower, overtime, consumables and vendor services, and explain variances.
- Handle escalations from key customers or internal stakeholders and agree recovery plans with dates.
- Coach operations managers on people issues such as absenteeism, poor performance and conflicts inside teams.
- Run internal audits of process compliance and prepare the unit for external audits and customer visits.
- Identify improvement projects and assign them to managers or analysts with a target saving or quality gain.
Requirements
- Graduate in any discipline, most often engineering or commerce
- MBA in operations is an advantage
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt is an advantage
- 10 to 13 years in operations, with 4 years managing managers or a team of 100 or more
KRAs and KPIs for a Senior Operations Manager
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Service level | Unit SLA achieved on at least 97 percent of working days in the month |
| Productivity | Output per person per shift at or within 5 percent of the agreed norm |
| Overtime cost | Overtime cost below 6 percent of the unit's wage bill each month |
| Quality | Errors or defects under the unit target, with repeat causes falling quarter on quarter |
| Absenteeism and attrition | Unplanned absenteeism under 4 percent and early attrition falling every quarter |
| Improvement projects | At least two completed improvement projects per half year with measured results |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: MS Excel, ERP or workflow system used by the unit, Roster and attendance reports, Power BI dashboards, Internal audit checklists.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: DGM Operations, AVP Operations, General Manager Operations
Interview questions for a Senior Operations Manager
- Your unit missed SLA three days this week, each time for a different reason. How do you find the real cause?
- How do you set a fair productivity norm for a brand new process?
- An operations manager in your team is liked by staff but keeps missing targets. What do you do?
- Overtime is at 11 percent of the wage bill. Where would you start cutting it?
- Tell me about an improvement project you led that saved money. How did you prove the saving?
- How do you prepare your unit for a customer audit at two days' notice?
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What does a Senior Operations Manager do?
A Senior Operations Manager runs a large site or a whole line of business through several operations managers. They set weekly plans and productivity norms, approve rosters and overtime, lead root cause analysis on repeated failures, manage the unit budget and prepare for audits. They report to a DGM, GM or Head of Operations.
What is the difference between an Operations Manager and a Senior Operations Manager?
An operations manager runs one team or process and works directly with supervisors on daily output. A senior operations manager leads several operations managers, owns the budget and norms for the whole unit, and spends more time on recurring problems, audits and people development than on the shift itself.
How many years of experience does a Senior Operations Manager need?
Most employers ask for 10 to 13 years in operations, including at least four years in a manager role. The key test is whether the candidate has managed other managers, owned a budget and delivered improvement results with numbers to prove them, rather than only supervising frontline staff.