Job Introduction
Senior Business Operations Manager
Salary: Grade 11
Location: Dudley, West Midlands
Contract: Full-time | Permanent
Dudley Council is seeking an experienced and highly capable operational leader to join our Corporate Business Operations & Support function at an important point in the Council’s improvement journey.
This is a key management role responsible for turning strategic direction into effective day-to-day delivery. Working directly to the Business Operations & Corporate Support Lead, you will oversee a broad range of high-profile corporate support activity, including executive and senior leadership support, member and mayoral support, statutory information requests, corporate governance activity and wider business operations.
You will play a central role in ensuring the function is professional, responsive and resilient, with the ability to flex resources around changing organisational priorities and demand.
The Opportunity
As Senior Business Operations Manager, you will:
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Deputise for the Business Operations & Corporate Support Lead, providing operational leadership and continuity across the function.
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Lead the day-to-day coordination of executive and senior leadership support, ensuring meetings, briefings, papers, actions and follow-up activity are managed accurately and to required timescales.
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Oversee member and mayoral support arrangements, ensuring consistently high standards of professional, confidential and politically impartial support.
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Manage and coordinate statutory information activity, including Freedom of Information, Environmental Information Regulations and Subject Access requests, ensuring effective allocation, monitoring and compliance with statutory timescales.
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Coordinate key corporate governance and business activity, including forward plans, decision and action logs, risk and issue registers, audit trails and records management.
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Manage workloads and deploy resources flexibly across teams in response to changing priorities, peaks in demand and service pressures.
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Monitor service performance, demand, workloads and quality, producing management information and insight to support assurance, planning and decision-making.
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Support the development and continuous improvement of operating models, processes, systems and ways of working, identifying opportunities to simplify activity and improve the customer experience.
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Champion the effective use of digital technology, data and automation to improve productivity, workflow management and the quality of management information.
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Build effective relationships with senior leaders, elected members, corporate services and operational teams, promoting a collaborative One Council approach.
About You
We are seeking an experienced operational manager with:
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Significant experience of leading or managing business operations, corporate support or a similarly complex professional service.
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A strong track record of managing multiple competing priorities, often in high-profile, sensitive and time-critical environments.
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Experience of managing and developing teams, balancing workloads and flexing resources to maintain service resilience.
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Strong knowledge of corporate governance, business administration, information management and organisational processes.
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Experience of working with senior leaders, elected members or other high-profile stakeholders in a politically sensitive environment.
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A good understanding of statutory information requirements, governance, compliance and assurance.
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Strong analytical and organisational skills, with the ability to use performance information to improve service delivery and support decision-making.
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A demonstrable commitment to continuous improvement, digital enablement and creating efficient, customer-focused ways of working.
You will combine strong operational grip with excellent judgement and political awareness – able to manage detail while maintaining sight of wider organisational priorities and ensuring consistently high standards of delivery.
Why Join Dudley?
This role offers an opportunity to play a central part in the development of a new and evolving Corporate Business Operations & Support function.
You will work at the heart of the organisation, supporting senior leaders and elected members while helping to shape more consistent, modern and resilient ways of working across the Council.
The role provides significant scope to influence how corporate support is delivered – improving processes, strengthening standards, making better use of technology and helping to build a flexible service that can respond quickly to organisational priorities.
If you are an experienced operational leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment, can bring structure to complexity and is passionate about delivering high-quality corporate support, we would welcome your application.
For an informal discussion please contact Alex Thorogood, Programme Director (alex.thorogood@dudley.gov.uk)
Please submit your CV and supporting statement with your application.
Closing date for applications is 5th November 2026
Workplace Attendance: Working in the office 3+ days a week (pro-rata)
So that we can demonstrate Dudley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion and to improve bias in the recruitment process that could create barriers for candidates. Your personal data will be anonymised when you apply, to ensure that you comply with our anonymisation process, please ensure you have removed your name and date of birth from any attachments prior to uploading them to your application.
Online application forms will only be accepted for this vacancy, online facilities for jobs are available at public libraries within the Dudley Borough.
All applicants must be able to provide documentation to prove their right to work in the UK.
Please note: Dudley MBC does not currently offer sponsorship for candidates without the Right to Work in the UK.
If you require support completing an online or paper application form and or interview techniques, please contact Dudley Adult and Community Learning on 01384 818 143 or acl@dudley.gov.uk who can support with Digital Skills and Job Applications.
If you have a disability and require assistance in making an application please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk
If you are experiencing a problem whilst applying for a position, please follow the link below to the WM Jobs Help Page in the first instance https://help.wmjobs.co.uk/
If the WM Jobs Help Page does not resolve your issue then please contact the HR Resourcing Team via HR.Resourcing@dudley.gov.uk
Dudley Council will check the information that you have provided against any details already held for accuracy and completeness. The Council will check, share and cross match your information both internally within the council and with external organisations to protect public funds and prevent or detect crime, only where the law allows us to do so.
The Council’s full Privacy and Disclaimer Statement can be accessed on the website at https://www.dudley.gov.uk/privacy-disclaimer-statement/
N.B. We reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the advertised date should we receive a large number of applications
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