Operations Manager - 12 month FTC

A fantastic opportunity for an Operations manager to join a leading Consultancy for a 12 month FTC. Reporting into the operations function, the Operations Manager will be pivotal in keeping a high-performing consulting team running smoothly and commercially focused. This role brings rigour to forecasting, resourcing and reporting, while supporting business development activity and driving continuous improvement across the practice.

Key responsibilities will include:

Pipeline, resourcing and delivery support

• Own the pipeline and forecasting cadence, ensuring timely inputs and clear visibility of upcoming demand.
• Coordinate resourcing plans across teams (and, where relevant, geographies), balancing utilisation, delivery priorities and development needs.
• Identify capacity and capability risks early, presenting practical options and recommendations to leadership.
• Maintain high-quality data across pipeline and resourcing tools, introducing light-touch governance and clear ownership.

Business development and budget management

• Project-manage priority proposals and business development activity, ensuring plans, inputs and approvals land on time.
• Own and track the practice’s BD budget, monitoring spend and producing clear updates for senior stakeholders.
• Maintain accurate records of proposals, pipeline activity and key client interactions in relevant systems.
• Partner with knowledge/marketing colleagues to keep pitch and credential materials current, accessible and easy to reuse.
• Support structured outreach activity (targets, cadence and follow-up) alongside practice leadership and commercial teams.

People and talent support

• Support workforce planning, including team mix, hiring requirements and progression planning.
• Monitor workloads and flag delivery or capacity risks early, coordinating mitigations (e.g., rebalancing or additional support).
• Work with talent/staffing stakeholders to align development opportunities with business priorities.
• Track experience and coaching needs across the team to support a strong learning and development environment.

Cross-functional collaboration and process improvement

• Act as the operational point of contact for the practice, translating priorities into clear actions for support teams.
• Partner with knowledge management to improve organisation and accessibility of case studies, credentials, proposals and reusable content.
• Support the thought leadership pipeline, coordinating inputs and tracking progress through to publication/distribution.
• Work with resourcing and finance partners to strengthen end-to-end processes (forecasting, reporting and approvals).
• Identify inefficiencies and implement improvements (templates, automation and clearer governance).

Stakeholder engagement and communications

• Produce regular reporting and insight for practice leadership across pipeline, resourcing, BD activity and risks.
• Coordinate practice meetings and leadership forums, preparing structured updates and recommended actions.
• Ensure clear, consistent communications to the wider team on priorities, plans and decisions.
• Share relevant updates and help embed best practice across the practice.

Skills and experience

• Strong analytical capability, comfortable working with pipeline, utilisation and performance data.
• Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills; able to manage multiple stakeholders and deadlines.
• High attention to detail and a commitment to data quality and process discipline.
• Clear, confident communicator (written and verbal), comfortable working with senior stakeholders.
• Proactive and improvement-led, with experience simplifying processes and introducing smarter ways of working.
• Comfortable using business systems (e.g., CRM, resourcing tools, reporting dashboards, document management platforms).
• Experience within consulting/professional services (or another project-based environment) is beneficial.

Equal Opportunities

As a responsible business, it is important that we represent the diversity of our people, our clients and our communities. We believe that the firms that thrive are those with the most diverse team; that's why we work so hard to source the best talent from the broadest pool possible. As an equal opportunities employer we strive to accommodate anyone who may have specific needs. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the selection process, please talk to a member of the recruitment team so that any required adjustments can be made in advance.