Contracts / Operations Manager Social Housing & Commercial Refurb

Contracts / Operations Manager – Social Housing Refurbishment
Newcastle upon Tyne / Ponteland
£50,000+ DOE + Significant Performance Bonus + Vehicle
I am recruiting for an established and growing refurbishment contractor in the North East that is looking for an experienced Contracts / Operations Manager.
This is a genuinely interesting opportunity for somebody with strong social housing refurbishment experience who wants more than a conventional Contracts Manager position.
The company already has a significant volume of work across social housing, planned works, voids, disrepair and commercial refurbishment.
The challenge now is building the operational capacity, systems and workforce required to deliver more of it.
You will take ownership of the operational process across multiple projects, helping ensure every job progresses properly from:
Instruction → survey → quotation → approval → programming → delivery → completion.
Alongside managing contracts, sites, clients, direct labour and subcontractors, you will be expected to look at how the business operates and improve it.
The Role
Responsibilities will include:
* Managing multiple social housing refurbishment projects.
* Overseeing capital works, planned works, voids and disrepair programmes.
* Programming direct labour and subcontractors.
* Ensuring operatives have sufficient forward workload.
* Managing projects from initial instruction through to completion.
* Attending client meetings and site visits.
* Managing site and operational issues.
* Improving internal systems and workflows.
* Identifying where information, approvals or actions are being missed.
* Creating repeatable processes that can eventually be delegated to administrative staff.
* Monitoring quality, programme and health & safety.
* Managing variations and additional works.
* Monitoring productivity and contract profitability.
* Coordinating materials and specialist subcontractors.
* Supporting recruitment and expansion of the operational workforce.
* Helping clear existing workload and increase delivery capacity.
What We’re Looking For
This role requires somebody comfortable operating within a growing SME rather than a highly departmentalised tier-one environment.
You need to be able to wear several hats.
One day you may be managing a client, another programming labour, another resolving site issues and another redesigning an internal process that simply isn’t working efficiently enough.
Essential Experience
You must have:
Proven social housing refurbishment experience.
Contractor-side experience delivering housing association work.
Knowledge of planned works, capital works, voids and/or disrepair.
Experience managing multiple projects.
Experience managing direct labour and subcontractors.
Strong planning and programming ability.
Good commercial understanding.
Experience managing variations and project profitability.
Strong client-facing and organisational skills.
Experience improving operational systems or processes.
Full UK driving licence.
Experience within commercial refurbishment, Salesforce/client portals, mobilisation or scaling operational teams would also be advantageous.
Package
£50,000+ basic salary DOE.
Significant performance-related bonus.
Bonus linked to growth, turnover and profitability.
Company phone and laptop.
Mileage initially.
Company car or van following probation.
Genuine route into a senior operational / leadership position.
This could become a very significant role within the company.
They are not looking for somebody simply to maintain today’s workload.
They want someone capable of helping build the operational structure for where the business is going next.
Social housing contractor experience is essential