Operations Director

Operations Director - Wigan (Hybrid)

Are you an experienced senior operations leader with a background in large-scale delivery, logistics, or warehousing?
Do you have a proven track record of senior operations leadership within a delivery, logistics, or warehousing environment?
Are you confident leading multi-site teams, driving operational performance, and delivering transformation across a complex delivery network?

Arrow

XL is looking for an Operations Director to join our team, based at our Wigan office. You’ll be empowered to make a real impact within a collaborative environment.

The Operations Director is a key strategic leader responsible for driving operational excellence, network performance, and service quality across all sites. They lead, inspire, and develop Arrow

XL’s General Managers, Central Planning, Fleet, and Service Partner functions, ensuring our 2-person delivery, warehousing, transport, and end-to-end logistics operations run effectively, safely, and in line with commercial and client expectations. Reporting directly to the CEO, the postholder provides operational governance, sets clear performance standards, and drives continuous improvement across the business.

If you're ready to lead at scale and drive transformation across a national logistics network, we'd love to speak with you. For a confidential discussion, reach out to... or apply today.

• Provide long-term strategic leadership and governance across our major hubs and associated outbases, ensuring each General Manager delivers safe, efficient, legally compliant, and service-focused operations.
• Lead, support, and develop General Managers (site and other operational functions) to effectively run large multi-functional teams (warehouse, transport, planning and support functions), ensuring strong people leadership, engagement, and performance management across headcounts of several hundred colleagues.
• Ensure site leadership teams foster a positive, values-driven working environment that supports high engagement and strong colleague development. Drive a strong culture of safety across the network by ensuring all sites maintain safe working environments, comply with H&S legislation, and embed proactive safety behaviours.
• Lead the Fleet function to ensure high vehicle availability, compliance, and cost efficiency across the 2-person delivery fleet. Ensure Fleet Compliance has the resources, budget, policy framework, and cross-departmental alignment needed to keep the fleet fully compliant, cost-efficient, and operationally reliable.
• Provide strategic oversight and support to the trunking operation, ensuring transport is reliable, cost-effective, and aligned with network capacity, delivery schedules, and service commitments.
• Provide strategic oversight to the Central Planning function, ensuring robust capacity planning, routing strategy, labour modelling, and daily network optimisation.
• Hold the Planning team accountable for accurate forecasting and efficient flow of goods across the network, enabling execution rather than performing the technical planning work.
• Directly manage and develop the Service Partner Delivery Manager, providing clear leadership, coaching, and governance frameworks while maintaining senior visibility with key clients to support relationship management, issue resolution, and confidence in partner delivery.
• Develop and deliver the multi-year operations strategy aligned with business goals, working closely with Commercial teams to ensure operational capability, service design, and ensure the network is appropriately aligned to service requirements to enable sustainable growth.
• Work with Group companies to exchange best practice and consider potential international opportunities that align with operational capability and broader business strategy.
• Lead the strategic planning for peak trading, disruption scenarios, and business continuity.

• Proven track record of senior operations leadership (Head of Ops / Operations Director level), with substantial experience operating at this level within a delivery, logistics, or warehousing environment – ideally 2-person home…