Interim General Manager Operations
Cambridgeshire | Equivalent to £85,000 to £95,000 per annum, pro rata | Minimum three months with review | Possibility of a permanent appointment
If you are between roles, working a short notice period, or your role is at risk of redundancy, this is worth reading.
A privately owned, multi-site logistics business needs an experienced operations leader to hold and steady its operation while it completes a permanent appointment. It needs somebody who can start quickly and who knows what they are doing.
The organisation
A long established, privately owned logistics business specialising in food and food ingredients, operating from three accredited sites with warehousing, transport and contract packing. It is profitable, conservatively financed and growing, with a stated plan to double the size of its logistics operation over the next three years.
The role
You would lead the whole operation across the three sites: warehousing, transport, contract packing, quality and compliance, reporting directly to the Chief Executive. You would manage the operating budget, support the site management teams, and be the point of decision and escalation they need.
The emphasis is continuity rather than transformation. The permanent appointee will own the longer term agenda. Your job is to hold the operation steady, protect the standards, resource the seasonal peak properly, and hand over honestly to whoever follows. That includes maintaining accreditation without adverse finding, upholding health and safety across warehousing and transport, and ensuring the operator licence obligations continue to be met.
What we are looking for
You will be an experienced senior operations leader from third party logistics or a comparable environment, with warehousing as your primary discipline and enough transport exposure to hold that function competently. You will have carried budget accountability and reported to a chief executive or owner. You will have held quality and compliance accountability in an accredited food environment and be capable of carrying an audit if one falls due during the period.
Above all you will be available now, or on short notice.
We are being open about the profile that suits this best. It is somebody with a consistent permanent career history who happens to be available: displaced through restructure, recently exited, or working out a short notice period. A team that has been through a period of change needs a steadying presence rather than somebody whose pattern is short assignments. That is a judgement about what this particular operation needs at this particular moment.
Personality and fit
This is a business with a flat structure, direct access to the owner, and decisions taken in the room rather than in committee. The workforce is long serving, with many people at fifteen or twenty years of service and several who progressed from the warehouse floor into management. Credibility here is earned by being visible and straight with people, not conferred by a job title.
You will need the confidence to make decisions and the judgement to know which ones are not yours to make. An interim who steadies a team and hands over cleanly is worth considerably more here than one who arrives and restructures.
Location, and a note if you are not local
The role is based in Cambridgeshire with regular presence at sites in the East of England and the North West. Because this appointment is about availability, we are looking a little wider than we would for a permanent role. If you are within about 90 minutes, whether that is the A1 or M1 corridors, the A14 or across into Suffolk, please do get in touch even if the journey would not tempt you permanently. Mileage and the occasional overnight can be discussed.
The terms
A minimum of three months with a formal review at three months. Remuneration equivalent to £85,000 to £95,000 per annum, pro rata for the period worked. Where the interim goes well and both parties wish to continue, a permanent appointment may become available. That possibility is real and we will be straight with you about it throughout, but it is not a promise and you should not take the role on that basis alone.
The process, and how to apply
We have moved this to a fast track. Apply with your curriculum vitae and tell us your availability, and we will come back to you quickly. Our client is not named at this stage; we will brief you fully before anything is shared with them, and nothing is passed on without your agreement.
If you are also open to permanent opportunities, say so. We are running a permanent search for the same operation alongside this, and you may be suitable for either
