National Operations Manager - SMR

Location: Oldbury (Hybrid working, 3 office days per week)

Employment Type: Permanent

Why Join Us?

• Take ownership of the day-to-day indoor operation supporting our rapidly growing Mobile Mechanic and Service, Maintenance and Repair (SMR) proposition.
• Lead the teams responsible for keeping work moving, including dispatch, work-in-progress management, operational co-ordination and customer recovery.
• Play a key role in improving operational control as SMR continues to scale, ensuring we deliver a reliable and predictable service for customers and our frontline technicians.
• Use real-time performance insight to identify issues quickly, remove operational blockers and improve customer outcomes.
• Lead, coach and develop operational leaders and colleagues within a fast-paced environment undergoing significant transformation.

Company Description / Business Unit

For over a century, The AA has been keeping Britain moving. Today, millions of drivers trust us to be there when it matters most, and we're equally committed to supporting the people who make that possible. With a 4.5-star Glassdoor rating, we've built a culture where colleagues are empowered to grow, collaborate and make a real impact for our customers on every journey. Which has been recognised by Sunday Times “Best Places to Work” for the last two years. 

As Operations Manager - SMR Indoor Operations, you will lead the operational control environment supporting our Mobile Mechanic and wider SMR activity.

You will be responsible for ensuring the indoor operation delivers effective day-to-day management of workload, technician support, dispatch activity, work in progress and customer exceptions. You will create clear operational rhythms, establish strong ownership and ensure emerging risks are identified and acted upon quickly.

Working closely with field operations, planning, technology, customer teams and commercial stakeholders, you will help ensure the right work reaches the right resource at the right time and that issues affecting delivery are resolved with pace.

This is an opportunity for an experienced operational leader who is comfortable working in a high-volume, performance-led environment and can combine strong people leadership with operational discipline, customer focus and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the indoor SMR operation, creating clear accountability for operational performance, customer outcomes and colleague experience.
• Lead and develop managers and colleagues responsible for SMR dispatch, work-in-progress management, operational support and customer exception handling.
• Establish effective daily operational rhythms, ensuring workload, resource availability, capacity, service risks and customer issues are actively managed.
• Maintain strong oversight of SMR work in progress, identifying aged or at-risk jobs and driving timely intervention to reduce broken promises and poor customer outcomes.
• Ensure effective dispatch and workload management, supporting the optimum use of Mobile Mechanic capacity and improving technician productivity.
• Work closely with field operational leaders to provide joined-up management of technician performance, availability and operational constraints.
• Use management information and real-time performance data to understand demand, capacity and service performance, translating insight into clear actions.
• Identify systemic causes of operational failure and work with Planning, Technology, Product and other stakeholders to deliver sustainable improvements.
• Strengthen customer recovery processes, ensuring exceptions and service failures are owned, resolved quickly and used to drive future learning.
• Lead continuous improvement across indoor SMR processes, reducing unnecessary manual intervention and creating simpler, more scalable ways of working.
• Ensure colleagues understand operational priorities, service expectations and their individual accountability for delivering a high-quality customer experience.
• Manage resources effectively, balancing customer service, colleague capacity, productivity and cost.
• Build strong relationships across Road Operations and Car Care, ensuring indoor operations remain closely connected to the wider SMR strategy and transformation roadmap.
• Maintain appropriate operational controls, governance and escalation routes, ensuring risks are visible and acted upon with pace.

You’ll Bring

• Proven operational leadership experience within a fast-paced service, contact centre, dispatch, scheduling or operational control environment.
• Experience of successfully leading and developing people managers and operational teams.
• A strong track record of improving operational performance, service delivery and customer outcomes.
• Experience managing work-in-progress, workload, capacity or resource deployment within a complex operation.
• Strong analytical capability, with the ability to use operational MI and real-time data to identify emerging issues and drive action.
• The ability to remain calm and decisive when managing competing operational priorities and customer service risks.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge, influence and align teams across different functions.
• A practical continuous-improvement mindset, with experience identifying root causes and implementing sustainable operational solutions.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to create clarity and accountability across a busy operational environment.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to balance service, productivity, customer and cost considerations.

Nice to Have

• Experience within Service, Maintenance and Repair (SMR), automotive services or roadside operations.
• Experience leading dispatch, scheduling, contact centre or central operational support functions.
• Experience working within a growing or transforming operation.
• Familiarity with workforce management, scheduling or CRM platforms.
• Experience of improving operational processes through technology, automation or system change.

Belonging at The AA

At The AA, we value the unique perspectives, experiences and ideas that our people bring. We've nurtured a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to do their best work.
Through our employee communities and inclusion initiatives, we’ve created opportunities for people to connect, share experiences and influence positive change across the business. This is a place where your voice matters and where you can belong, grow and succeed.

Driven by People, Rewarded by Benefits
We believe in rewarding our people. That's why we offer a comprehensive benefits package including;

• 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, the option to buy additional holiday
• Up to 7% employer pension contribution
• Free AA breakdown membership from Day One with 50% discount for family and friends, discounts on AA products including car and home insurance
• 24/7 GP access and wellbeing support for you and your family
• A wide range of employee discounts, including our popular car salary sacrifice scheme

#LI-EJ1 #LI-Hybrid