Senior Business Operations Manager

Overview

In this role you will lead the Corporate Business Operations & Support function, turning strategic direction into reliable day‑to‑day delivery. You will oversee executive support, member and mayoral services, statutory information activity, and governance processes, ensuring professionalism, resilience, and responsive service. You will deploy resources flexibly in response to changing priorities and drive digital enablement to boost productivity and data quality. This is a key operational leadership role central to Dudley Council’s improvement journey.

Responsibilities

• Deputise for the Business Operations & Corporate Support Lead, providing operational leadership and continuity across the function
• Lead day-to-day coordination of executive and senior leadership support, ensuring meetings, briefings, papers, actions and follow-up are timely
• Oversee member and mayoral support arrangements with professional, confidential, politically impartial service
• Manage statutory information activity (FOI, EIR, Subject Access) with compliance to statutory timescales
• Coordinate corporate governance and activity including forward plans, decision logs, risk/issue registers, audit trails and records management
• Manage workloads and flex resources across teams to respond to changing priorities and demand
• Monitor service performance, produce MI to support assurance and decision-making
• Support development and continuous improvement of operating models, processes and systems
• Champion use of digital tech, data and automation to improve productivity and information quality
• Build relationships with senior leaders, elected members and teams to promote a collaborative One Council approach

Key requirements

• Significant experience of leading or managing business operations or corporate support in a complex professional service
• Track record of managing multiple priorities in high-profile, time-critical environments
• Experience of managing and developing teams and flexible resource allocation
• Strong knowledge of corporate governance, information management and organisational processes
• Experience working with senior leaders or high-profile stakeholders in politically sensitive contexts
• Understanding of statutory information requirements, governance, compliance and assurance
• Strong analytical and organisational skills with use of performance information for decision-making
• Commitment to continuous improvement, digital enablement and customer-focused workflows
• Ability to balance detail with wider organisational priorities and maintain high standards of delivery

• stakeholder management
• political awareness
• collaboration
• corporate governance
• information management
• performance reporting/management information

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