Customer Operations Manager

This is a 12 month fixed term position

About the Role

Reporting directly to the Head of Customer Operations, you will be responsible for the day-to-day operational management of a defined area within our Customer Operations function. Your focus will be to ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality service to customers holding savings accounts with Newcastle Building Society Group and our Strategic Solutions clients. You will maintain strong awareness of both current and planned activity across Customer Operations, taking proactive action to ensure optimal service delivery, efficiency, and performance at all times. Leading a team of Team Leaders, you will play a key role in developing and supporting your colleagues, driving performance through effective leadership and coaching. You will have overall accountability for achieving operational objectives, delivering exceptional customer outcomes, and ensuring your teams are aligned to our purpose and values. You will be responsible for ensuring all quality standards, key performance indicators, and contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are consistently met or exceeded. Working closely with operational support teams—including Resource Planning, Risk, Complaints, and Quality Assurance—you will use insight and feedback to identify improvement opportunities and drive enhanced customer experiences. A core part of the role will be to foster a culture of continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to enhance processes, standardise activity across clients, and improve efficiency across the Customer Service Centre. You will also play an active role in creating an engaging and inclusive workplace where colleagues feel supported, recognised, and empowered to succeed.

About You

You will bring proven experience in Customer Service and Operational Management, ideally within a Financial Services or Contact Centre environment. With a strong track record of leading leaders, you will have demonstrable experience in managing and developing supervisors or Team Leaders, with a passion for building high-performing teams. You are an engaging and motivated leader, with the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others. Your resilience, adaptability, and drive to succeed enable you to effectively manage changing priorities while maintaining a strong focus on delivering results. You will have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the confidence to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels. Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to collaborate across multiple functions will be key to your success in this role. You will be committed to creating a “people-first” culture—ensuring colleagues receive regular feedback, the right training and development opportunities, and clear performance expectations to support continuous growth and high performance.

About Us

The Newcastle Building Society Group comprises of Newcastle Building Society, Manchester Building Society, Newcastle Financial Advisers and Newcastle Strategic Solutions. Our purpose, connecting our communities with a better financial future inspires and directs our activities. The Group provides traditional financial services, helping people own their own home, plan and manage their finances and operate a 32-branch network across the North-East, North-West, Cumbria and Yorkshire. Our Strategic Solutions subsidiary owns the UK’s leading savings management platform and provides managed technology services to new challenger banks and other established providers. As an inclusive employer and member owned mutual, we aim to reflect the diverse communities we serve and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. We believe everyone should feel valued, respected, and celebrated for who they are, we want colleagues to feel this is a place they belong. A place to be you.

What do you get in return?

As well as receiving a competitive annual salary based on above-market pay scales, our reward package includes:

• Financial Corporate bonus scheme (on target 10%, up to a maximum 15%)
• Pension scheme (up to 9% employer contribution)
• Annual performance related pay reviews
• Colleague mortgage scheme
• Electric car salary sacrifice scheme
• Life assurance (4x salary) and income protection
• Access to our financial advisers
• Access to a range of high street and online discounts

Work/Life Balance

A 35-hour weekly contract - We are happy to talk flexible working and welcome discussions

30 days’ annual leave + bank holidays

The option to buy and sell up to 5 days’ holiday

Hybrid working (typically 3 days’ home based)

Above statutory family leave entitlement - 3 months full pay, 3 months half pay, regardless of gender or route to parenthood

Health and Wellbeing

Private medical insurance

Access to a health cash plan through a Medicash scheme

Access to an employee assistance programme

Free onsite gym at our Cobalt head office and access to discounted gym’s

Two paid volunteering days’ each year

Cycle to work scheme

Recognising there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment, we’re committed to ensuring every candidate has the opportunity to showcase their full potential throughout the recruitment process. We strive to make our processes as accessible as possible, if there are any ways in which we can provide support or make adjustments, we would love to discuss this with you, you can contact your Recruiter for this vacancy at charlie.mcelhinney@newcastle.co.uk