Customer Operations Area Manager

Lead the frontline operations that keep our customers and communities safe

As our Customer Operations Area Manager, you’ll play a critical role in delivering Emergency, Repair and Household Connections activities across your geographical area. This isn’t just about managing day‑to‑day work – it’s about ensuring public safety, driving operational excellence and providing a first‑class service to our customers.

Working at the heart of our operational network, you’ll lead a geographically dispersed workforce, ensuring the safe and compliant execution of all activities 24/7. You’ll balance reactive emergency workload with planned and customer‑appointed work, maintaining performance, safety, cost control and regulatory outputs. You’ll be the visible leader who engages teams, supports supervisors, manages contractors and builds trust with both internal and external stakeholders.

This is an exceptional opportunity to step into a highly influential operational leadership role, where you’ll shape culture, develop people and ensure our local operations run efficiently, safely and with a relentless focus on customer satisfaction.

Why you’ll love this role

This is a high‑impact leadership role at the core of our customer operations, offering accountability, variety and the chance to drive meaningful improvement.

• Operational Leadership – Lead emergency, repair and connections delivery, balancing reactive and planned workload to meet customer and network commitments.
• Safety & Compliance – Ensure public safety, regulatory compliance and strong adherence to procedures, including incident supervision and EM77 requirements.
• Workforce Development – Build, develop and motivate operational teams, driving productivity, flexibility and year‑on‑year improvements.
• Performance & Delivery – Manage budgets, workforce performance and operational outcomes to meet safety, customer, financial and regulatory targets.
• Stakeholder & Contractor Management – Engage supervisors, field teams, contractors and partners to deliver high‑quality, compliant and efficient work.
• Data, Quality & Continuous Improvement – Champion high‑quality data, asset records and operational reporting to support informed decision‑making and network performance.

What you’ll bring

You’re an experienced operational leader with strong judgement, resilience and a passion for safe, high‑quality delivery.

• Strong leadership skills with experience managing dispersed operational teams
• Excellent understanding of operational policies, regulatory requirements and safety frameworks (including NRSWA, SCO, CDM, SCCF, HSE regulations)
• Ability to deliver safe, compliant, efficient operations within budget and to required quality standards
• Strong stakeholder, influencing and negotiation skills, including managing trade union relationships
• Competence in incident supervision, operational decision‑making and performance management
• A proactive mindset focused on continuous improvement, customer experience and operational excellence

At Cadent, we’re thrilled to be part of the future of UK energy!

We have a clear roadmap to drive our performance to the forefront of our industry and support the UK government in achieving its net zero targets by 2050.

We’re making a difference through innovation and new ways of working. Together, we’re shaping a cleaner, greener future for our 11 million customers, whom we put at the heart of everything we do.

What’s In It for You

Here at Cadent, we recognise that our people are truly unsung heroes. Quietly confident, delivering every day - that’s why we’re committed to supporting our people to get the best out of themselves. For this role, we offer:

• Annual bonus
• Pension Scheme double matched up to a total of 18% of salary
• 25 days holiday, plus statutory days, and an option to buy more
• An extra day off each year to celebrate life’s special moments
• Career development with funded learning options
• Flexible working and strong ED&I commitments
• Generous family policies and flexible benefits
• Retail discounts, gym access, and more

We support a healthy work‑life balance and are open to flexible working options.

Diversity and Inclusion

Don’t meet every requirement? No problem! If you’re excited about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification mentioned, we would still love for you to submit your application – you may just be the right person for this role or other opportunities at Cadent.

We value diversity and are committed to being an equitable employer. Our employee communities – Women in Cadent, Pride at Work (LGBTQ+), Embrace (ethnicity and religion), Thrive! (disability), the Cadent Military Community, the Grief Awareness Community, and the Men’s Engagement Network (M.E.N) – can’t wait to welcome you!

What’s next?

Be part of something big. Help shape the future of gas for generations to come.

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