Head of services jobs in Manchester

The Cyber Helpline is a fast-growing, innovative charity that supports individuals impacted by cybercrime, digital fraud and online harm. As we enter our next stage of growth, we are seeking a senior operational leader to transform, scale and strengthen our Helpline service.

The Head of Helpline and Service Delivery will provide strategic and operational leadership across all aspects of service delivery - people, processes, quality, tooling and innovation. This role is accountable for the overall performance, resilience and impact of the Helpline, ensuring we offer exceptional trauma-informed and victim/survivor-centred support across channels.

This is an executive role requiring someone who can operate strategically while staying close to operational realities. You will lead managers, staff and volunteers, drive cultural and structural change, support growth of service models, deliver high-quality outcomes and ensure the Helpline is equipped to meet demand.

This opportunity is exciting for an experienced service-delivery leader to build a mission-driven Helpline at scale.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Service Direction

• Develop and deliver a multi-year operational strategy for the Helpline aligned with organisational goals.

• Shape the future service model, including workforce planning, channel strategy, automation and technology.

• Provide executive-level leadership and insight to the CEO, Executive Team and Trustees.

• Represent The Cyber Helpline externally with partners, regulators, law enforcement, funders and the wider sector.

Service Performance

• Lead the day-to-day and long-term operation of the Helpline, ensuring stability, quality, responsiveness and continuous improvement.

• Own and deliver KPIs, SLAs, performance dashboards and quality standards.

• Ensure effective processes, incident response, risk management and signposting and referral pathways.

• Oversee the helpdesk, telephony, triage, case management processes and other service initiatives.

People, Culture and Capability

• Lead the team members across functions such as supervisors, case support, QA and training

• Build a high-performing workforce of staff and volunteers, ensuring strong recruitment, onboarding, development, supervision and succession planning.

• Foster a supportive, trauma-informed and collaborative culture with clear expectations and accountability.

• Set and embed structures, role clarity, operational guidelines and communication frameworks across the Helpline.

Quality, Compliance and Risk

• Own the QA framework alongside the Case Support Team, ensuring consistent, accurate and compassionate support to victims and survivors.

• Work in partnership with the Head of Safeguarding to ensure compliance with safeguarding policy and strong practice across the team.

• Oversee high-risk escalations, operational risk identification and mitigation.

• Ensure compliance with internal policies, such as data protection and cybersecurity.

Service Development

• Lead service improvement initiatives, including redesigning processes, upgrading systems and embedding new technologies.

• Collaborate with data, product and technology teams to enhance automation, workflows and case-handling efficiency.

• Ensure the service evolves in response to threat trends, victim needs, and organisational strategy.

• Drive innovation in digital service delivery and multi-channel support.

Partnerships, Impact and Growth

• Work with stakeholders such as police, funders, commissioners, corporates and international partners to strengthen and expand our model.

• Support fundraising and business development opportunities by providing operational insight, impact reporting and case studies.

• Contribute to the expansion of the Helpline model into new geographies.

• Act as a senior ambassador for the service and organisation.

Internal Leadership and Collaboration

• Partner with operations, finance, safeguarding, comms and data teams to ensure integrated and effective organisational delivery.

• Contribute to organisational strategy, planning cycles, and Executive Team decision making.

• Lead or support cross-organisational projects where operational expertise is required.

Requirements

Candidates must be 18 years old or older and resident in the UK with the right to work in the UK. Successful candidates will need to have their background and criminal records checked, as they are likely to have access to sensitive personal data. 

Essential

• Significant leadership experience in a senior operational role within a helpline, support service, contact centre, victim support environment or other complex service-delivery setting.

• Proven ability to scale a service, introduce new operational models and lead organisational change. 

• Experience managing multi-layered teams (including volunteers), ideally across remote environments.

• Strong understanding of QA, safeguarding principles, operational risk, and compliance.

• Demonstrated ability to set KPIs, manage performance, analyse data and make evidence-informed decisions.

• Exceptional people leadership, communication and stakeholder-management skills

• Experience improving processes, implementing new systems or delivering service innovation.

• High emotional intelligence with a calm, pragmatic approach to problem-solving.

• Alignment with The Cyber Helpline’s mission and a commitment to victim-centred support.

Desirable

• Understanding of cybercrime, cybersecurity, online harms or digital victimisation.

• Experience working in a charity or volunteer-powered environment.

• Experience delivering training, public speaking or representing an organisation externally.

• Experience with helpdesk systems, CRM, or telephony/triage systems

• Knowledge of trauma-informed practice.

What we offer

• Enhanced annual leave - generous leave package with an extra day off to celebrate your birthday.

• Pension scheme - 8% employer contribution to your workplace pension scheme

• Employee discounts - thousands of discounts on travel, shopping, wellbeing, entertainment and more.

• Remote working cost budget - an annual allowance to cover eligible remote working costs

• Flexible, remote-first working - we are a remote-first organisation, you’ll have the freedom to work from home (or away - subject to approval), supported by a flexible working culture. 

• Cybersecurity at home - we offer free cybersecurity tools, including endpoint protection and VPNs to protect your personal devices.

• Professional development - access to ad-hoc training based on your role and professional growth interests

• Enhanced leave - including sick pay, paternity/maternity, compassionate and bereavement leave. We operate with flexibility during periods of illness, family need or unexpected events.

• Cybersecurity community - Join a supportive network of over 150 cybersecurity professionals in the UK and USA.

• Time off for learning - request time off to pursue training or development opportunities

Applicants must be located within 2 hours travelling distance of Cambridge City.

The Charity and Our Vision.

For over 15 years, Scotty's Little Soldiers has been supporting children and young people who have been bereaved of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces.  We are about to embark on an exciting journey which will see the charity evolve to support anyone affected by a military-connected bereavement and ultimately empower a community of more than 25,000 bereaved individuals and their families by 2035.

Founded in 2010 by Nikki Scott following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, the charity currently offers a unique blend of emotional, practical, and educational support to over 750 young people.

We are proud of our vibrant, non-traditional culture, which puts the needs of bereaved children and young people at the heart of everything we do. We embrace innovative approaches, are committed to creating smiles and believe in the power of community, resilience, and connection.

Role Mission.

To ensure Scotty’s delivers high-quality, consistent, and scalable support to those affected by military-connected bereavement, by leading all aspects of service delivery. 

You’ll own the structure, systems, standards, and team needed to deliver support across all four Family Programmes (SMILES, SUPPORT, STRIDES, and the planned START programme) and help ensure our support reaches the growing number of families who need us. 

The key responsibilities of this role are:

Programme Operations & Service Infrastructure 

• Overall accountability for the service provided to the bereaved military community. 

• Leading, and working closely with, the Head of each delivery Programme to ensure all activities are impactful and meeting the needs of our community. 

• Mapping and maintaining the full beneficiary journey across all programmes and cohorts (CYP and adult). 

• Developing our first adult focused services and building them in line with the charity’s long-term vision to be supporting more than 25k bereaved people by 2035. 

• Being the link between our service delivery and both internal and external technology partners to ensure our systems match, and meet the needs of, our processes. 

• Alongside our Operations Team, lead the scoping of a full future CRM (Salesforce) rebuild and related beneficiary tech interfaces such as websites, future app development etc. 

• Oversee the design of a 2026 ‘light’ CRM phase to support individual adult service delivery. 

• Ensure that lived experience remains at the heart of our services. 

• Accountability for Safeguarding within the organisation. 

Team Leadership  

• Support Programme Leads (e.g. Heads of START, SMILES, SUPPORT), providing direction and support as well as ensuring clarity of ownership and goals. 

• Create a strong, empowering culture within the service (Families) team, aligned with The Scotty’s Way and shared leadership philosophy. 

• Work with our Head of People to oversee service recruitment and onboarding.

Quality, Measurement & Improvement 

• Define and embed service-level Success Measures (KPIs) across all activities ensuring we know what success looks like for all our activities. 

• Collaborate with the Head of Research & Impact to ensure data collection is usable and meaningful. 

External Partnerships & Collaborations 

• Proactively develop senior-level partnerships with other military and bereavement charities, Armed Forces support organisations, and relevant service providers and stakeholders. 

• Explore and propose strategic collaborations where they strengthen the support we offer to families. 

• Ensure the new START (single point of contact) Programme becomes an active network-builder in the space. 

• Represent Scotty’s externally at events, conferences, meetings etc within the sector.

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Act as a key link to Outreach and Fundraising — providing insight and service stories to fuel content. 

• Work with the Ops team to align delivery processes with systems, IT, and compliance. 

• Support bid development and reporting for funders by sharing service insight and outcomes. 

The 30-day goals for this role are:

• Build a deep understanding of Scotty’s mission, our audience, the services we provide, and strategic direction.
• Spending time with the Families Team and understanding everyone’s role within the charity.
• Understands the ‘as-is’ current situation for the charity’s service delivery. 
• Start to document gaps, delivery inconsistencies, opportunities, risks etc. 
• Understand the landscape we operate in, particularly the military and bereavement charitable environment. 
• Fully align with the operating rhythm of the charity, leading team meetings, holding 1:1s, ownership of relevant OKRs, etc. 

The 60-day goals for this role are:

• Has met with counterparts at key partner organisations. 

• Has highlighted key organisations not currently partnered with to meet. 

• Created a stakeholder holder engagement map for our service delivery.

• Visually mapped existing beneficiary journeys across our four Programmes. 

• Began work (with Ops) on requirements for initial-phase CRM for adult services. 

• Fully aligned plans and goals with existing Programme Heads, incoming Head of START Programme, and incoming Head of Research & Impact. 

• Held one in-person session with Families team. 

The 90-day goals for this role are:

• Visually mapped year one of adult services plus any proposed changes to existing services to create a final 2026/27 service ‘to-be’. 

• Planned the launch of our new START navigating entitlements casework Programme

• Development underway of ‘Light’ CRM to launch adult services having supplied detailed brief. 

• Taken full accountability for the success of our Family Programmes and associated impact. 

• Attended 2-3 sector group meetings representing Scotty’s solo. 

• Developed a stakeholder holder engagement plan with Head of PR & Comms.

About You

Must-Have 

Senior experience in service delivery, operations, or programme leadership 

Strong skills in team leadership and service system design 

Ability to turn strategy into operational structure and rhythm 

Confident working cross-functionally and building external partnerships 

Nice-to-Have

Experience working with or supporting Armed Forces families 

Familiarity with CRM system scoping and procurement 

Experience launching new services or scaling delivery teams 

Background in bereavement or mental health support 

Additional Information

· The role may require occasional evening or weekend work

· Enhanced DBS check required

· Travel will be required to events and team training days

The Scotty’s Way

At Scotty’s, our personal performance is only 50% of what success looks like. Our culture is equally important. When you join our team, you sign up to The Scotty’s Way, rooted in our four core values:  

1. Families Come First

2. Everyone a Supporter, Every Supporter a VIP

3. Love What You Do

4. Remember, Every Day

Our values are further supported by our four non-negotiable behaviours of Show Respect, Speak Up, Take Ownership and Actively Collaborate. We are looking for an individual who embodies these values and behaviours.

When Applying:

Please submit your CV, along with a covering letter detailing your experience and what excites you about this role. Please ensure you clearly annotate which role you are applying for in the email title. Closing date: Friday 16th January. Due to resource and time constraints, we are unfortunately unable to provide feedback for every application received and will only contact candidates shortlisted for interview.

Thank you for your interest in joining our team, we are an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees are treated with respect and given equal opportunities for employment and advancement.  

We do not discriminate based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.  

We encourage all qualified individuals to apply for employment within our charity, and we provide a fair and inclusive recruitment process for all candidates.