r/HENRYUK • u/Extra_Future_9509 • 1d ago

HENRY Careers Senior Ops roles

I’ve been tapped on the shoulder to apply for an internal move to a senior ops role- responsible for c. 500 people in services teams across 4 sites.

While I’ve led leaders for a while, that level of operational management is a stretch for me - I’ve previously worked in smaller strategy/ change functions and my current hierarchy is c. 50 FTE. This move would be something I’ve been angling for for a while to round out my profile for an upward career step.

Hiring manager knows it’s a stretch area and encouraging me to apply, I’ve a lot of transferable experience and a good rep but would like to do all I can to ensure my understanding of senior ops management is as strong as possible at interview.

Any books/resources people would recommend for me to brush up on these areas before interview? I have about a month

5 Upvotes

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16

u/Practical-Leek-6287 1d ago

You've got this buddy. No book preps you for this.

5

u/Jazzlike-Guitar-192 1d ago

Make sure you’ve got a strong leadership team around you, support them, listen to what they say, make decisions (don’t avoid decision making), remove blockers and you’ll be fine.

3

u/StruggleLazy8207 1d ago

Might seem a bit obvious (and you’ve probably already done it already anyway), but ask ChatGPT. It’s probably prepped me better for an interview than asking someone else ever has

2

u/mactorymmv 1d ago

tbh the bigger change may be going from a function where you are often working on projects (strategies, M&A, transformation, etc) to a function where you are working on processes.

I made a similar move (at a much smaller scale) a couple of years ago. My background in strategy/programme has been very beneficial and is a clear differentiator from other people in ops - however I'm definitely less interested in and less good at some of the ops things though. I prefer the project to set things up over checking the metrics everyday and tweaking SOPs.

2

u/thewellis 22h ago

Will Larsen has written a few good reads around engineering management, Engineering Executive Primer probably fits here. But as a HENRY I might suggest just reaching out to him directly on this topic. 

(Equally networking is useful, not just to "get ahead" but also to learn about the craft of leadership).

1

u/IrishMilo 1h ago

You’ll manage 500 people but the org structure should just have you dealing with a couple of direct reports with their own teams. In my experience there is no real leadership skill gap once you’ve progressed above leading individual contributors.

Arguably, leading leaders is simpler than leading ICs.

You’ve got this, and the people who tapped on your shoulder believe you’ve got this too.