Senior Manager – Network Operations & Planning

Job Details

Salary: Competitive

Hours: Full Time 

Location: VHQ, Crawley

Contract: Permanent

Closing Date: 6th January 2025

At Virgin Atlantic Airways, we believe that everyone can take on the world, and it’s our vision to become the most loved travel company. As we embark on this next exciting stage of our journey, we’re harnessing our spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation to challenge the status quo.

Join our team of forward-thinkers who approach the world with a different lens. We value individuals who are vocal about driving positive change and are willing to dive into both big and small tasks. If you’re ready to take your career to new heights, this opportunity is for you.

In a nutshell

The Senior Manager – Network Operations & Planning is responsible for the planning and delivery of the flying programme, minimising disruption to our customers and recovering operational performance safely and efficiently, plus overseeing the Operations Control Centre 24/7.

Day to day

In this senior position, you will:

Performance manage and lead the Duty Director team, as well as indirectly oversee the wider OCC through matrix management, working with the other OCC team managers to ensure consistent standards across the OCC. 

Influence and manage the performance of Network Operations and ensuring the team strategy meets our objectives and Most Loved Travel company ambitions.

Be directly responsible for Operations continuous improvement and chairing senior meetings with key operational stakeholders, including Airports, Crew, Cargo, Customer and Engineering, to deliver operational excellence and implement learnings from significant event reviews. 

Support/lead as required Operational events, under the Elevated & Crisis frameworks during times of disruption.

Lead our Operations Planning team, working in partnership with Airport, Commercial and Engineering teams to plan future flying schedules up to 2 years in advance, optimising the short term planning window through FlyRed to ensure a deliverable schedule is handed over to the OCC, whilst meeting key business objectives.

About you

Are you a senior operations professional with a background in managing in dynamic and complex environments. Do you strive to achieve amazing results with your team, often in challenging environments? If this sounds like you and you have the below skills and capabilities, then we’d love to hear from you!

• Significant experience in an OCC or Operational environment with proven ability to manage dynamic and complex operational scenarios, balancing competing business needs without compromising safety
• Experienced people leader with a large, multi-disciplined and shift based team
• Schedule planning experience, including knowledge of fleet capability and airport constraints
• Ability to quickly evaluate risks and opportunities to create and implement deliverable solutions in an operational environment
• System knowledge – AIMS and Sabre desirable
• Analytically minded with proven ability to drive continuous improvement through data and predictive modelling
• Experienced in managing and supporting senior stakeholders in operational decision making, comfortable offering and making decisions, giving recommendations and challenging when needed
• Experience in managing operational disruption and crisis situations, unflappable when cool heads are needed

Our recipe for leadership

At Virgin Atlantic, our leaders empower teams to thrive through collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Explore our Leadership Recipe and discover the 20 core ingredients that define what it means to lead with us, driving our mission to be the most loved travel company and achieve sustainable profit. Want to learn more? Click here

Be yourself

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do our colleagues. That is why we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds. At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world – no matter your age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We celebrate difference and everything that makes our colleagues unique by upholding an inclusive environment in which we can all thrive. So that everyone at Virgin Atlantic can be themselves and know they belong.

To make your journey with us accessible and individual to you, we encourage you to let us know if you’d like a little extra help with your application, or if you have any individual requirements at any stage along your recruitment journey. We are here to support you, so please reach out to our team, (recruitment@fly.virgin.com) feeling confident that we’ve got your individual considerations covered.

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