Transport Service Manager

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Job Description

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Hours: 37 per week Monday - Friday, between the hours of 08:00 and 16:00, flexibility essential to meet the needs of the service.

Worker Type: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £56,730 (Level one) rising to £60,125 (level four) per annum (pro rata for part time) (pay award pending)

Location: Passenger Transport Services, Building 5 Woolsthorpe Depot, Woolsthorpe Close

Nottingham, NG8 3JD

Are you an experienced leader in passenger transport or a similar operational service, looking for an opportunity to lead a complex, high-impact public service?

Nottingham City Council is seeking a dynamic and motivated Service Manager to lead, manage and develop our Passenger Transport Service. This service provides safe, reliable and high-quality transport for children and adults across the city each day, supporting the Council's statutory duties and the needs of some of our most vulnerable residents.

The role is responsible for leading both internal service delivery and external commissioning arrangements. This includes oversight of the Council's own fleet, drivers, passenger assistants and supervisory teams, alongside the commissioning and contract management of external transport providers.

You will be a key senior officer within the wider directorate, helping to ensure the service continues to adapt, improve and deliver best value while maintaining high standards of safety, safeguarding, compliance and customer care.

Working for Nottingham City Council offers a range of benefits. Alongside competitive pay, generous leave entitlement and access to an excellent pension scheme, we are committed to creating an innovative, inclusive and supportive working environment where colleagues are encouraged to do their best work.

If you are passionate about public service and want to make a real difference to the lives of Nottingham residents, we would like to hear from you.

* You can read more about the different benefits offered to colleagues working for Nottingham City Council here.

About the Role

This role is responsible for managing the safe transportation of approximately 800 children and adults each day in order to support the Council's statutory duties, including home to school transport and transport between other locations where required.

You will lead both the operational and strategic management of the service. This includes oversight of the Council's internal fleet operations, drivers, passenger assistants and supervisory staff, alongside the commissioning and contract management of around 250 externally provided transport arrangements.

The post has significant responsibility for service quality, safeguarding, compliance, financial control and continuous improvement. You will ensure the service remains responsive to changing demand while delivering safe, efficient and customer-focused transport provision.

Working within Sold Services to Schools, part of the Communities, Environment and Resident Services Directorate, you will be part of a focused and dedicated team that values innovation, service improvement and customer satisfaction. This is an opportunity to lead an important frontline service and make a real impact across the city.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Management:

• Lead the development and management of the passenger transport team, taking on strategic and corporate responsibilities to meet service, directorate, and corporate objectives.

People Management:

• Demonstrate strong people management skills including recruitment, development, attendance management, and performance management. Prepare reports for capability and dismissal hearings.

Financial Management:

• Manage key budgets against targets and tracking expenditure and staffing hours, ensuring effective financial control and management for vehicles, labour, and equipment

About You

We are looking for a strong leader with significant management experience, ideally within passenger transport, public services or another regulated operational environment.

You will need to bring credibility, sound judgement and the ability to lead a complex frontline service where safety, safeguarding, customer experience and financial discipline all matter.

You will also be able to demonstrate strong people management skills, sound financial awareness, excellent organisational ability and the confidence to build effective working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

You will be motivated, resilient and committed to delivering high-quality public services, while driving improvement and maintaining high standards across a complex area of responsibility.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle
• Proven experience in a senior management role within the public sector ideally the transport industry
• Strong leadership and people management skills
• Excellent financial acumen with experience in budget management and financial control
• Ability to develop and maintain customer and stakeholder relationships and drive customer-focused service delivery
• Knowledge of health and safety regulations and statutory compliance relating to fleet and vehicle management functions
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to think strategically and drive business growth

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

You can find the job description for this post here.

At Nottingham City Council we believe that work is what you do, not where you do it. We offer different working arrangements, depending on the role, including hybrid working. Further information on Worker Types and what these mean in terms of how and where you work can be found on the additional information for applicants page.

For informal enquiries please contact Sold Services to Schools by email at servicestoschools@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

Closing Date: 1st May 2026

Please note there may be occasions where we close the advert before the closing date and we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

Interviews will be held: TBC

If you have any technical issues when completing your application, please contact our Employee Service Centre: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home

By applying to this job, you agree to our Terms & Conditions.

About Us

Thank you for your interest in working for Nottingham City Council. As one of the largest employers in Nottingham we offer a wide range of roles across a range of services. In return for your skill, drive and commitment to serving the people of Nottingham, we can help you to develop an exciting and rewarding career, with access to the following benefits.

In addition to working within a great team and a competitive salary you will have access to:

• 26 days annual leave (rising to 33 days after 5 years' service) + bank holidays with the ability to buy additional leave annually
• Access to a generous, defined benefit pension scheme offering 17.9%
• Smart Working - to support your work life balance
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres, cinema, shopping and much more!

Nottingham City Council is committed to recruiting a talented workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We are a fair and inclusive employer and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and with different abilities. We recruit for diversity and value difference.

We particularly want to hear from you if you are from Minority Ethnic communities, identify within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer+ community (LGBTQ+) and if you are Disabled - these groups of people are underrepresented in our workforce, and we'd like to reflect our local population more through our recruitment processes.

We are supportive of flexible working arrangements wherever possible and we would encourage you to discuss this with us during the selection process, should this be something you are interested in.