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Business, operations and administration · Senior · UK and US conventions noted

Operations manager: resume example, explained

This fictional example shows an operations manager running two distribution depots, 85 staff and a £6.2m budget, applying for a head of operations role across more sites: the remit is stated in numbers first, one process change is told end to end, KPIs are named the way the field names them and supplier management is shown as a system. Each decision is explained, three weak bullets are rewritten from the evidence behind them, and the editable download lets you replace every detail with your own. Nothing here describes a real person.

Illustrative example. An illustrative, invented operations manager with nine years in food distribution, currently accountable for two depots at a fictional distributor and applying for a head of operations post at a fictional multi-site packaging company. Every employer, date and figure is fictional.

Editable version of this example (.docx)

The example document

Tomasz Adeyemi-Baird

Operations Manager · multi-site distribution · 85 staff, two depots, £6.2m operating budget

Birmingham, West Midlands (open to relocation) · 07700 900 789 · tomasz.adeyemi-baird@example.com

Profile

Operations manager with nine years in chilled and ambient food distribution, currently accountable for two depots, 85 staff across warehouse, transport and planning, and a £6.2m operating budget. Led the move from paper picking to handheld scanning at both sites and cut late inbound deliveries through a scored supplier review. Seeking a head of operations role across three or more sites.

Experience

Operations Manager, Northern Depots — Fictional Foods Distribution

January 2022 – present · Two chilled distribution depots; 85 staff through three shift managers and two team leaders; around 1,400 outbound deliveries a week.

  • Lead 85 staff across two depots through three shift managers and two team leaders, with weekly one-to-ones for each direct report and a monthly site review against the operations scorecard.
  • Replaced paper pick lists with handheld scanning across both sites over eight months with no lost service days; pick accuracy moved from 97.1% to 99.4% within six months.
  • Own a £6.2m operating budget covering agency labour, transport and site costs, closing the last two financial years within 2% of budget.
  • Introduced a quarterly scored review of the 14 main transport and packaging suppliers; late inbound deliveries fell from around 30 to around 12 a week within a year.
  • Report weekly KPIs (on-time in-full, pick accuracy, agency hours, incidents) to the regional director and chair the depots' monthly health and safety committee.

Shift Manager, then Depot Manager — Fictional Foods Distribution

June 2017 – January 2022 · Single ambient depot; 40 staff on a three-shift pattern.

  • Managed a 40-person depot on a three-shift pattern, recruiting and inducting around 20 warehouse operatives a year through two agency partners.
  • Cut agency labour from about 30% of hours to about 18% by introducing an annualised-hours rota agreed with staff representatives.
  • Held the site at zero lost-time incidents for three consecutive years through weekly safety walks and same-day near-miss follow-up.

Education

  • BA (Hons) Business and Logistics Management — Fictional Northern University, 2016
  • Managing safely certificate (one-week course), renewed 2024

Skills

Multi-site operations leadership through a management layer · Operating budget ownership and variance reporting · KPI design and review: OTIF, pick accuracy, agency hours, cost per case · Supplier performance reviews and contract management · Warehouse management system implementation (handheld scanning) · Health and safety leadership and incident investigation · Continuous improvement (daily stand-ups, lean tools)

Bullet rewrites, and the evidence behind them

Each rewrite was produced by asking an evidence question and using only the (fictional) answer. No number appears in a rewrite that is not in its evidence.

  1. Before

    Managed a large team across multiple sites.

    Evidence question

    How many people, how many sites, and through what structure?

    Evidence (fictional)

    85 staff across two depots; three shift managers and two team leaders report directly; weekly one-to-ones and a monthly site review against the scorecard.

    After

    Lead 85 staff across two depots through three shift managers and two team leaders, with weekly one-to-ones and a monthly site review against the operations scorecard.

  2. Before

    Implemented a new warehouse system.

    Evidence question

    What replaced what, over how long, and what moved on the scorecard?

    Evidence (fictional)

    Paper pick lists replaced with handheld scanning at both sites over eight months; no service days lost; pick accuracy 97.1% before and 99.4% six months after.

    After

    Replaced paper pick lists with handheld scanning across both sites over eight months with no lost service days; pick accuracy moved from 97.1% to 99.4% within six months.

  3. Before

    Responsible for supplier management.

    Evidence question

    How many suppliers, scored on what, how often, and what changed?

    Evidence (fictional)

    14 main transport and packaging suppliers scored quarterly on on-time delivery and invoice accuracy; late inbound deliveries fell from around 30 to around 12 a week within a year.

    After

    Introduced a quarterly scored review of the 14 main transport and packaging suppliers; late inbound deliveries fell from around 30 to around 12 a week within a year.

Try it on your own bullets with the bullet workbench, which asks the same questions and never adds a figure you did not supply.

Transferable skills in this example

  • Leading through a management layer

    Evidence: 85 staff led through five direct reports with a fixed one-to-one and review rhythm.

    Where it helps: General management, head of operations and programme leadership roles in any sector.

  • Budget ownership and variance control

    Evidence: A £6.2m operating budget closed within 2% for two consecutive years.

    Where it helps: Service management, facilities and public-sector operational roles with devolved budgets.

  • Running change without stopping the service

    Evidence: An eight-month scanning rollout across two live depots with no lost service days.

    Where it helps: Implementation, transformation and service transition roles.

  • Supplier performance management

    Evidence: A quarterly scored review of 14 suppliers tied to a measured fall in late deliveries.

    Where it helps: Procurement, contract management and vendor management roles.

Occupation notes

Hard requirements

  • Adverts for operations managers set their own hard requirements rather than relying on a licence: multi-site experience, budget size, a named warehouse or ERP system, health and safety accountability and sometimes shift flexibility. State each one you meet in the advert's own words, with a number attached.
  • Health and safety accountability is a hard requirement in warehouse and manufacturing operations; show the structures you ran (committee, investigations, audits) and the record, and name any safety qualification with its renewal year rather than describing yourself as 'safety-focused'.

Vocabulary that belongs on the page

  • OTIF (on-time in-full), pick accuracy, cost per case
  • Shift pattern, annualised hours, agency ratio
  • WMS (warehouse management system), handheld scanning, ERP
  • Operations scorecard, daily stand-up, site review
  • Supplier scorecard, SLA, service credits
  • Capacity planning, peak planning, labour model
  • Lost-time incident, near miss, risk assessment

Pitfalls specific to this occupation

  • Claiming savings without the base: a saving means nothing without the budget it came from and the year; this resume gives the budget size and the variance instead.
  • Listing lean tools (5S, kaizen, value-stream mapping) as skills with no change they produced; an operations manager is judged on the change, not the vocabulary.
  • Describing the team as 'large' or 'multi-site' without numbers, which makes the reader guess the level and usually guess low.
  • Writing the current role as a job description (shifts, stock, transport) and saving the two or three changes you led for the interview.

UK and US differences

  • UK: UK adverts often ask for a recognised safety qualification and for experience of agreeing shift or contract changes with staff representatives; name both if they apply to you.
  • US: US resumes for this role favour the 'Operations Manager, Multi-Site' headline, dollar figures for budget and P&L, and 'flexible scheduling' in place of 'annualised hours'.

Common questions

How much budget detail should an operations manager resume give?

State the size of the budget you own, what it covers and how you performed against it, in the employer's currency. Leave out line-item detail and anything your employer treats as confidential; the variance figure is what a head of operations panel wants.

I run one site. How do I show I can run several?

Show what you have standardised, who you lead through and any cross-site project you joined. A single-site manager who runs the site through team leaders and a scorecard has the structure a multi-site role needs.

Keep going

Published 6 November 2026 · Every person, employer and figure in this example is fictional. Drafted with AI assistance and checked against Luceria’s editorial standards.