Position Overview: 

Lead Think Hire's depot operations and build a safe, consistent, high-performing national depot network. The role owns depot standards, people leadership, asset readiness, workshop and yard performance, inventory discipline, local service delivery and continuous improvement, ensuring every depot can support reliable customer delivery and profitable growth. 

Key Responsibilities: 

Depot leadership and operating model 

• Lead day-to-day operational performance across all depots, translating company priorities into clear local plans, standards and accountabilities. 

• Establish and maintain a consistent depot operating model covering workshop, yard, stores, asset movements, housekeeping, security and customer readiness. 

• Clarify depot purpose, capability and capacity, ensuring work is routed to the right location and resources are aligned to demand. 

• Build a visible operating rhythm with daily controls, weekly performance reviews and structured escalation of constraints and risks. 

Safety, compliance and quality 

• Own safe systems of work within depot operations and promote a culture in which hazards, near misses and defects are reported and acted upon. 

• Ensure depot activities comply with relevant health, safety, environmental, quality and equipment-hire requirements. 

• Maintain standards for inspections, risk assessments, permits, contractor control, lifting operations, fire safety, waste management and yard traffic management. 

• Ensure audit findings and corrective actions are closed promptly and learning is shared across the network. 

Asset readiness and service delivery 

• Ensure equipment is prepared, tested, presented and released to the required standard and in line with customer commitments. 

• Improve equipment turnaround, PDI discipline, defect control and handover quality, reducing avoidable failure demand and repeat work. 

• Coordinate with Technical Operations, Engineering, Transport and After Sales Support to manage priorities, breakdown recovery and asset availability. 

• Embed clear controls for quarantined assets, parts awaiting repair, work in progress and assets ready for hire. 

People and capability 

• Lead, coach and develop depot leaders, creating clear objectives, ownership and consistent management standards. 

• Build workforce and succession plans that match capability to current demand and future product requirements, including specialist and high-voltage equipment where applicable. 

• Ensure inductions, competency records, authorisations and training plans are current and role appropriate. 

• Create a performance culture based on visible leadership, constructive challenge, recognition and timely action. 

Commercial and financial control 

• Own depot budgets and cost control, including labour, overtime, contractors, consumables, facilities and local purchasing. 

• Identify productivity and cost-saving opportunities without compromising safety, quality or customer outcomes. 

• Improve utilisation of people, bays, tooling, vehicles and facilities through capacity planning and disciplined scheduling. 

• Work with Finance and Procurement to strengthen purchase controls, stock accuracy and supplier performance. 

Continuous improvement and growth 

• Use operational data and frontline insight to identify recurring constraints, failure modes and opportunities for standardisation. 

• Lead practical improvement activity across layout, flow, visual management, workshop processes, stores and asset handling. 

• Support depot network development, capability investment and the mobilisation of new locations or operating models. 

• Ensure new products and services are operationally ready, with appropriate facilities, tooling, competence, spares and support arrangements. 

Measures of success 

Outcome	Indicative measures
Safety & compliance	Audit performance; corrective-action closure; incident and near-miss learning; depot housekeeping and traffic-management standards
Asset readiness	Equipment ready on time and right first time; PDI and test compliance; turnaround time; work-in-progress ageing
Service	Depot contribution to on-time delivery; breakdown recovery support; internal customer responsiveness; repeat-defect reduction
Cost & productivity	Performance against budget; overtime and contractor control; workshop productivity; facility and resource utilisation
Stock & controls	Stock accuracy; parts availability; purchasing discipline; reduction in obsolete, unidentified or uncontrolled inventory
People	Competency and training compliance; leadership capability; succession coverage; retention and engagement indicators
Improvement	Delivery of agreed improvement plans; standard adoption across depots; measurable benefit from network and process changes

 

Skills and Experience: 

• Proven leadership experience in depot, branch, fleet, workshop or multi-site operations, ideally within equipment hire, power generation, construction, engineering services or a comparable asset-intensive environment. 

• Demonstrable experience of improving operational performance, standardising processes and leading change across multiple locations. 

• Strong understanding of workshop, yard, stores, fleet-readiness and equipment-maintenance controls. 

• Practical knowledge of health, safety, environmental and quality management in an operational setting. 

• Experience of budget ownership, workforce planning, supplier management and performance reporting. 

• Comfortable using operational data to identify priorities, challenge performance and track improvement. 

Leadership and Capabilities 

• Visible, credible and hands-on leadership, balanced with the ability to set direction and build scalable systems. 

• Clear communication and the confidence to hold leaders and teams to account. 

• Strong judgement under pressure, with disciplined escalation and decision-making. 

• Collaborative approach across operational, technical, commercial and support functions. 

• Customer-focused and commercially aware, with a practical understanding of the trade-offs between service, cost, safety and asset availability. 

• Continuous-improvement mindset with the resilience to sustain standards after implementation. 

Qualifications and Requirements 

• Relevant operational, engineering, logistics or management qualification, or equivalent experience. 

• Recognised health and safety qualification is desirable. 

• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel regularly across ThinkHire locations. 

• Ability to work from Oldham and attend other depots, customer sites and supplier locations as required.

Ability to commute/relocate: 

Oldham: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required) 

To apply, please submit your CV to careers@thinkhire.co.uk 

 

About us

Think Hire, the UK’s premier off-grid Energy as a Service provider, committed to innovation and delivering sustainable power. Pioneers of the Solartainer Versatile range, the world's first adaptable solar hybrid generators, Think Hire is at the forefront of driving positive change in the energy sector, with a focus on reducing carbon emissions and enhancing operational efficiency through an Energy-as-a-service proposition. 

Think Hire ranked in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 Sunday Times 100, recognising us as one of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies.

​Join us at Think Hire, where sustainability meets innovation.