Housing 21 • Surrey KT1 1AB
About this role
Hours
35 per week
Due to the mobile nature of this role, candidates must live within a reasonable commuting distance of South London and Surrey.
Want to make a positive difference to society whilst accelerating your career in Housing?
Looking to grow your career while making a meaningful social impact? Join us in delivering high-quality housing and services for older people.
We’re a leading not-for-profit provider of Retirement Living and Extra Care housing, committed to helping people live independently in safe, welcoming communities. With an ageing population and increasing demand, we are investing in our services and expanding, and we need passionate leaders to help drive this forward.
Retirement Living is a unique housing service with residents’ wellbeing at the heart. We have one overarching aim – to provide high quality housing that is welcoming, comfortable, modern, safe and secure and has the right amount of support to help people live independently. Covid-19 has magnified the strengths and benefits of Retirement Living, showing the positive effect of community living in supporting individuals and reducing isolation.
We want to be able to offer this service to more older people, and have ambitious plans for growth. We’re committed to significantly investing in Retirement Living to make sure we have the right structure to provide the best service for residents, as well as providing opportunities for internal and external candidates.
To help us achieve our ambitions we are recruiting for an Operations Manager who shares our passion for good quality homes for older people.
The Role
As an Operations Manager, you will lead a team of approximately 10–11 Local Housing Managers, ensuring our services are safe, compliant, and consistently deliver an excellent resident experience.
This is a highly visible and impactful role where you will
- Lead, support and develop front-line housing teams
- Drive high levels of resident satisfaction (currently 91%)
- Ensure schemes meet all legal and safety compliance standards
- Improve performance by minimising voids and supporting tenancy sustainment
- Foster a strong customer-focused culture across your region
- Contribute to organisational performance and continuous improvement
You’ll spend around 60% of your time on-site, building relationships with your teams and residents, with flexibility to work remotely when appropriate.
About You
You don’t need a formal housing qualification—we’re more interested in your leadership style, values, and ability to make things happen.
We’re looking for someone who is
- A confident and proactive leader with strong people management skills
- Passionate about delivering excellent customer service
- Comfortable challenging the status quo and driving improvements
- Able to build relationships with people at all levels
- Organised, transparent, and solutions-focused
Experience in housing, care, supported living, or property management environments is highly desirable.
The benefits
At Housing 21 we’re proud to be actively recognising the importance of our employees and rewarding them accordingly.
You will receive
- Pension scheme
- Holiday pay
- Holiday purchase scheme
- Occupational Sick Pay
- Occupational Maternity/Paternity Pay
- Health Cash Plan
- Blue Light Card (offering discounts across retail, hospitality and leisure)
- Income protection
- Eye care vouchers
- Car lease scheme
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Support to progress and develop
As part of our commitment to our employees and offering flexibility, Housing 21 now offer a nine-day fortnight, providing employees with the opportunity to work their hours across nine days. Further details on how this works, will be discussed with successful candidates upon on offer being made.
If you require more information before applying for this role, please see the attached job profile.
Closing date for applications 10 May 2026
Interviews are scheduled to take place on 19th May.
Due to the nature of this role this advert may close earlier than the closing date listed and once sufficient applications have been received. Please apply early to avoid disappointment.