As Scotland’s leading ethical, family-owned caterer, we take immense pride in our commitment to ‘Intrinsically Independent’ principles. Our culinary teams at Thomas Franks Scotland immerse themselves in the bounty of Scottish produce, crafting menus that not only satisfy the palate but also celebrate the distinctive flavours of this magnificent land.
We are seeking an experienced Operations Manager with a passion for delivering exceptional food services and operational excellence within the Oil & Gas catering sector. This role will involve mobilising and growing the sector for Thomas Franks Energy, Scotland, supporting clients operating in challenging and remote environments, including offshore installations, onshore facilities, and energy sector operations.
The successful candidate will have a proven track record of managing multi-site catering operations within the oil & gas, offshore, energy, or remote site services industry. They will be passionate about delivering outstanding food quality, maintaining the highest standards of health, safety, and compliance, and building strong relationships with clients, operational teams, and support functions.
As Operations Manager, you will be fully accountable for the operational and financial performance of your portfolio, ensuring service excellence, contractual compliance, and commercial success. You will lead and develop high-performing teams, drive continuous improvement initiatives, and work closely with the Regional Director to support business growth and client retention.
This is an excellent opportunity for a commercially focused leader who thrives in fast-paced operational environments and understands the unique challenges of delivering catering services within the oil & gas sector.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide operational leadership across multiple oil & gas catering contracts, ensuring consistent delivery of exceptional food and support services.
- Take full responsibility for the profit and loss performance of your portfolio, delivering financial targets while maintaining exceptional service standards.
- Develop and maintain strong client relationships, acting as the primary operational contact and ensuring contractual obligations and service level agreements are consistently achieved.
- Lead, motivate, coach, and develop site management teams to build a culture of high performance, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Ensure full compliance with food safety legislation, HACCP principles, Health & Safety regulations, environmental standards, and client-specific operational requirements.
- Support business development activities, including contract mobilisation, retention, and growth opportunities.
- Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), implementing corrective actions and continuous improvement initiatives where required.
- Manage labour costs, food costs, procurement, and operational efficiencies to maximise profitability.
- Work collaboratively with support functions including HR, Finance, Procurement, HSE, and Quality Assurance.
- Promote a strong safety culture, ensuring compliance with company policies and the high HSE standards expected within the oil & gas industry.
Candidate Requirements
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
- Significant operational management experience within contract catering for the oil & gas, offshore, energy, mining, defence, or remote site services sectors.
- Proven experience managing multi-site catering operations in remote or challenging environments.
- A strong understanding of the operational requirements associated with offshore installations, remote camps, industrial facilities, or energy sector contracts.
- Extensive experience managing client relationships within high-profile, safety-critical environments.
- Excellent commercial acumen with proven responsibility for P&L management, budgeting, forecasting, and cost control.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire, motivate, and develop operational teams.
- Comprehensive knowledge of food safety legislation, HACCP, Health & Safety, and industry compliance standards.
- Experience managing audits, compliance programmes, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to engage at all organisational levels.
- Strong organisational, analytical, and problem-solving abilities.
- Experience of mobilising new contracts and implementing operational improvements is highly desirable.
- Competence using Microsoft Office and operational management systems.
- A flexible approach with the ability to travel regularly between multiple sites across Scotland.
If you are an experienced Operations Manager with a background in oil & gas catering and a passion for delivering safe, high-quality services in demanding environments, we would welcome your application.
Benefits
- Wider wallet scheme (discounts at major retailers, restaurants, gyms etc).
- Free meals on duty
- Volunteers leave – up to one day per year.
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoptive leave.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Recommend a friend bonus.
- Unrivalled individual training and development.
- Well established apprenticeship programme.
- Team & company social events.
- Employee assistance programme.
- Workplace pension.
- Excellent career progression within a leading independent contract caterer.
About us
Thomas Franks is a founder led, fresh food catering business with a focus on excellence and service delivered with individuality, passion and style. We are unique in every approach and our clients, and our people are paramount to our daily success.
Disclaimer Scotland Schools
All applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have the Right to Work in the UK to be considered for this role.
An enhanced PVG, Identity & reference checks (covering the last five years) will form part of the selection process. As an organisation using the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Disclosure service to assess applicants' suitability for positions of trust, Thomas Franks Ltd complies fully with the PVG Code of Practice and undertakes to treat all applicants for positions fairly. We are committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and undertake not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure based on conviction or other information revealed. However, for any post in a school please be aware that any application is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such any criminal conviction, caution or bind-over must be declared.
Diversity and Inclusion at Thomas Franks
We actively encourage applications from candidates from diverse backgrounds and continue to develop a culture of growth and inclusion and would like to invite applications from groups who are currently under-represented, because we believe greater diversity leads to exceptional results and provides a better working life.
