Customer Contact Manager

Job summary

Can you lead a high-performing contact centre team, using service standards, KPIs and performance insights to drive continuous improvement?

Have you successfully delivered business process improvements that improved customer or operational outcomes?

Are you experienced in leading change programmes within customer-facing environments, ensuring smooth implementation and colleague engagement?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Join a dynamic, customer-focused team at the heart of service delivery, supporting thousands of customers each year. Working in a fast-paced operational environment, you will collaborate with colleagues across the organisation to deliver excellent outcomes, shape future ways of working and contribute to strategic priorities. This is an exciting opportunity to make a meaningful impact, leading people through transformation while helping to drive a culture of innovation, continuous learning and customer excellence

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at MCA.

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to shape and lead customer service delivery within the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. As Customer Contact Manager, you will drive a customer-focused strategy, lead high-performing teams, and influence service excellence across a vital operational area. Working closely with senior leaders and business partners, you will play a key role in improving performance, enhancing the customer experience, and delivering efficient, high-quality services that support the UK's maritime sector.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Direct line management of 5 Customer Mangers (EO grade) and responsibility for supporting the day to day team performance to achieve the agreed service standards and KPIs.
• Report directly to the Head of Customer Operations highlighting risks, opportunities and department performance.
• Maintain effective working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders relevant to the team’s work.
• Line manages the Customer Service Managers ensuring personal and professional development opportunities are explored, setting and reviewing objectives
• Measure Seafarer Operations Customer Service through monitoring Customer Satisfaction returns, deliver continuous improvement strategies and set action plans for improving the customer experience ensuring your teams are delivering a first-class service.
• Prioritise and drive staff engagement, creating a motivated work environment - celebrate success and act on feedback from MCA Staff Survey Results and departmental pulse surveys
• Manage Recruitment and Resourcing for Seafarer Operations to ensure resource is at the optimum level in line with achieving operational KPI’s and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills set out in the Civil Service Line Management Standards

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Knowledge and experience of managing a Contact Centre, and team managers and monitoring performance against service standards and KPIs.
• Knowledge of principles for implementing business process improvements, for example Lean Six Sigma
• Proven track record of successfully managing or delivering a change programme in a customer-facing business.
• A proven track record in stakeholder engagement, including interpersonal skills which promote effective interaction with internal and external stakeholders.

Additional Information

Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest and most diverse professional community across the Civil Service. Many of us will have an association with several professional communities or specialisms, ODP applies to all public facing roles / or a role that is primarily aligned to supporting the work of those with public facing roles. All critical to the delivery of UK public services .

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 35 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Occasional travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa . Therefore, this role is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship – candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,663, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes

£10,331 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies (opens in a new window).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Assessment & Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (1000-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following: • Knowledge and experience of managing a Contact Centre, and team managers and monitoring performance against service standards and KPIs.
• Knowledge of principles for implementing business process improvements, for example Lean Six Sigma
• Proven track record of successfully managing or delivering a change programme in a customer-facing business.
• A proven track record in stakeholder engagement, including interpersonal skills which promote effective interaction with internal and external stakeholders.

The sift will take place week commencing 14/09/2026

Stage 2: Assessment & Interview

For the assessment portion, you will be invited to complete a role play scenario. You will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Managing a Quality Service and Communicating and Influencing.

For the interview portion, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Changing and Improving, Leadership, Communicating and Influencing and Managing a Quality Service
• Strengths

The interviews will take place week commencing 21/09/2026

The assessment and interview will be conducted online via Mircosoft Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12 -month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your appli