Operations Manager Apprentice - Cloud 9 Fulfilment – Find an apprenticeship

Summary

You will be at the heart of Cloud 9’s day-to-day operations, ensuring efficiency, consistency & high performance across all departments. With a strong emphasis on Lean practices & quality management, you will lead the implementation of operational best practices, drive continuous improvement & foster a culture of excellence throughout the business.

Wage

Competitive

Competitive wage offered

Check minimum wage rates (opens in new tab)

Training course

Improvement specialist (level 5)

Hours

Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm. Depending on requirements this role may also include some shift work and may require working evenings and weekends.

40 hours a week

Start date

Sunday 1 June 2025

Duration

1 year 6 months

Positions available

1

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you’ll do at work

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

Lead daily operations across warehousing, fulfilment, customer service, and logistics functions.
Ensure service levels are consistently met, and operations run efficiently and cost-effectively.
Collaborate with department leads to align operational performance with business goals.

Quality Management (ISO 9001 Focus)

Develop, implement, and maintain a Quality Management System (QMS) in line with ISO 9001 standards.
Lead internal audits and manage external audits to ensure ongoing compliance.
Standardise processes and create robust SOPs across the business.

Lean & Continuous Improvement

Champion the use of Lean tools and methodologies (e.g., Kaizen, 5S, DMAIC, Value Stream Mapping) to identify and eliminate waste.
Lead cross-functional improvement projects that enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.
Promote a culture of data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement across teams.

Performance Monitoring & Reporting

Define and track operational KPIs and quality metrics to measure performance.
Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and implement corrective actions to resolve issues.
Provide regular updates and improvement recommendations to senior leadership.

Where you’ll work

Unit 3, Parkway Link
Kettlebridge Road
Sheffield
S9 3AJ

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

College or training organisation

QUALITRAIN LIMITED

Your training course

Improvement specialist (level 5)

Equal to higher national diploma (HND)

Course contents

Leading improvement teams: Holding team members/stakeholders to account for delivering agreed actions within an improvement project and building/maintaining appropriate stakeholder relationships inside and outside the organisation to deliver improvement project objectives
Strategic Deployment of Continuous Improvement: Contribute to deployment of improvement strategy, participating as an active member of the improvement community
Communication: Prepare and present concise proposals and plans. Capture and share progress through effective formats and channels. Use and handle questions effectively. Build rapport with others.
Capability Development: Train, facilitate and critique the application of tools used by improvement practitioners including tool-selection, links between tools, how they are used within a structured method, analsysis of results and presentation of recommendations
Project planning: Plan and manage finances, multi-stakeholder delivery and benefits realisation
Change planning: Design reinforcement, engagement and communication strategies
Principles and Methods for Improvement: Guide others on the selection of appropriate methods (eg. Practical Problem Solving, Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control, 8-Disciplines, Identify-Define-Optimise-Verify) to deliver improvements. Conduct gateway assessments to ensure suitability of projects to progress
Project selection & scope: Guides others on the selection and scoping of improvement projects and the intial response to product/process performance issues. Identify, scope and prioritise improvement opportunities that map to high-level organisation objectives and key value-streams
Process mapping & analysis: Guide others on the selection of appropriate process mapping and analysis tools. Critique improved state
Lean tools: Identify and analyse value-streams using appropriate methods and tools to optimise flow to customer. Develop a plan for Lean deployment within the organisation including effective and relevant performance metrics
Measurement: Guide others on the planning, analysis and interpretation of data collection & measurement studies including the design of tests to recreate failures & steps to diagnose/reduce short & long-term measurement variation
Statistics & measures: Confirm data and fit for a range distribution models. Establish predictions. Calculate confidence intervals
Data analysis-statistical methods: Model random behaviour and make inferences with levels of confidence. Calculate/recommend sample size. Test hypotheses for all data types. Assess input/output correlation. Generate, analyse and interpret simple and multiple predictive relationship models
Process capability & performance: Identify data stability/distribution issues and apply appropriate strategies to enable robust Capability Analysis. Analyse life data to establish rates and patterns
Root cause analysis: Make appropriate use of data to assess contribution of critical inputs/root cause(s) to product/process performance using appropriate graphical and statistical tools to draw and coomunicate conclusions
Experimentation & optimisation: Guide others on the planning, analysis and interpretation of experiments. Plan,conduct, analyse and optimise both full & fractional experiments
Data analysis – Statistical Process Control: Monitor and asses ongoing process variation and changes through chart-selection, control-limit setting, sample sizing/frequency and control-rules
Benchmarking: Guide others on benchmarking to support all stages of improvement projects including future-state design
Failure mode avoidance: Decompose complex systems in order to define main functions. Anaylse system interactions. Cascade knowledge through fault tree analysis. Create and assess design rules, standards & verification methods. Complete robustness studies to select appropriate control strategies and detection methods
Sustainability & control: Guide others on control and sustainability planning including methods and tools to maintain benefits, extraction of learning, replication, sharing and consolidation of new knowledge into organisational learning

Your training plan

The apprenticeship training will be delivered online and the apprentice will be allocated 1 day per week to work on their apprenticeship work.

Requirements

Essential qualifications

GCSE in:

English (grade C)
Maths (grade C)

Desirable qualifications

Other in:

Internal auditing (grade Pass)
Lean and Six Sigma - Level 4 (grade Pass)

Let the company know about other relevant qualifications and industry experience you have. They can adjust the apprenticeship to reflect what you already know.

Skills

Communication skills
IT skills
Attention to detail
Organisation skills
Customer care skills
Problem solving skills
Administrative skills
Analytical skills
Logical
Team working
Creative
Initiative

About this company

Cloud 9 Fulfilment is a provider of end-to-end fulfilment solutions, supporting e-commerce businesses with seamless order processing, warehousing, and distribution. With our mission, we aim to nurture and help eCommerce businesses grow through our daily focus on people and digital innovation. As a supportive partner, we prioritise human connections and believe that by combining a people-centric approach with technological advancements, we can effectively contribute to the growth and success of our clients. Our vision is to revolutionise eCommerce order fulfilment by empowering our partners and fuelling growth. We aspire to be a transformative force in the industry by focusing on innovation, client empowerment, and growth, redefining what excellent fulfilment should look like. As we continue to expand, we are seeking an experienced Operations Manager with a strong background in quality and continuous improvement to help drive operational excellence and align our business with ‘Lean Manufacturing Black Belt’ standards. This role is also central to promoting the 6 Pillars of Cloud9 Fulfilment – Professionalism, Productivity & Happiness, Accountability, Collaboration, Continuous Improvement, and Open Communication – which guide our everyday actions and long-term thinking. These cultural pillars shape how we lead, support our teams, and deliver for our clients.

https://www.cloud9fulfilment.co.uk/ (opens in new tab)

After this apprenticeship

Progression into the Senior Leadership team.

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