The Clay Partnership
Service Director - Machine Tools
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The Opportunity
We are looking for an accomplished Service Director to lead and develop our field service and maintenance operation within the CNC Machine Tool sector.
This is a senior leadership position requiring a strong combination of service operational leadership, technical engineering credibility, and blue-chip customer management. The successful candidate will have significant experience leading geographically dispersed field service and maintenance teams, driving service performance, and developing strong, long-term relationships with major customers.
You will take overall responsibility for the delivery and performance of the service function, ensuring customers receive a consistently high level of technical support while driving improvements in responsiveness, machine availability, service quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction.
While this is a leadership rather than a hands-on Service Engineer position, strong technical knowledge is essential. You must be sufficiently technically experienced to challenge and support engineers, Service Managers, and technical specialists, understand complex machine issues, and communicate credibly with customers when discussing technical problems, root causes, and solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the development and implementation of the organisation’s service strategy.
- Oversee day-to-day service delivery operations, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and high standards.
- Monitor performance using KPIs, quality frameworks, and customer feedback to drive improvement.
- Lead, motivate, and develop service managers and teams to achieve operational excellence.
- Manage complex customer issues and ensure effective complaint resolution.
- Build strong relationships with partners, suppliers, and stakeholders to enhance service outcomes.
- Identify opportunities for innovation, service redesign, and improved customer experience.
- Ensure compliance with regulatory, safeguarding, and quality standards.
- Develop and manage service budgets, ensuring cost-effective and sustainable delivery.
- Contribute to organisational planning, risk management, and strategic decision-making.
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The Ideal Candidate
- Proven senior leadership experience in Machine Tool Industry service delivery or operational management.
- Strong strategic thinking and ability to translate vision into operational plans.
- Demonstrated success in leading teams and managing change.
- Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Experience using data, insights, and evaluation to improve services.
- Strong financial and risk-management capability.
- Commitment to customer-centred, inclusive, and high-quality service provision.
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Preferred Background
The successful candidate must have a strong technical engineering foundation. This could have been developed through an apprenticeship, engineering qualification, or a career progressing from hands-on engineering into service management and senior leadership. We would be particularly interested in candidates who have progressed through roles such as Service Engineer, Senior Engineer, Service Manager, Regional Service Manager, Head of Service, or Service Director, and who have retained their technical knowledge as their leadership responsibilities have grown.
Why This Role?
- A senior leadership opportunity with a leading organisation in the Machine Tool sector.
- The opportunity to lead and develop an experienced team of service and engineering professionals.
- Significant interaction with major blue-chip customers and senior decision-makers.
- A technically challenging environment working with sophisticated CNC machine tools and manufacturing technology.
- The autonomy to drive improvements in service performance, customer experience, and operational effectiveness.
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