Grocery Delivery Operations Lead

Role Overview

We are delighted to be partnering with a leading Irish eCommerce and same-day delivery business to appoint an experienced Grocery Delivery Operations Lead.

This is a senior, hands-on operations role with responsibility for the day-to-day performance of a large-scale grocery delivery network. You will take ownership of contractor supply, live operations, service quality and delivery costs, while leading a team through periods of significant growth and peak trading.

Reporting to the Head of Delivery Operations, you will also act as their deputy and play a key role as the business expands into new locations and develops additional delivery capabilities.

The Role

You will take end-to-end ownership of grocery delivery operations, ensuring the business has the right level of contractor supply in the right locations, while maintaining a reliable customer experience and improving operational efficiency.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Forecasting contractor requirements across stores, zones and regions based on demand, growth, seasonality and upcoming launches.
• Managing the contractor acquisition and onboarding funnel, ensuring sufficient supply ahead of customer demand.
• Leading day-to-day delivery operations including order allocation, slot availability, exceptions and incident management.
• Leading and developing the operations team, creating clear accountability across shifts, locations and functions.
• Driving improvements across on-time delivery, order accuracy, substitutions and overall customer experience.
• Managing relationships with retail and store management teams to resolve operational and in-store challenges.
• Owning delivery cost per order and identifying opportunities to improve utilisation, batching and overall operational efficiency.
• Managing the operations budget and reporting against key operational and financial KPIs.
• Planning operational capacity for peak trading periods, particularly Christmas and other high-demand periods.
• Leading operational readiness for new store, geographic and service launches.
• Partnering closely with Product, Engineering and Data teams to improve dispatch, routing and forecasting capabilities.
• Identifying opportunities to introduce AI and automation to reduce manual processes and improve scalability.

About You

We are looking for an experienced operations leader who is comfortable operating in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.

Ideally, you will bring:

• 6+ years’ experience within operations, including at least 3 years leading a team.
• Experience within last-mile delivery, on-demand services, gig marketplaces, logistics or multi-site retail operations.
• Direct experience managing supply and demand across a contractor or flexible workforce model.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to build forecasts and interrogate operational data independently.
• Experience owning budgets and improving unit-cost or operational efficiency metrics.
• A strong track record of leading teams through peak trading periods and operational incidents.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills across commercial, operational and technical teams.
• A practical, hands-on leadership style and willingness to spend time close to frontline operations.

Experience within grocery, quick commerce or Irish retail/delivery operations would be particularly advantageous.