Service Manager - Resident and Engagement

About the role

We are looking for a senior, values‑driven leader to take on the role of Resident and Engagement Service Manager within our Homes and Neighbourhoods directorate.

This is a key leadership role, responsible for championing tenant voice and embedding it at the heart of how housing services are shaped, delivered and improved. You will ensure that tenants are not only listened to, but that their views, experiences and concerns meaningfully influence decision‑making, service design and priorities across the housing service.

The role brings together tenant engagement and complaints handling as a single, integrated approach to learning and improvement. You will ensure that insight from resident feedback, complaints and service contact is treated as essential intelligence, used systematically to drive transparency, accountability and trust, and to deliver tangible service improvements that residents can see and feel.

While housing knowledge is advantageous, we welcome candidates with transferable senior experience in community influence, customer experience, complaints, engagement or public‑facing services, who can demonstrate how voice and feedback have been used to influence outcomes and strengthen accountability.

What you’ll be responsible for

In this role, you will:

• Lead and promote a strong tenant voice, ensuring residents and communities have meaningful opportunities to influence service design, policy development and strategic decision‑making
• Lead and manage Customer Experience in Homes and Neighbourhoods, Complaints and Tenant Voice, ensuring high‑quality, resident‑focused and accessible delivery
• Ensure complaints are handled fairly, timely and transparently, in line with statutory and regulatory requirements, and that learning from complaints is analysed, shared and acted upon to drive systemic improvement
• Provide leadership across resident contact functions, embedding a “right first time” culture and ensuring residents receive responsive, respectful and consistent services
• Design and lead tenant engagement and involvement activity that goes beyond consultation, enabling meaningful influence and demonstrable impact
• Oversee the effective use of resident feedback, insight and satisfaction data, ensuring it informs service priorities, performance management, assurance and risk
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex or sensitive resident and community issues, applying sound judgement and proportionate decision‑making
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, statutory and governance requirements relating to tenant engagement, transparency, complaints and accountability
• Provide advice, insight and assurance to senior leaders and elected members on tenant issues, emerging risks and improvement opportunities
• Lead, develop and motivate multidisciplinary teams, embedding a culture of listening, learning, continuous improvement and accountability to residents
• Work with the Corporate Communications Team  to ensure messaging supports trust, openness and engagement
• Work collaboratively across council services and with partners to embed tenant voice and customer insight at the heart of service delivery 

What we’re looking for

You will bring strong leadership capability and the ability to operate confidently at both strategic and operational levels. We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate how engagement, feedback and complaints handling have led to tangible outcomes and service improvement. 

You will ideally have:

• Strong understanding of complaints handling, engagement and governance in a public‑facing environment
• Experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams
• Experience acting as a senior escalation point for complex or high‑risk issues
• Proven ability to design and lead engagement activity that influences decisions and delivers impact
• Excellent communication skills, including dealing with sensitive and high‑profile issues
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to use insight to drive improvement
• Knowledge of housing regulation, tenant satisfaction measures and communications best practice is advantageous but not essential. 

Qualifications

• Degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline such as housing, public administration or community development (desirable)
• CIH Level 4 qualification or willingness to work towards this (essential)

Kirklees Council is committed to putting residents at the heart of everything we do. We offer a supportive working environment, opportunities to make a real difference, and the chance to lead meaningful change for our communities.

If you’re passionate about putting residents’ voices at the heart of services and want to make a real difference to communities across Kirklees, we’d be delighted to hear from you and encourage you to apply today.