Corporate Director - City Operations

Brighton & Hove City Council; Brighton; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in Brighton & Hove is seeking a Corporate Director for City Operations to enhance sustainability and quality of life for residents. You will lead strategic initiatives in urban service delivery, focusing on cultural change, digital innovation, and resource management. Ideal candidates will possess extensive senior leadership experience within place-based roles, guiding collaborative efforts and ensuring alignment with community values. This is a pivotal position to shape the city’s future and contribute positively to its diverse community.

Benefits

Relocation support available

Flexible working arrangements

Focus on employee wellbeing

Qualifications

• Considerable senior leadership experience in a place-based role.
• Ability to set vision and culture within an organization.
• Experience in managing resources and aligning income with priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of sustainable city operations.
• Drive cultural change and modernize recycling services.
• Ensure alignment of organizational values and behaviours.

Skills

Senior leadership experience

Strategic thinking

Cultural change leadership

Digital innovation

Collaboration skills

Job description

Want to help shape a better Brighton & Hove for all?

Brighton & Hove is a bold, diverse and iconic coastal city. It’s a place our residents, workforce, businesses and visitors care deeply about. With rich cultural assets and a vibrant community spirit, we also face complex social challenges and stark inequalities that demand courageous leadership and fresh thinking. Our leadership team is united in tackling challenges head‑on, backed by an ambitious transformation programme and a commitment to digital innovation even through a tough financial landscape.

We’re looking for a strategic, forward‑thinking leader to join our corporate leadership team and report directly to the chief executive.

As a learning organisation, we continuously strive to be:

• connected
• confident
• innovative and creative
• diverse and inclusive
• healthy and psychologically safe

As our Corporate Director for City Operations, you will lead on the delivery of an accessible, clean, and sustainable environment that enhances the quality of life and sense of wellbeing for our residents. Culture change and modernisation of our refuse and recycling services will be a focus, alongside the continual delivery of the right infrastructure in the right place to further unlock our city’s potential for growth. You will lead the organisation on driving forward digital innovation, embracing new technology at the heart of all we do. If you are ready to play a pivotal role in shaping our city and organisation, then we would be delighted to hear from you.

• Closing date - 5pm on the 18th January 2026
• Technical interviews - week commencing 26th January 2026
• Final interviews - week commencing 2nd February 2026

Please note that dates are being finalised and may change. Prospective candidates will be kept updated through the recruitment process.

If you are applying for a role under an employer‑specific commitment (for example Disability Confident, Armed Forces Covenant), please clearly state this in your covering letter.

About the role

As part of the Corporate Leadership Team, you will work with elected members, senior officers, and partners to bring our shared vision for the city to life through the priorities in our Council Plan.

You will be instrumental in:

• setting the vision, tone and culture of the organisation
• advising at the most senior level
• ensuring resources, income and new revenue streams are aligned to priorities
• ensuring we demonstrate our values and behaviours in all we do

We expect that you will already have considerable senior leadership experience within a place‑based role.

Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to upload your Application Form and answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as it will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our guidance here (Application Form guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) and (Shortlisting guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

This role is politically restricted. For further information on what this means for employees in post, please click on the document attachment below.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term‑time only.

Relocation support may be available if qualifying criteria are met.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us

Company information

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it’s what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.