Service Director UKI

About Selecta

Selecta is the largest provider of unattended self-serve coffee and convenience food in Europe, leading the way in vending solutions and specialist coffee services.

Selecta operates across 16 countries within Europe, serving 12 million people every day. Within the UK, we deliver a national service trusted by circa 3,500 businesses to provide digital-first vending solutions across workplaces, schools, universities, hospitals, transport hubs, and other high-traffic environments.

As a 24/7 food and drinks distribution and technology-led powerhouse, Selecta provides millions of moments of joy to end consumers across Europe. Our solutions include digital vending machines, coffee machines, smart fridges, snack markets, and other unattended retail formats.

The UK business is undergoing continued transformation into a data-led, service excellence-driven unattended retail platform, powered by technology, operational discipline, and customer-centric execution.

Role Overview

We are hiring a Service Director to play a pivotal role in driving the development and success of Selecta’s UK&I Service and Operations strategy.

Reporting directly to the Managing Director UK&I, this role is responsible for leading and optimising all service operations, ensuring high machine uptime, efficient field service leadership, strong customer retention, and operational profitability.

It also includes leadership of a large, geographically dispersed field workforce, ensuring performance, capability, and engagement are aligned to operational and commercial outcomes.

This role oversees operations covering field operations, technical operations, fleet, training and development, planning coupled with operational budget ownership.

It also plays a critical role in:

• Technology adoption (telemetry, cashless, automation)
• Continuous improvement and process optimisation
• Strategic operational transformation
• Training, Development and leading team engagement
• Supporting finance with budget preparation, budget execution

Role Purpose

The Service Director is accountable for leading the end-to-end performance of UK field service and operational execution, ensuring:

• Maximum machine uptime and availability
• High-quality, efficient field service delivery
• Strong SLA compliance and customer satisfaction
• Cost-efficient, data-driven operational execution
• Continuous improvement in productivity and service quality
• Strong alignment between operational delivery and commercial outcomes
• Ownership of the operational budgets covering Fleet, FTE, Inventory controls, setting and leading required KPI’s
• Key stakeholder with Clients, UK Exec, Selecta Group, Selecta C Suite and other country SD’s

This role is central to transforming Selecta UK into a high-performance, technology-enabled unattended retail operation, delivering scalable service excellence and improved profitability.

Your Key Duties & Responsibilities:

1. Operational Leadership & Service Strategy Execution

• Lead all UK field operations across vending, coffee, smart retail, and unattended solutions
• Deliver operational KPIs including uptime, SLA compliance, response times, and service quality
• Drive execution discipline through structured daily, weekly, and monthly operational cadence
• Build a high-performance, accountable, KPI-driven operational culture
• Ensure alignment between field execution and commercial priorities
• Translate service strategy into consistent operational delivery across all regions
• Comply with all legislation covering H&S, O Licence and People

2. Service Excellence & Technical Performance

• Own machine uptime, first-time fix rate, engineer productivity, and service responsiveness
• Improve preventative maintenance strategies and reduce reactive service demand
• Standardise technical processes across equipment types and vending platforms
• Drive engineering capability, performance standards, and technical excellence
• Ensure readiness for smart vending, coffee systems, and unattended retail innovation
• Collaborate with Procurement & Supply Chain Director on parts & F&B availability, supplier performance, and cost optimisation

3. Field Operations, Routing & Logistics Efficiency

• Optimise all  routing, dispatch, and field service scheduling
• O Licence compliance – Ensure legal compliance inline with the company’s operator’s licence 
• Improve FTE  utilisation, labour productivity, and service density
• Reduce cost per service call, travel time, and operational inefficiencies
• Drive telemetry-led servicing and predictive maintenance models
• Transition operations toward automated, data-driven planning and execution
• Improve depot-level execution consistency and operational flow

4. Cost Control & Commercial Performance

• Deliver operational contribution to gross margin and EBITDA improvement
• Reduce cost-to-serve through productivity, efficiency, and waste reduction
• Improve refill compliance and execution standards at point of sale
• Support financial performance through disciplined operational execution
• Partner with Finance, Commercial, HR and the Procurement & Supply Chain Director to deliver cost efficiency and margin improvement
• Eliminate operational waste, inefficiency, and avoidable service costs

5. Customer Experience, SLAs & Retention

• Ensure delivery against all customer SLAs and contractual obligations
• Drive high levels of customer satisfaction and retention across key accounts
• Own operational escalation management and service recovery plans
• Ensure fast resolution of service issues across all regions
• Support onboarding and mobilisation of new contracts with Commercial teams
• Maintain strong relationships with strategic customers through service excellence

6. Health, Safety & Compliance (in partnership with H&S function)

• Ensure full compliance with HSE, food safety, and regulatory standards
• Work closely with the dedicated Health & Safety team to embed safe working practices
• Support operational risk management and incident reduction programmes
• Maintain audit readiness across depots, vehicles, and field operations
• Promote a strong safety-first culture across all operational teams
• Ensure safety is embedded into operational planning and daily execution

7. Transformation, Technology & Continuous Improvement

• Lead operational transformation across digital tools, telemetry, and automation
• Improve real-time visibility of performance through dashboards and KPI reporting
• Drive adoption of smart vending, cashless payment systems, and remote diagnostics
• Simplify operational processes to improve scalability and reduce complexity
• Embed continuous improvement across field, depot, and operational teams
• Enable transition toward predictive, data-led service models

Key Performance Indicators

Performance in this role is measured against a balanced scorecard of service, productivity, commercial, execution and safety KPIs:

 Service & Availability - Machine uptime %, SLA compliance %, First-time fix rate, On-time service delivery %

Productivity - Route productivity, Engineer utilisation %, Labour productivity

Commercial - Gross margin improvement, Operational EBITDA delivery, Customer retention %

Execution - Refill compliance, Planogram execution, Waste & stock loss reduction

Safety & Compliance - Health & Safety incident reduction, Audit pass rates, Regulatory compliance