Scheduling & Real-Time Optimisation Manager

Our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Scheduling & Real-Time Optimisation Manager M&G Life in its current form was created in October 2024 with the merger of what was formerly the closed book operation and the M&G Wealth Business (open book). M&G Life now covers over 5 million customers with more than £300 Bn invested across all of its products and wrappers and has an ambitious growth plan for 2026 and beyond. M&G Life operations work with a number of partners including Equiniti, Diligenta, Waystone, Paragon, Willis Towers Watson, as well as M&G Global Services supporting our in-house operation. M&G Life also has international presence with teams in Ireland and Poland, using a mix of insourcing and outsourcing service operations to sell to domestic and international markets.

The role will lead and deliver a high‑performing Real‑Time and Short‑Medium Term Resource Planning function across Contact Centre, Complaints, Back Office, and associated support services. The role holder is accountable for ensuring resources are optimally scheduled, deployed, and adjusted in real time to meet forecast customer demand and protect service level performance.

This role sits at the critical intersection between Strategic Planning and Operations, translating forecasts into executable schedules and dynamically managing intraday performance. The role holder will provide confident operational leadership, using live data, planning insight, and professional judgement to make timely decisions that safeguard customer outcomes, cost control, and colleague experience. This is an operational planning role requiring strong leadership presence, analytical skill, and the ability to influence under pressure.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead the monitoring of live operational performance across all channels, proactively identifying service risks and implementing tactical interventions to maintain service level adherence.

• Own intraday resource deployment, making real‑time decisions on reallocation, skill movements, overtime, and priority shifts to respond to demand volatility.

• Support operational incident management by identifying emerging risks, escalating issues early, and activating agreed playbooks and mitigation actions (e.g. IVR messaging, skilling changes, overtime deployment).

• Own the short‑term scheduling lifecycle across all services, ensuring schedules accurately reflect forecast demand, operational priorities, and agreed shrinkage targets.

• Ensure effective scheduling of all activities including breaks, lunches, training, annual leave, offline activity, and processing time.

• Proactively manage and control shrinkage through robust scheduling, tracking planned versus actual usage, and clearly articulating service impacts where thresholds are exceeded.

• Work closely with Strategic Planners to ensure alignment between forecast demand, workforce plans, and short‑term execution.

• Produce and maintain plan‑vs‑actual, SLA, and intraday performance reporting to support informed operational decision‑making.

• Where data gaps exist, define clear requirements for Data & MI teams to enable robust and sustainable reporting solutions.

• Use performance insight and lessons learned to improve scheduling accuracy, intraday responsiveness, and overall planning effectiveness.

• Act as the primary operational planning interface, building strong, collaborative, and appropriately challenging relationships with operational leaders.

• Enable fast, informed decisions through clear communication of risks, options, and impacts, particularly during periods of disruption or underperformance.

• Educate and influence stakeholders on the impact of planned activity (training, leave, system change, absence) on customer outcomes and service performance.

• Act as custodian of the Workforce Management system for scheduling and intraday activity, ensuring data accuracy, governance, and effective use.

• Collaborate with Quality and Planning teams to understand and maintain skilling requirements, acting as the single source of truth for skills matrices.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Significant experience in Real‑Time Management, Scheduling, or Short‑Term Resource Planning within a contact centre, complaints, or operational service environment.

• Strong understanding of the end‑to‑end planning cycle and how strategic forecasts translate into live operational delivery.

• Advanced analytical capability with the ability to interpret live data and act decisively under pressure.

• Proven experience using Workforce Management tools (e.g. Verint) and strong Excel capability.

• Confident communicator with the ability to influence operational decisions and challenge constructively at all levels.

• Highly organised and able to manage multiple service areas simultaneously in a dynamic, fast‑paced environment.

• An experienced, visible and credible leader with a strong customer‑focused mindset and passion for operational excellence.

What we offer:

At M&G, we’re committed to helping you thrive and supporting your wellbeing, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, while planning confidently for your future. Our UK benefits include:

• As a savings and Investments firm we are proud to offer a valuable pension scheme of 18%, with 13% made up of Employer Contributions and 5% Employee Contributions. We also offer Share Save and our Share Incentive Plan, together with access to financial wellbeing and support services - to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.

• Enjoy 38 days annual leave including bank holidays, with the opportunity to purchase up to 5 extra days and additional flexibility through our Time Off When You Need It policy – to balance your work and personal commitments.

• Our market leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - as supporting families is a core aspect of our inclusive culture.

• Health & Protection cover including Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

We have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or long term condition, we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.

M&G is also proud to be a Disability Confident Leader, and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or neuro-divergent conditions.

If you need assistance or an alternative means of applying for a role due to a disability or additional need, please let us know by contacting us at: careers@mandg.com