Ticketing Operations Manager

Ticketing Operations Manager Salary: £70,000 – £78,000 Location: Manchester - hybrid (2 days in the office) Contract: Permanent, Full Time

The Opportunity

We are looking for an experienced Ticketing Operations Manager with a strong background in live payments or ticketing environments, where system availability is business-critical and downtime directly impacts revenue.

This role is ideal for someone who has operated in high-volume, always-on payment systems (ticketing, retail payments, transport, ecommerce, or similar) and has led teams through major incidents, ensuring rapid resolution, minimal financial impact, and continuous service improvement.

Why This Role Is Critical

Ticketing and payment platforms are live, customer-facing systems. When something goes wrong, money stops flowing.

As Ticketing Operations Manager, you will:

• Protect revenue by ensuring maximum uptime across all payment and ticketing channels
• Lead major incident response for payment and ticketing failures
• Own operational performance across systems used by millions of customers
• Manage and develop a high-performing operations and incident management team

This is a senior operational leadership role with real accountability and influence.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day operational management of all customer-facing ticketing and payment systems, including:
• Mobile ticketing apps
• Smartcards
• EMV / contactless payments
• Ticket vending machines
• Take ownership of major incident management for live payment and ticketing systems:
• Lead incident response calls
• Coordinate internal teams, vendors, merchant acquirers, and third parties
• Drive rapid resolution to minimise revenue loss and customer impact
• Manage second-line technical support and on-call arrangements, ensuring incidents are handled efficiently and consistently.
• Monitor system availability, performance, transaction success rates, and customer experience, producing clear operational and financial impact reporting for senior stakeholders.
• Own change and release management for live systems, ensuring new deployments do not compromise service availability or revenue.
• Lead and develop an operations team, providing clear direction, coaching, and accountability.
• Manage suppliers and contracts, ensuring SLAs are met and commercial risks are controlled.
• Ensure compliance with payment standards, dispute handling, and operational controls.
• Lead business continuity and resilience planning to protect revenue and maintain service during incidents.

What We’re Looking For

Essential Experience

• Proven experience managing live, revenue-generating payment systems (ticketing, retail payments, transport, ecommerce, or similar).
• Strong background in incident management for high-availability systems, where outages have immediate financial impact.
• Demonstrated experience leading teams (operations, support, or incident management).
• Hands-on understanding of payment technologies such as:
• EMV / contactless
• Mobile payments
• Transaction processing systems
• Experience working with vendors, payment providers, and third-party suppliers.
• Comfortable operating under pressure and making decisions during critical incidents.

Desirable

• ITIL certification or strong experience in ITIL-aligned environments.
• Experience with enterprise monitoring, alerting, and incident management tools.
• Experience in regulated or compliance-driven payment environments.

What Sets This Role Apart

• A genuine opportunity to own and protect live revenue systems
• Senior visibility and influence across technology, operations, and customer experience
• Flexible working and a supportive, inclusive culture
• Strong pension and ongoing professional development
• A leadership team that values operational excellence and accountability

Apply Now

If you come from a live ticketing or retail payments background, thrive in high-pressure environments, and have a proven track record of leading teams through major incidents, we’d love to hear from you.

This role is about keeping the money flowing, the systems live, and the customers moving.

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates