Southend on Sea City Council is a Unitary local authority, providing vital services to meet the needs of the local community. We employ around 1,800 staff who are working alongside our partners and local communities to deliver the city vision and make lives better for the people of Southend.
Working for Southend on Sea City Council offers a challenging and rewarding career in local government within a collaborative and innovate environment, with the benefit of flexible working practices to support a positive work life balance. As a Unitary Authority we are responsible for all local government functions ranging from social services, transport, public health and parks through to planning, trading standards, community safety and education, so we offer a wide range of career opportunities. The diversity of our economy and communities and investment in a number of exciting regeneration projects makes our Council a great place to work, learn and make a difference.
Why Join us? This is an exciting opportunity to lead a busy warehouse operation that directly supports vulnerable residents across Southend. You will be part of a dedicated team, helping to ensure essential equipment is delivered safely, efficiently and on time while driving continuous improvement across the service.
Southend-on-Sea City Council is looking for an experienced and driven Warehouse Lead to join our Equipment Service and play a key role in delivering a safe, efficient and high-performing operation. This contract is offered on a fulltime and permanent basis.
You will oversee the day-to-day running of the warehouse, ensuring all activities are well organised, compliant and aligned to service priorities. A central part of your role will be leading on health and safety, ensuring full compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act, COSHH and manual handling regulations, while maintaining a culture where safety is understood, embedded, and consistently applied.
As a people leader, you will support and develop your team through regular supervision, performance reviews and clear guidance, ensuring all staff including temporary workers are trained and confident in their responsibilities. You will also take ownership of high-risk storage and COSHH compliance, ensuring the safe handling, monitoring, and documentation of hazardous materials.
You will be responsible for maintaining warehouse equipment to a high standard, optimising stock utilisation, and overseeing the full equipment return process to ensure items are efficiently collected, refurbished, and returned to stock.
This is an office-based role offering the opportunity to lead operational improvements, drive compliance and make a meaningful impact on service delivery.
To be successful in this role, you will bring proven experience in supervising or managing staff within a warehouse, logistics, or supply chain environment, with the ability to allocate work effectively, monitor performance and support team development. Strong understanding of health and safety legislation, including compliance and reporting requirements, and confidence in maintaining safe working practices across a busy operational setting is highly critical for the role.
Experience in logistics distribution, warehouse operations, or supply chain fulfilment is essential, along with practical knowledge of facilities processes such as loading, unloading and stock movement. You will also be confident leading or organising forklift training and ensuring safe equipment use across the team.
This is a physically demanding role, requiring the ability to lift and move heavy items, as well as bend, stand and walk for extended periods. You must also hold a valid forklift truck licence (or equivalent) and be confident operating equipment safely. To be considered, you must hold GCSE English and Maths (Level 4 or above), alongside a relevant qualification in logistics, supply chain or health and safety.
Your application will not be considered if you do not have the following:
When joining the council, you can enjoy a range of benefits including: 25 days annual leave, flexible working and excellent training and development opportunities. They are committed to ensuring that you are supported in this varied and challenging role with the appropriate level of training. A full list of benefits provided by Southend Council can be viewed on the "Why Work For Us?" tab.
If you are interested in this role, please click 'apply online' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV.
If you would like a copy the Job Description, please click here
Please note: Applications for this vacancy may close prior to the date advertised above so you are advised to apply as soon as you are able to.
All applicants for this role will require an enhanced DBS check.
The Council is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications, regardless of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, age or religion or belief.
We are a mid-sized unitary authority in South East Essex with around 1,800 FTE roles, serving a population of 182,500 residents.
We were very proud to be awarded LGC Council of the Year 2012 and have received a number of other awards including Stonewall Top 100 Employer, RoSPA level 5 and Silver IiP.
We exist to create 'a better Southend': our aims are for our city to be 'Safe', 'Clean', 'Healthy', 'Prosperous' and led by an 'Excellent' organisation.
We are very proud of the differences we make and would welcome you considering joining one of our nationally recognised, award winning teams of talented and hard working individuals.
