Business Operations

Business operations roles are about keeping the machinery of a company running and improving how it works - the processes, systems, data and reporting that sit behind whatever the business sells. A graduate in business operations ("biz ops") typically supports internal teams such as sales, finance, customer support or product by pulling together data, fixing broken processes, writing documentation and running the day-to-day admin of systems the company relies on. The "customer" is usually other employees and senior managers rather than the public, though in some firms operations sits closer to clients or to physical delivery of a service.

Starting salary: £24k–£32k
Live graduate jobs: 21 open now
Main way in: Direct application to a graduate business operations or…
They usually ask for: A degree in any subject is usually acceptable

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £24,000–£32,000 to start, and this varies widely - London and tech or financial services roles tend to sit at the upper end or above it, while smaller firms and roles outside the South East often start lower.

What you'd actually do

Pulling data out of internal systems - a CRM (customer relationship management system, where sales and client records are kept), a finance system, a ticketing tool - and turning it into a weekly or monthly report for managers.
Building and maintaining spreadsheets or dashboards that track things like revenue, order volumes, headcount, service-level performance or cost.
Sitting in on meetings where a team complains that something takes too long, then mapping how the process currently works and proposing a simpler version.
Chasing people: following up approvals, missing information, overdue invoices, unsigned contracts or data that hasn't been entered properly.

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Writing or updating process documentation and 'how to' guides so that a task doesn't depend on one person's memory.
Doing admin on business systems - adding users, fixing incorrect records, running data clean-ups, testing a new tool before rollout.
Supporting a project: taking notes, tracking actions, updating a plan, and pushing the people who owe deliverables.

How graduates get in

Direct application to a graduate business operations or 'operations analyst' role - common in tech companies, scale-ups, financial services and consultancies. Many of these are advertised ad hoc rather than as formal schemes.
A structured graduate scheme with rotations, often branded 'business management', 'commercial', 'operations' or 'general management'. Common in banking, insurance, retail, logistics, utilities and the public sector; usually opens in autumn with online tests and an assessment centre.
Internally, from an entry-level role such as customer support, sales support, admin or a contact centre. This is a very common and underrated route - people who understand how the work actually gets done are well placed to improve it.
Via a placement year or summer internship in operations, which frequently converts into a graduate offer.

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Temping or fixed-term contract work through an agency, particularly in operations-heavy sectors, then converting to permanent. Less glamorous but genuinely common.
Sideways from a related graduate role - finance, project support, data analysis - once you have a year or two of experience. Unusual as a first job move but very normal after that.

What employers ask for

A degree in any subject is usually acceptable. Business, economics, management, maths and engineering are common, but employers care more about whether you can handle numbers and structure a problem than about your subject.
Most graduate schemes ask for a 2:1, some accept a 2:2, and smaller companies hiring directly often don't filter on class at all. Some larger employers still ask for a minimum of around grade C/4 GCSE maths and English.
Comfort with Excel or Google Sheets is almost always expected - lookups, pivot tables, cleaning messy data. Some employers test this at interview.
Evidence you've organised something real: a society's finances, a part-time job rota, a placement project. This matters more than it does in many other graduate roles because the job is fundamentally about making things run.

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Professional qualifications are not usually required to get in, but people often pick one up later - project management (PRINCE2, APM, Agile/Scrum), process improvement (Lean Six Sigma belts) or an accounting qualification if the role leans financial.
A few roles ask for SQL or a BI tool such as Power BI or Tableau. This varies a lot: some 'business operations' jobs are essentially analytics roles, others involve no coding at all.

Skills that matter

Spreadsheet and data handling

Most of the week's output is some form of data pulled from a system, cleaned up and turned into something a manager can act on.

Process mapping - breaking a workflow into its actual steps

You can't fix a slow or error-prone process until you can describe precisely who does what, in what order, and where it stalls.

Clear written communication, especially short summaries

You'll constantly be condensing a messy situation into a few lines a busy director can read and decide on.

Influencing people who don't report to you

Operations work depends on persuading other teams to change how they do things or hand over information, with no authority to make them.

Attention to detail under repetition

A mis-keyed figure in a recurring report or a bad data entry can propagate into decisions, invoices or customer problems.

Prioritising when everything is 'urgent'

Multiple teams will ask you for things in the same week and you need to judge which genuinely cannot wait.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

Graduate or junior operations analyst: learning the systems, owning recurring reports and small process fixes. Typically the first year or two, though rotational schemes vary.
Operations analyst / executive / coordinator: owning a process or a system end to end, running your own small improvement projects, becoming the person other teams come to for a particular area.
Operations manager, business operations manager or senior analyst: responsible for a team or a function, budget input, and larger change projects. Timelines here vary enormously - a few years in a fast-growing company, considerably longer in a large, layered organisation.
Specialisation or a sideways move. Business operations is a good springboard into project and programme management, data analysis, finance business partnering, supply chain, product operations, revenue operations or internal consulting. Many people's careers branch here rather than going straight up.
Head of operations, operations director or chief operating officer in smaller firms. This is a genuine route but a long one, and it usually requires deep sector knowledge as well as operational skill.

What people get wrong

“'Business operations' is a vague title that means low-level admin.”

There is admin in it, especially early on - but in many companies biz ops is where decisions about how the business actually runs get made, and it gives you an unusually broad view across sales, finance and delivery that most specialist graduate roles never provide.

“It's the same job wherever you go.”

The title covers wildly different work. In a tech scale-up it can be close to data analysis and strategy; in logistics or manufacturing it can mean physical operations and shift patterns; in financial services it often means trade processing, settlements and regulatory controls. Read the advert's detail, not the title.

“You need a business or management degree.”

Subject rarely matters. Employers are looking for someone numerate, organised and willing to dig into how things work - humanities and science graduates are common in these roles.

“Improving processes is mainly a technical exercise.”

Most of the difficulty is human. The analysis of what's wrong often takes days; convincing the team that has done it that way for five years to change takes months, and that negotiation is the real skill.

Where this varies

The biggest split is between 'operations' meaning internal business improvement and 'operations' meaning the physical or transactional running of a service. In tech and professional services, business operations is usually an office-based analytical role working with data and internal teams. In banking and insurance, operations often means processing and controls - settlements, claims, client onboarding - with tight deadlines and heavy regulatory oversight. In retail, logistics, manufacturing and hospitality it can mean site-based work, shift patterns and managing frontline staff. Company size matters too: in a small firm you'll touch everything and get responsibility quickly but with little training structure, while a large employer gives you formal training and rotations but a much narrower slice of the work.

See all 21 live Business Operations jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.