London
Hybrid
Competitive Salary
Our client is an ambitious, entrepreneurial recruitment business with offices in London and Miami, entering a defining stage of growth. As the CEO sharpens his focus on revenue and commercial growth, the firm is appointing an Operations Director to take full ownership of how the business runs. Reporting to the CEO, you will hold overall responsibility and accountability for the firm's day-to-day operations, ensuring every function runs like clockwork. You will own the processes that underpin contracts, finance, sales and support functions, supporting the firms AI strategy, and free the leadership and finance teams to focus on what they do best. This is a hands-on, execution-focused leadership role for someone who thrives on building structure in a fast-moving, sales-led environment.
Key responsibilities
Operational Leadership:
• Hold overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the business and act as the CEO's operational right hand, deputising on operational matters where required.
• Provide clear, visible leadership across departments, setting the standard through an open, positive and accountable approach.
• Cascade leadership updates and company strategy to the wider business and lead and develop your direct report, with oversight of office management and budgeting across London and Miami
Process, Contracts and Governance.
• Map, build, document and continuously improve processes across contracts, finance, sales and support functions.
• Own the implementation and management of client and supplier contracts, ensuring operational compliance and agreed service levels.
• Ensure company policies, governance and compliance (including GDPR) are consistently applied across both offices.
• Hold teams accountable to agreed processes, identifying problems early and resolving them before they escalate.
Financial and Commercial Operations
• Partner with Finance on the annual budget process, forecasting and business planning and manage operational and office budgets, highlighting and acting on cost challenges.
• Use key financial drivers and metrics to review progress against budget and company objectives.
• Produce clear, meaningful management information that enables the leadership team to make informed decisions.
Business Optimisation, Technology and AI
• Support the firm's AI strategy, focused on practical adoption that improves productivity and efficiency.
• Drive the adoption and utilisation of new initiatives and technology across the business.
• Identify opportunities for efficiency across the firm and project manage their delivery, from workflow changes to resource allocation.
• Establish KPIs and reporting cadences that give the business visibility of operational performance.
• Lead change management, bringing teams with you as they embrace new ways of working.
Scaling the Business
• Build the operational infrastructure required to support significant headcount growth over the next four years.
• Support the operational workstream of the firm's next investment milestone, including due diligence readiness where required.
• Align structures, resources, systems and processes to both current and future business needs.
Person specification
Experience and knowledge required
• A senior Operations leader, ideally at Director or Head of level, within a recruitment, staffing or professional services business.
• Experience within a high-growth, sales-led environment, with a clear understanding of how operations enable commercial performance.
• Proven track record of building and embedding processes from the ground up, with demonstrable impact on efficiency and accountability.
• Experience of contract management, budget management and forecasting.
• Strong change management skills within a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Commercially and technologically savvy, with a practical, results-driven approach to AI and systems adoption.
• Experience developing and presenting operational plans and management information to senior stakeholders.
• Sharp, switched on and highly reliable, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Solution-led, proactive and execution-focused: you roll your sleeves up rather than delegate and step back.
• Charismatic and energetic, able to build credibility and bring people with you across every department.
• Career-driven and ambitious, with high expectations of yourself and those around you.
Level of qualifications
• Significant operational leadership experience in a growing business.
• Degree qualified in a relevant field, or able to demonstrate equivalent experience.
• Project management, operations or change management qualifications desirable but not essential.
