Vice President of Operations

Location: Cambridge, UK (remotely for at least 6 months due to Covid-19 situation)

Start date: ASAP

We are currently looking for a VP of Operations on behalf of a nonprofit technology company based in the UK to build great internal operations, develop a new global operations strategy, spearhead professional development initiatives, hammer out ambitious company objectives, or supporting the launch of a new office in East Africa. We’re looking for a committed leader to make sure the company gets the right people on-board and support them every step of the journey. This is a great opportunity for someone with the right skill set to join a fast-paced start-up environment and take significant responsibility from day one. S/he’ll directly interface with the executive team and directors across the company, as well as line-manage a small operations team. There are three core responsibilities for the role:

Team: Ensure we have the right people with the right skills

• Support hiring managers through best practices and centralized support
• Design onboarding to accelerate employee breakeven point
• Provide training and professional development to fill common skill gaps across the company
• Maximize employee productivity by optimizing role definitions to balance team needs with individuals’ preferences

Goals: Help set coordinated goals that drive success

• Implement objective-setting frameworks that create clear goals and expectations
• Measure and monitor progress against objectives
• Drive accountability for agreed-upon targets

Culture & systems: Design systems to cultivate an inclusive, high-performance culture

• Deliberately nurture and cultivate a culture of inclusivity, teamwork, and performance
• Dig deep into the employee journey, and figure out how to make it better
• Work closely with the CEO to optimise organisational design for success
• Drive process improvements to planning and controls
• Build out communication channels to allow for robust decision making

Required skills and experience

• At least 3 years of proven managerial and leadership experience, managing small or medium-size teams effectively and developing innovative strategies and process design in a fast-paced business environment;
• Ability to work with all levels of management and to influence and support development of recommendations that are effective and productive;
• Experience working with INGOs, NGOs, IT companies in the development sector, especially contributing to building a committed team and growing a scaling organization. Experience working in a start-up is a big asset;
• Track record of achievements in operations management: people development, HR, recruitment, finance, project management etc
• Excellent written and verbal communications with good abilities to work with a diverse range of team members from all over the world and to clearly communicate across functions, disciplines, and backgrounds;
• Skills in strategic planning with an ability to think and plan ahead;
• Good digital competencies. Knowledge of IT applications, processes, software, and equipment is a big plus.