Senior Operations Manager

Senior Operations Manager / Head of Operations

Remote| Europe | CET working hours

Build the operating engine behind a portfolio of high-growth businesses

This is an opportunity to join a profitable, fast-growing venture-building group behind products used by 8 million people globally.

Rather than focusing on a single business, the group builds and supports multiple ventures through a shared operating platform providing the people, infrastructure, technology, and expertise needed to help new businesses scale efficiently.

You take over the organization behind it: six service lines People & Culture, Finance, Legal, Data Services, AI Platform, Systems Administration roughly fifty people, each line led by an experienced operator, with the group's ventures as their clients.

They are now looking for a Senior Operations Manager / Head of Operations to take ownership of this platform and develop it into a high-performing internal service organisation.

The opportunity

This is a build and transformation role, rather than a traditional proces-management position.

You'll oversee the organisation supporting the group's ventures across key corporate and operational functions, bringing together 45 people across several specialist teams, each with experienced functional leadership.

Your role will be to create the structure, standards and operating rhythm that allows these teams to work effectively across a growing portfolio of businesses.

The goal is to build a high-quality internal service organisation with clear accountability, measurable performance and the ability to support multiple ventures at the same time.

You'll define what excellent operational delivery looks like, establish the right metrics and service standards, and create a management cadence that enables experienced leaders to perform without unnecessary central intervention.

You will report directly to the COO and have significant operational ownership across the shared services organisation.

What you'll own

• Shared service delivery: Oversee multiple functional teams, ensuring commitments, priorities, dependencies and capacity are aligned with the needs of the wider portfolio.
• Operating model: Establish clear service definitions, responsibilities, standards, turnaround expectations and feedback mechanisms.
• Performance management: Introduce meaningful operational KPIs and reporting that provide visibility into service quality, efficiency and capacity.
• Operating cadence: Build management systems and routines that allow senior functional leaders to operate with clarity and accountability.
• Resource allocation: Make evidence-based decisions when competing ventures require access to the same people, expertise or resources.
• Continuous improvement: Identify opportunities to simplify processes, eliminate unnecessary work and improve the leverage of the organisation.
• AI-native operations: Identify, design and implement opportunities to automate workflows and embed AI, agents and intelligent automation into day-to-day operations. You will be expected to use AI as an operating capability not simply as a productivity tool and to identify where work can be redesigned, automated or augmented to materially improve efficiency, speed and service quality.
• Cross-functional alignment: Ensure teams operate as one coordinated service organisation rather than as isolated functions.

What you'll bring

You'll have experience running and improving a meaningful operation at scale, with responsibility for people, performance and operational complexity.

Your background could include:

• A high-growth technology or digital business
• A venture builder or venture studio
• A VC-backed platform or shared-services organisation
• Portfolio operations
• A complex multi-business or multi-entity environment

What matters most is that you've owned the operation and been accountable for outcomes, rather than simply advising the organisation.

You'll also bring:

• Experience defining and managing operational KPIs.
• A track record of improving operational performance and creating scalable ways of working.
• Experience managing experienced functional leaders and senior operators.
• Strong commercial judgement and analytical thinking.
• Hands-on experience using AI and automation within a live operation. You have personally owned, specified, implemented or commissioned automated or AI-enabled workflows that delivered measurable operational impact.
• An AI-native mindset: you instinctively look for processes that can be automated, augmented or redesigned using AI, while understanding where human judgement and oversight remain essential.
• Experience taking AI/automation beyond experimentation into production, including understanding performance, adoption, governance and what happens when automated systems fail.
• Confidence making difficult prioritisation decisions when resources are constrained.
• The ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively and use evidence to support your recommendations.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• A modern, technology-enabled approach to operations.

Why this opportunity?

Scale and variety. You'll work across a portfolio of businesses rather than being limited to the operational challenges of one company.

Visible impact. The systems, standards and operating model you create will directly influence how the organisation supports existing and future ventures.

Autonomy. You'll work closely with the COO and have the authority to shape how the shared services organisation operates.

AI-native environment. The organisation is already using automation, AI and intelligent workflows in its operations. You'll build on an existing technology foundation and operate in an environment where AI is embedded into how work is planned, delivered and managed - rather than treated as a future initiative.

Exceptional scope. This is an opportunity to build and transform a multi-functional operation, working with experienced leaders while creating the structure that enables them to perform at their best.

The details

• Location: Remote-first across Europe
• Working hours: CET
• Contract: Permanent, full-time
• Reporting to: COO
• Start date: Flexible
• Compensation: Discussed openly during the recruitment process

If you're an experienced operator who enjoys building scalable systems, improving organisational performance and creating structure across complex environments and you see AI and automation as fundamental operating capabilities rather than emerging technologies this is an opportunity to have significant influence across a growing portfolio of businesses.

Disclaimer
Notwithstanding any guidelines given to level of experience sought, we will consider candidates from outside this range if they can demonstrate the necessary competencies.
Square One is acting as both an employment agency and an employment business, and is an equal opportunities recruitment business. Square One embraces diversity and will treat everyone equally. Please see our website for our full diversity statement.