Operations Director

• Organisation development – play a leading role in developing the organisation, working closely with the Executive Director, senior staff and the Board to keep the organisation focussed on our five-year plan.

• Business operations – maintain the smooth running of finance, legal, client services, facilities and office functions, improving and innovating processes. Including reporting to the Board on organisational targets.

• Team direction – oversee and develop an operations team of three, setting direction and priorities, keeping projects in motion. 

• Recruitment – oversee and develop hiring strategies that can find and onboard the best campaigning talent in this country and beyond.

• People management – take responsibility for the development of the policies and structures which support and can get the best out of a high-performing team. 

• Production and network – make the most of the talent and time available, analyse data from project delivery and make business insights available to the team to help make critical decisions, improve efficiency and maintain excellence in our work. 

• Relationship management - nurture our client partnerships from onboarding to project closes, building trust and helping bring in new work. Develop our roster of creative collaborators and suppliers that keep our network strong.
  
  

• New business development – make a contribution to winning new business through identifying opportunities and supporting funding proposals. 

• Movement building – over the next five years, help take the practices and strategies we’ve developed beyond Small Axe, through consultancy and thought leadership, to transform the operational capacity of the progressive movement.

Essential track record

• Strong experience in operations or developing organisations: building and bedding in culture, optimising and establishing processes, and cultivating strong external relationships.

• Leadership experience whether training individuals, managing teams, and contributing to organisational direction. You will have played some role in recruiting staff. Here’s how we practice leadership at Small Axe.

• Adept at agile decision-making, helping others make good decisions and identifying and resolving blocks to progress. 

• Demonstrable examples of strategic thinking – using data, logic and experience to understand complex problems, identify opportunities and threats to organisational objectives. 

• Strong attention to detail: spotting errors or anomalies in data, writing and plans and helping troubleshoot where necessary.

• Setting and working with budgets and targets, escalating to the right level as needed. 

• Experience translating legal advice or regulation into policy or process which fits the culture and mission of an organisation. This can be interpreted broadly - e.g. financial, safeguarding, health & safety, HR, data protection.

• Fluency with digital technology and processes including advanced use of spreadsheets, project management software and other data tools. 

• Ability to work and maintain standards in a fast-paced environment, balancing multiple projects and competing priorities with precision and sound judgment.

Desirable

• Experience in the tools (or equivalents) that form an essential part of the way we work: Xero, Float, Dext, Soldo, Time Tracking Apps, Airtable, Make/Zapier, Trello/Favro, Google Workspace, Slack.

• Supporting in various forms of business development, sales or consulting.

• Doing fundraising development - writing proposals, holding funder relationships, winning funding or tenders.

• Working in an agency setting.

• Working with Agile methodology.

The recruitment process will include the following stages, to help both us and you decide if we're a good fit:

• In person interview and practical task

• Panel interview with a selection of Small Axe directors and board members

• Paid trial day in the office

We aim to keep the process moving as efficiently as capacity allows, and will always keep you in the loop.