Head of Operations (Business Enablement) | Build an AI-enabled, client-delighting operating system for fast-growing leadership intelligence & advisory firm

ABOUT EXCEPTIONAL LEADERSHIP

We advise investors, boards and senior executives on consequential leadership decisions. We combine psychometric evidence, behavioural insight and experienced judgement to understand individual leaders, the critical relationships between them, and how executive teams and boards work together.

We are a small, senior, fully remote firm. We have grown profitably without outside investment and are now building a business designed to grow well beyond its founders. Our clients include PE investors and the boards and executive teams of investor-backed and listed companies.

THE MISSION

Take operating ownership of the business from the founders and be the hands-on architect of a lean, AI-enabled operations function that runs finance, people, contracting, compliance and systems reliably, so we can grow without a matching increase in overhead or founder time.

Do it in a way that makes us easy to work with. Every client touches our operations, from the first opportunity through contracting, mobilisation, invoicing and renewal; you will own that journey end to end.

You will be our first senior operator. There is no permanent team to inherit or to build beneath you. Instead you will have a part-time Operations Coordinator, trusted external specialists (accountant, legal, IT, developer), agreed authority over routine decisions and spending, and a founder team that will invest in tools and in your own learning. Your job is to make all of that work as one operating system.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

An experienced operator who has personally run the engine room of a small B2B professional-services, advisory or consulting firm as it grew from around £1m to £5m in revenue, working directly with founders. You know what good looks like in each function because you have owned it (not managed people who owned it).

• You are a builder who also likes running things. You design a process, implement it, and stay accountable for the outcome once it is automated or delegated.
• You have a lean instinct. Your first answer to a capacity problem is a better workflow, an agent or a fractional specialist - not a hire.
• You are in the first wave of AI adopters. You are curious enough to be using various models well beyond chat, through projects, connectors, agents and automations. You have changed how a business works with software or automation, and people used what you built. You are slightly obsessed with Dr Nici Sweaney, Callan Faulkner and Every and want to implement what they are doing and teaching in a fast-growing boutique.
• You bring relational judgement. You can read a client or a tricky situation and know when a system is enough and when a person needs to pick up the phone. Clients should find us easy and pleasant to deal with at every step.
• You are not an immediate fixer; you know what to ask to get to the root of a problem before you propose a solution, and you can tell the difference between a symptom and a cause.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, sensitive information and difficult conversations, and you challenge founders constructively and then act.
• You keep systems and notes current, respond promptly and flag risks early with a proposed solution. Remote work depends on it.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS

In your first few months you will take day-to-day operational ownership from the founders, learning the business by doing the work. We run on a modern, connected stack (Vanta, FreeAgent, Pipedrive, Notion, Slack, Cloudflare, Planable and Claude). As your understanding grows, you will design and implement the operating system that makes it simpler and faster. Your responsibilities span:

• Operating rhythm and standards. Set clear outcomes, responsibilities and proportionate processes for each function. Own the operating rhythm, including a fortnightly pipeline and resourcing review, and keep priorities, capacity and risks visible. Lead and develop the Coordinator.
• Finance. Own month-end, invoicing, purchase orders, debtors and credit control. Work with the accountant on reliable FreeAgent records, VAT, payroll changes, cash forecasts, budgets and management reporting. Coordinate EMI administration with specialist advisers.
• Contracting and suppliers. Draft and deliver NDAs, statements of work, service agreements, renewals and supplier contracts through approved processes. Negotiate within agreed authority and take legal advice on exceptions. Keep obligations visible through mobilisation and delivery.
• People. Own practical HR processes: recruitment administration, onboarding, reviews, records, joiners and leavers. Support the founders on people decisions and handle sensitive operational matters personally, engaging external HR expertise where needed.
• Compliance and security. Own confidentiality, DPAs, UK GDPR, insurance and information security. Use Vanta to manage controls and evidence, maintain ISO 27001 and SOC II Type 2.
• CRM and resourcing. Keep Pipedrive data, pipeline reporting and follow-up reliable, with advisers accountable for their opportunities. Coordinate resourcing against confirmed work and pipeline.
• The AI operating system. Design how functions, information and decisions fit together. Use existing tools, connectors, automations and agents to move work between systems, starting with the simplest effective solution.
• The ELT Brain. Act as business owner of our internal workbench: translate user needs into requirements, prioritise the backlog, agree acceptance criteria, organise testing in staging, approve releases and communicate changes.
• Disciplined investment. Make the case for spend on tools, integrations and learning, then track hours saved, operating cost, errors, adoption and service quality. Agree permissions, human checks and escalation routes, and iterate until workflows work in practice.

For internal tooling and software, you own business priorities, user acceptance and rollout; the developer owns technical implementation where we are building in-house.

The founders and designated practitioners (client-facing advisors) retain ownership of the advisory method and professional standards.

Material commercial, legal and employment matters escalate to the founders.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• A record of personally owning core operations in a B2B professional-services, advisory or consulting business as it grew from around £1m to £5m, working directly with founders. We will ask for specific evidence of what you ran and improved.
• Advanced, current, hands-on use of AI tools. You can explain which models you use for what, how you have set up projects, connectors or agents, where they fall short and how you check their work.
• Experience taking a business through ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type II assurance, implementing controls and keeping them working.

Desirable

• Experience as the business owner of an internal system, or working with developers on fixes and new functionality. You do not need to write code.
• Familiarity with our existing stack. Comfort matters; deep expertise in every application does not.

Titles matter less than evidence. We care about personal ownership of the functions above.

HOW WE WILL MEASURE SUCCESS

We will agree the final targets with you in your first 30 days. These are the measures we have in mind:

• Founder time. Founder time on operations falls from roughly half of one founder’s week today to under 10% by day 180, with agreed decision boundaries in place by day 90.
• Cash collection. Debtor days held below 35 and no invoice past 60 days without an agreed plan.
• Contracting. Standard NDAs and statements of work turned round within two working days of brief.
• Compliance. ISO 27001 surveillance audit passed with no major non-conformities, SOC 2 Type II report delivered to plan, Vanta controls above 95% passing, and client security reviews returned within five working days.
• Pipeline hygiene. Every open opportunity in Pipedrive updated within the fortnightly cycle and resourcing visible six weeks ahead.
• Automation with proof. At least ten hours a week of recurring manual work removed in year one, each investment with a before-and-after measure of hours, cost, errors and adoption.
• Delegation. The Coordinator handles routine work independently by day 90, and external providers deliver against agreed service levels.
• Cost discipline. Operating cost as a share of revenue falls year on year while service quality remains constant, and all work stays within agreed budgets.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Salary of £80,000-£95,000 FTE plus pension contribution
• A senior role with real authority: agreed decision rights and spending limits, and a direct line to both founders
• A rare opportunity to design an innovative AI-enabled operations function of the future, with tools, agents and fractional expertise rather than headcount.
• Investment in your learning and in the tooling you make the case for.
• Flexible by design. Full time or 4 days per week, hours agreed with you, fully remote within the UK.
• 27 days’ annual leave plus UK bank holidays, pro rata.
• Work that matters to clients: our advice shapes who leads significant businesses and how their top teams work together.

NB: Internally we call this function Business Enablement, and the title may develop as the business grows. We expect to review scope, capacity, specialist support and tooling together within the first six months.

Our work involves highly sensitive personal data, including psychometric results. Appointment is subject to right-to-work checks, references and background checks consistent with our ISO 27001 and SOC 2 commitments.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments throughout the process.

HOW TO APPLY

Send a CV and a short note (no cover letter needed) to tzuki@exceptionalleadership.co.uk answering two questions:

1. What have you personally owned, run and improved in a growing professional-services firm?
2. Describe one workflow you improved with software, automation or AI. What did it replace, who used it, and what did you measure?