Director of Operations

I’m working exclusively with a fast-growing and highly ambitious flexible workspace business on the appointment of an Operations Director to take full ownership of their operations function.The business currently operates a portfolio of 15+ buildings across London and has significant plans for growth across both the UK and internationally over the coming years.As the portfolio has grown, so has the complexity of the buildings, the expectations of clients and the operational requirements of the business. They are therefore looking for someone who can take what is already in place and build an operations function capable of supporting the next stage of growth.This is a senior, broad and hands-on role with responsibility for how the entire portfolio operates, what it costs to run and, ultimately, the experience clients receive within each building.You’ll lead the existing operations team and work closely with colleagues across projects, real estate, sales and finance.Key areas of responsibility will include:

• Portfolio Operations – taking ownership of the day-to-day operational performance of 15+ buildings and ensuring consistently high standards across the portfolio.
• Facilities & Building Management – bringing strong technical knowledge and being comfortable dealing with complex building and M&E issues. You’ll need to be able to challenge contractors, understand when the proposed solution is the right one and drive issues through to resolution.
• Systems & Processes – reviewing existing operating procedures, improving what works and replacing what has been outgrown. A major part of the role will be creating scalable and well-documented processes that can be replicated as new buildings are added to the portfolio.
• Budgets & Commercial Management – owning operational budgets and service charges, maintaining a constant focus on cost and identifying opportunities to make savings without compromising the quality of the product or client experience.
• Supplier & Contractor Management – managing a broad supplier base and ensuring outsourced partners are held to the same standards as the internal team. You’ll be commercially confident when negotiating contracts and challenging costs.
• Leadership – managing and developing an established operations team, while helping to shape the structure and future hires required as the portfolio continues to grow.
• Landlord & Managing Agent Relationships – managing relationships with landlords, managing agents, contractors and consultants and understanding how to navigate these relationships commercially to achieve the best outcome for the business.
• New Building Mobilisation – working closely with the projects team to take new sites from completion through to operational readiness, ensuring everything from compliance and asset information through to suppliers and processes is properly established from day one.
• Client Experience – setting and maintaining a consistently high operational standard across the portfolio. The business works with demanding, high-value clients, so delivering a premium and reliable experience is fundamental to the role.We’re looking for someone with deep facilities and building management knowledge combined with strong commercial instincts.You will ideally have experience running operations across a multi-site property portfolio, with backgrounds in flexible workspace, serviced offices, managed offices or another operationally intensive property environment particularly relevant.You’ll need to be someone who can operate at both a strategic and hands-on level. One day you may be developing processes for how the portfolio should operate as it grows; the next you could be challenging an M&E contractor on a difficult building issue or negotiating with a supplier.Previous experience of taking an operation that has relied heavily on individual knowledge and turning it into a structured, process-led and scalable function would be particularly valuable.Above all, they’re looking for someone commercial, pragmatic, technically credible and ambitious who wants to take genuine ownership of a function rather than simply inherit and maintain it.If you’re interested in hearing more, or know someone who could be a strong fit, please drop me a message for a confidential conversation.