Head of Operations

Fairmat; Paris; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Fairmat is building a global operating system to orchestrate manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and finance. The Head of Operations will lead across multiple sites and functions, delivering predictable results and scalable processes while partnering with the CEO to drive growth.

You will oversee planning, budgeting and strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment between operations and financial goals, across Europe, North America and China.

Qualifications

• You have a proven track record running operations at scale in industrial manufacturing, advanced materials, hardware or similar complex environments.
• You have led large teams through hyper-growth and deep change with low attrition.
• You master corporate finance and corporate planning: forecasts, budget, equity story, unit economics.
• You take ownership of a demanding industrial environment and absorb its physical constraints before you decide.
• You are a unifying, demanding and pragmatic leader who drives change through understanding, not authority.
• You combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution and are willing to spend time on the shop floor across sites.

Responsibilities

• Own Fairmat’s operating performance across Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Industrial Development and Planning.
• Ensure customer orders are executed reliably from forecast to delivery.
• Identify bottlenecks and continuously improve the systems behind execution.
• Increase automation, standardization and team autonomy while preserving entrepreneurial agility.
• Scale and replicate Fairmat’s operating model across Europe, North America and China.
• Lead the Finance organization and ensure accurate, timely financial reporting.
• Own planning cadence—OKRs, quarterly planning and business reviews.
• Translate operational performance into actionable financial insights.
• Drive budgeting and resource allocation across the company.
• Prepare Board materials, shareholder communications and strategic reviews.

Skills

Operations leadership

P&L management

Global/multi-site operations

Corporate finance

Strategic thinking

Hands-on execution

English fluency

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Head of Operations

ABOUT FAIRMAT

Fairmat has proven its ability to develop innovative products, industrialize them and bring them to market. Our next challenge is no longer inventing better materials. It is building a global industrial company that operates reliably, efficiently and at scale.

As we expand across Europe, North America and China, success will no longer depend on individual efforts, but on building the operating system that enables every function—from customer orders and forecasting to procurement, manufacturing, quality, finance and planning—to operate as one integrated engine.

YOUR ROLE : BUILD THE COMPANY OPERATING SYSTEM

Your mission is to design, strengthen and continuously improve these systems so that Fairmat consistently delivers on its commitments while remaining agile.

Your success will not be measured by the number of problems you solve yourself, but by your ability to build an organization that delivers predictably, allocates its resources intelligently, and scales through stronger systems rather than greater complexity.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will be a member of Fairmat’s Executive Leadership Team and lead the company’s Operations & Finance organization.

Your teams are based across Nantes, Paris, the United States and China, covering Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Procurement, Quality, Industrial Development, Industrial Planning and Finance.

You will work cross-functionally with every part of the business—including R&D, Product, Sales and Marketing—to ensure customer demand, product development, industrial capacity and financial planning operate as one integrated system.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

At Fairmat, feedback is an input—not an answer. We expect leaders to listen carefully, understand deeply, challenge respectfully, and make decisions based on first-principles thinking, evidence and direct observation—not hierarchy, intuition or the loudest voice. You won’t improve a process you haven’t taken the time to understand. That means spending time on the factory floor, listening to operators, understanding technical constraints, reviewing data and challenging assumptions before making decisions.

We also accept temporary fixes only if we are equally committed to eliminating the root cause. This role requires constantly moving between different levels of thinking: solving today’s operational issues while strengthening the systems that prevent them from happening again. The best leaders deliver in the short term while continuously improving the medium and long term.

We are looking for a builder. Someone equally comfortable discussing a production bottleneck with an operator, reviewing a financial model, preparing a Board presentation, or designing the operating model for a new factory.

Finally, this role is for people who want their work to matter. If contributing to a more sustainable industrial future is not a source of personal pride, you will probably find greater fulfillment elsewhere.

€70,000 - €120,000 a year

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

OWN FAIRMAT’S ABILITY TO DELIVER WHAT WE COMMIT, ON TIME AND AT THE RIGHT QUALITY, BY CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVING THE END-TO-END OPERATING SYSTEM.

• Own Fairmat’s operating performance including Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Industrial Development and Planning.
• Ensure customer orders are executed reliably, from forecast to delivery.
• Identify structural bottlenecks and continuously improve the systems behind execution rather than solving isolated issues.
• Increase automation, standardization and team autonomy while preserving entrepreneurial agility.
• Scale and replicate Fairmat’s operating model across Europe, North America and China.

ENSURE FAIRMAT ALLOCATES ITS FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL RESOURCES TO MAXIMIZE VALUE CREATION.

• Lead the Finance organization and ensure accurate, timely financial reporting.
• Own the company’s planning cadence—including OKRs, quarterly planning and business reviews—to align strategy, priorities and execution across every function.
• Translate operational performance into actionable financial insights.
• Drive budgeting and resource allocation across the company.

ACT AS THE CEO’S PARTNER IN TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO COMPANY EXECUTION.

• Prepare Board materials, shareholder communications and strategic reviews.
• Support M&A, fundraising and due diligence processes.
• Build the financial and operational narrative supporting Fairmat’s growth.
• Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives directly sponsored by the CEO.
• Contribute to major commercial opportunities, partnerships or strategic projects when executive coordination is required.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• You have a proven track record running operations at scale in industrial manufacturing, advanced materials, hardware or similarly complex environments — or you are an exceptional operator who has owned a full P&L and learned a new industrial domain fast.
• You have led large teams (several dozen people) through hyper-growth and deep change, with low attrition.
• You master corporate finance and corporate planning: forecasts, budget, equity story, unit economics.
• You take ownership of a demanding industrial environment and absorb its physical constraints before you decide.
• You are a unifying, demanding and pragmatic leader who drives change through understanding, not authority.
• You combine strategic thinking with hands‑on execution, and you are willing to spend significant time on the shop floor across sites.
• You are comfortable running multi‑site industrial operations across cultures and geographies, including Asia, and you are fluent in English.
• You are driven by mission and performance more than by perimeter.
• You know how to build organizations that scale. You combine financial rigor, operational discipline and hands‑on leadership to create structure that accelerates execution rather than bureaucracy.

LOCATION

Paris with regular presence at the factory and travels across our sites in Europe, North America and China.