Chief Operating Officer

New Wine; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

KICK in the United Kingdom seeks a Chief Operations Officer to guide strategic delivery, oversee Directors, and drive growth across schools, churches and community programmes. You will shape operational policy, manage resources, and partner with leaders to implement the organisation's mission with excellence.

This role includes interim business development responsibilities, sourcing new schools and partnerships, and strengthening KICK's reach while maintaining funder and stakeholder satisfaction

Qualifications

• Degree in Business Administration or industry-relevant equivalent.
• Senior executive leadership experience.
• Experience in strategic planning and business development.
• Broad practical experience across multiple disciplines for KICK's practices.

Responsibilities

• Oversee and optimise operations to meet budget, targets and outcomes.
• Implement strategic initiatives for smooth execution of KICK's mission.
• Lead quality improvement and matrix manage stakeholders to meet deadlines.
• Manage strategic projects, fundraising and operational priorities.
• Line management and coaching of Directors.
• Contribute insights to human resources and recruitment as KICK grows.
• Establish policies aligning with KICK's vision and culture.
• Observe schools, churches and partners to ensure high standards of delivery.

Skills

Communication

Strategic thinking

Leadership

Delegation

IT literacy

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration

Job description

To build capacity for the growth of KICK. Bringing operational clarity and focus to operational implementation of KICK's strategic aims, overseeing and coaching key Directors. To assess and enhance the efficiency of KICK through key resource management approaches. To innovate and improve key functions within the organisation. It will be important that the applicant is able to collaborate well with leaders as well as other key stakeholders in order to support the growth of KICK in size and development.

We currently have some additional responsibilities which the Chief Operations Officer will hold during an interim period. These responsibilities will have a focus on business development through sourcing new schools, pitching KICK's services and securing new work in schools to extend KICK's reach. It will also involve sourcing new partnerships with churches through pitching sports ministry and securing new KICK Academy provision within the local communities KICK deliver in.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Operational Implementation

• Oversee and optimise operations, to review and improve efficiencies that can be made by the organisation to ensure tight controls of finances, resources and contracts to meet budget, targets and outcomes.
• Implements the strategic initiatives to execute KICK's strategy and mission with smooth execution.
• Leadership of the quality improvement plan, matrix managing various stakeholders to delegate work and hold others to accountable to deadlines to ensure timely project completion.
• Project management of strategic projects, fundraising and operational priorities as allocated by the CEO to improve organisational sustainability.
• Line Management and coaching of Directors to empower leaders to improve operations and performance internally.
• Providing insight to human resources and recruitment as KICK continues to grow nationally.
• Establishing policies that improve and promote KICK's vision, mission and culture.
• Visiting schools, churches and partners to observe and ensure high standards of delivery, and relationship management
• Oversee external communications, developing its strategy and our social media presence to grow a larger audience and reflect KICK's mission enhancing the KICK brand.

Organisational Development

• Evaluating organisation performance and the recommendation of strategies to improve results and outcomes.
• Assessing and enhancing the efficiency of both internal and external processes in line with the KICK values.
• Planning for future budgets in line with the KICK strategy including setting strategic targets and driving organisational growth.
• Manages mitigations towards reducing operational risks to ensure tight controls of finances, resources and contracts to meet budget, targets and outcomes.
• Manages operational aspects of market penetration
• Co-ordinates product manufacturing and delivery
• Enhances service delivery to facilitate both client acquisition and retention

Interim responsibilities – Business Development

• Sourcing new schools, Pitching KICK's services and securing new work in schools to extend KICK's reach.
• Sourcing new churches, pitching sports ministry and securing new KICK Academies with churches to extend KICK's mission.

Person Specification:

Proven Experience

• Degree in Business Administration or industry-relevant equivalent.
• Proven experience in a senior executive role.
• Experience of strategic planning and business development.
• Has broad practical experience across multiple professional disciplines, combining theory & past practical experience for KICK's practices with particular focus on key areas of operations.
• Experience of identifying new opportunities, considering market forces and customer needs.
• Experience of complex and multi-dimensional problem solving whilst having a clear knowledge of the options, impacts, and risks when suggesting a resolution.
• Experience of accountability for Directors' performance, ensuring tight controls of finances, resources and contracts to meet budget, targets and outcomes.
• Experience of communicating with senior executive leadership in matters of strategic importance. The applicant should have the ability to influence internal and external partners to understand and accept concepts, practices and approaches of the job area.

Skills and Abilities

• Outstanding written and communication skills.
• A good understanding of IT packages and systems.
• A forward thinker with the ability to be proactive in improving current activities and processes.
• Ability to empower, motivate and lead others through supporting teams to succeed, investing in the capabilities of staff and providing clear feedback.
• Effective in the ability to delegate and matrix manage Directors.
• Ability to show responsibility and accountability for quality outcomes whilst keeping a firm focus on priority management.

Personal Qualities

• The Desire to own, guards and deepen KICK's Christian ethos, vision, mission and values.
• Able to take the initiative and be a self-starter.
• Passionate to see young people and staff progress and achieve their full potential.

At KICK, we are motivated to respond to a sense of hopelessness in many young people today as 1/3 of young people aged 15 identify with a mental health condition, 2million grow up without a father at home, many are disconnected from local communities with 95% now not attending church. We aspire to see a generation of young people who will reach their God given potential; where communities have been socially impacted; and where spiritual change has transformed a nation. Our mission is transform young people's lives, with God's love, through sport and support. We do this through values-driven physical education, street dance, mentoring, chaplaincy in schools and community KICK Academies to impact a sense of hopelessness and give them a hope for the future and a joy in the present.

KICK work in Infant, Primary, Secondary, Pupil Referral Units, Private and Special Schools to deliver the following services with Christian values embedded throughout every session:

• PE National Curriculum-Transformational Street Dance
• Solutions Focused Mentoring-Schools based Chaplaincy

In all that we do we seek to live out our values to encourage young people to be aspirational, to be compassionate in all circumstances, to deliver excellent quality sessions, and to be intentional in building relationships and sharing the gospel with young people every day and to show integrity in our decision making at all times. KICK are currently working with over 100 schools and have established 30 KICK Academies. Our staff team has more than doubled over the last 2 years with KICK now employing over 90 staff. As an organisation we are engaging with over 28,000 young people every week and come closer to achieving our mission as we reach more and more young people.