Chief Operating Officer (COO)

So Code Limited; Cambridge; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A clean-tech scale-up in Duxford seeks a dynamic Chief Operating Officer to lead operational strategy and manufacturing scale-up as the company transitions to commercial deployment. This senior role requires strong leadership in a fast-paced environment, focusing on building teams and operational excellence.

Benefits

Flexible work hours

Private medical healthcare (with family cover)

5% employee pension contribution

Life insurance 4x annual salary

33 days total holiday

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a COO or senior operations leadership role.
• Strong experience with manufacturing operations and supply chain.
• Exceptional leadership and people management experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement operational frameworks to align with growth goals.
• Lead scale-up of manufacturing capabilities ensuring cost and quality.
• Build a high-performing operations and delivery team.

Skills

Leadership

Operational Strategy

Manufacturing Operations

Global Supply Chain

Project Delivery

Team Building

Education

Engineering or technical background preferred

Job description

Chief Operating Officer (COO) Duxford, Cambridgeshire | Full-Time, On-Site

The Opportunity
We are retained by a pioneering clean-tech scale-up, headquartered in Duxford, to appoint a dynamic and commercially focused Chief Operating Officer. This is a critical hire to support the transition from R&D to global commercial deployment, and to build scalable operational infrastructure around a market-ready deep-tech manufacturing platform.

Reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with the senior leadership team, the COO will own operations strategy, manufacturing scale-up, and delivery excellence as the company enters high-growth mode.

Key Responsibilities Operational Leadership

• Develop and implement robust operational frameworks that align with the company’s strategic growth goals
• Drive efficiency, accountability, and cross-functional coordination across R&D, engineering, supply chain, and customer delivery functions

Manufacturing & Supply Chain

• Lead scale-up of manufacturing capabilities (in-house and outsourced), ensuring cost, quality, and time-to-market objectives are met
• Oversee supply chain strategy, procurement, and production planning to support increasing order volumes

Project Delivery & Execution

• Ensure seamless execution of pilot projects, installations, and system rollouts across domestic and international markets
• Partner with product and commercial teams to ensure operations are tightly integrated with customer success

Leadership & Team Building

• Build and develop a high-performing operations and delivery team
• Foster a culture of ownership, clarity, and continuous improvement across the business

Governance & Risk

• Introduce systems to manage operational risk, quality control, compliance, and health & safety across manufacturing and deployment activities

Executive Collaboration

• Contribute to corporate strategy and fundraising conversations as part of the executive leadership team
• Represent operations in board meetings, investor discussions, and strategic partnerships

Candidate Profile Essential

• Proven experience in a COO or senior operations leadership role, ideally within a hardware, industrial, manufacturing, or clean-tech environment
• Track record of scaling operations from pilot stage through to commercial rollout
• Strong experience with manufacturing operations, global supply chain, and technical delivery
• Commercially minded with the ability to align technical teams with market-facing objectives
• Exceptional leadership and people management experience, with a focus on building scalable teams and systems
• Comfortable in a fast-paced, resource-constrained, and innovation-led environment

Desirable

• Experience supporting international deployment, especially across Europe or Asia
• Background in industrial equipment, advanced manufacturing, or sustainability-related technologies
• Engineering or technical background preferred

In terms of benefits offered, you can expect flexible work hours, private medical healthcare (with family cover), 5% employee pension contribution, life insurance 4x annual salary, 33 days total holiday (inc bank holidays) and some other lucrative add-ons.

If you are interested, please drop me an email [e-mail] message me on LinkedIn: Alexander Flory