COO - Chief Operating Officer

MCS Group; Belfast; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency is seeking a Chief Operating Officer to oversee operational functions and drive strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of senior operational leadership experience, demonstrating exceptional leadership and commercial acumen. Key responsibilities include managing operational strategies, ensuring customer satisfaction, and leading a high-performing team. This role offers a chance to influence the future growth of the organization in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in senior operational leadership role, ideally COO or VP Operations.
• Deep understanding of scaling operations across support and professional services.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and change management skills.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day operations and execute strategic goals.
• Drive operational strategies, systems, and procedures.
• Ensure successful customer implementations and support.

Skills

Leadership

Operational Strategy

Commercial Acumen

Change Management

Cross-functional Team Leadership

Education

5+ years in senior operational leadership role

Job description

MCS Group is delighted to have been retained by ARKK as they look to appoint a Chief Operating Officer to their scaling business. Founded in 2009, they are one of the UK and Ireland's leading Regtech firms and this newly created COO role will play an integral part to their future growth.

Role Overview:

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is responsible for overseeing the company's day-to-day operational functions, translating the company's strategic vision into operational execution. Working closely with the CEO and executive team, the COO drives performance, scalability, and organisational excellence across all departments, with a particular focus on customer delivery, operational efficiency, and employee engagement.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Strategy & Execution

• Work with the executive team on the design and implement of operational strategies, systems, and procedures that scale with business growth.
• Assist the executive team to drive margin improvements through process optimisation, automation, and cost control across the business
• Translate strategic goals into clear operational plans with measurable KPIs.
• Oversee company-wide OKRs, ensuring alignment across functions.

Digital Tagging Delivery

• Own the P&L for digital tagging; manage budgets and resources efficiently.
• Drive margin improvements through process optimisation, automation, and cost control.
• Lead initiatives to enhance quality, timeliness, and consistency of the tagging services offered.
• Work closely with product to ensure the digital tagging portal provides an excellent customer experience.
• Work closely with partnerships to acquire new digital tagging partners and grow existing partnerships.

Service Delivery & Success

• Ensure successful customer implementations and support to improve customer satisfaction and retention.
• Ongoing review of quality, timeliness, and consistency in service delivery and support.
• Collaborate with product and sales teams to continuously improve our products, services and customer experience.
• Set and monitor digital tagging SLAs, support metrics and service delivery metrics.

Business Systems & Data

• Manage a high performing Business Information Systems team that supports the business with all its internal systems needs
• Assessment and adoption of AI and automation technologies to drive efficiencies in the business.
• Partner with the CTO and CPO to drive adoption of internal systems and tools to improve data-led decision-making.
• Champion operational reporting, analytics, and dashboards to monitor business health.

People, Culture & Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of operational leaders.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and performance-driven culture.
• Ensure talent management, workforce planning, and employee engagement initiatives are aligned with business goals.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Proven track record in a senior operational leadership role, ideally COO or VP Operations in a growth-stage business (preferably SaaS, tech, or professional services) for 5+ years.
• Deep understanding of scaling operations across support, professional services, and internal ops.
• Strong commercial acumen and P&L responsibility experience.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and deliver complex projects.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and change management skills.

Preferred Skills & Attributes

• Exposure to international expansion, partner networks, or M&A integration.
• Familiarity with tax, compliance, or financial reporting ecosystems
• Strategic thinker with an ability to zoom into detail without losing sight of the big picture.
• Highly collaborative and emotionally intelligent leader.
• Results-driven, pragmatic, and proactive.
• Calm under pressure with excellent decision-making capabilities.

To speak in absolute confidence about this opportunity, please send an up-to-date CV via the link provided or contact Chris Busby, Associate Director - IT Recruitment at MCS Group

Even if this position is not right for you, we may have others that are. Please visit MCS Group to view a wide selection of our current jobs www.mcsgroup.jobs

MCS Group is committed to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion for all, being the first recruitment agency in NI to achieve Bronze Diversity Mark accreditation, if you have a disability which means you require a reasonable adjustment to be considered at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact us and we will endeavour to facilitate the request.

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