COO (Chief Operating Officer)

Oxford Quantum Circuits; Reading; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in quantum computing is seeking a Chief Operating Officer to join their Executive team. The role involves overseeing operational functions, IT strategy, HR, and supply chain management, ensuring alignment with business objectives and supporting international expansion. Ideal candidates will have executive experience in complex environments and a track record of simplifying processes. Fluency in Spanish is a plus.

Qualifications

• Proven senior operations executive experience in scientific/technical environment.
• International experience in building and scaling operations.
• Ability to simplify and optimize support processes.

Responsibilities

• Ensure operational functions align with business objectives.
• Drive internal IT strategy and improvements.
• Oversee global IT systems and infrastructure.

Skills

Operational Leadership

IT Strategy

Supply Chain Management

HR Strategy

Project Management

Job description

Many people are talking about quantum computing. The opportunity it presents is huge, not just here at OQC but for the wider world. With so much happening - and so much potential - we’ve decided to split the duties of our COO and CFO, by adding a dedicated Chief Operating Officer to our Executive team. And owning everything from Program Management to Engineering Operations, from IT services to HR and from H&S to Supply Chain. But not Finance, we’ve got that covered.

You’re already a proven senior operations executive with a track record of making things run seamlessly across these key ‘back office’ functions. You’ve done this in a deeply scientific/technical and commercial environment - where the work is complex and world-leading – and you’ve ensured those experts can focus fully on what they do best. You bring international experience too, having successfully built and scaled operations globally. And what sets you apart is your reputation of making support processes simple and frictionless.

As a member of our growing Executive Team - and reporting to our CEO - your responsibilities will include:

1. Ensuring operational functions align with business objectives, supporting and driving our growth in line with fundraising plans and international expansion
2. Driving our internal IT strategy and roadmap, delivering improvements that simplify how we work, strengthen security and optimise future investment
3. Overseeing global IT systems and infrastructure across the UK, USA, Europe and Japan, ensuring compliance, operational efficiency and robustness across our technology stack and underlying processes
4. Setting the strategic approach to supply chain and procurement including vendor selection, contract negotiation, supplier management, international shipping compliance and stock management, empowering partnership with our technical teams
5. Leading the HR function at a strategic level, developing global talent strategies, performance management systems, levelling frameworks, compensation and benefits, employee relations, learning and development and policies
6. Providing strategic leadership for the deployment of our quantum hardware including overall planning, site readiness, installation, risk mitigation, quality standards, budgets and global expansion timelines are met
7. Agreeing and overseeing the strategy for prototyping and design services, ensuring the delivery of a robust, high-value engineering function that accelerates output and efficiency across the quantum engineering teams
8. Acting as the executive voice for Program Management, ensuring effective delivery of cross-functional and technical projects and holding teams accountable for their execution
9. Providing strategic direction for Facilities operations including office management, site maintenance, landlord relationships, physical security, H&S compliance and new locations globally
10. Implementing and maintaining internal controls to manage risk and ensure compliance with UK and international regulations, particularly around IT security, data protection and workplace standards
11. Ensuring accurate and timely reporting across operations, aligning key KPIs with business objectives and strategic goals

You’ll be joining a C-suite team of a CEO, CTO, CSO, CFO, CLO and you. Your current team includes a Director of Engineering Operations, Heads of IT, Supply Chain, People, Facilities Manager and a temporary PMO lead.

To be successful you’ll need executive experience and ideally across all those functions - both strategically and hands-on - we know that’s a big ask though. So, if you’re missing one or two areas but can show genuine interest and the drive to grow into them, that could work.

If you’re currently a CFO or CFOO, we’d expect you to fully step away from Finance. That’s firmly with our CFO, as there’s more than enough to lead on the Operations side, especially with the scale of our ambition. You’d need to want to step away, and we get it that might mean it’s not a role for you. Finally, our first European foothold is in Spain, so if you're a Spanish speaker or you’ve worked there that’d be a big plus.

If the scale of the opportunity and our ambition - and to help shape that excites you - then we'd be delighted to hear from you