Operations Director

We’re looking for an Operations Director to drive the strategic and operational growth of Small Axe.

You’ll ensure our organisation runs smoothly and efficiently, helping us to deliver on our mission: to create movements that are progressive, hopeful and powerful, to inspire people to act on the most pressing issues of our time.

We're a non-profit with an agency operating model, working with charities, trade unions, community or political organisations to win change. Operations are the key to our sustained impact and we take the same approach to this as with the campaign work we do – striving for excellence.

What we expect an Operations Director to do:

• Organisation development – play a leading role in developing the organisation, working closely with the Executive Director, senior staff and the Board to keep the organisation focussed on our five-year plan.
• Business operations – maintain the smooth running of finance, legal, client services, facilities and office functions, improving and innovating processes. Including reporting to the board on organisational targets.
• Team direction – oversee and develop an operations team of three, setting direction and priorities, keeping projects in motion.
• Recruitment – oversee and develop hiring strategies that can find and onboard the best campaigning talent in this country and beyond.
• People management – take responsibility for the development of the policies and structures which support and can get the best out of a high-performing team.
• Production and network – make the most of the talent and time available, analyse data from project delivery and make business insights available to the team to help make critical decisions, improve efficiency and maintain excellence in our work.
• Relationship management – nurture our client partnerships from onboarding to project closes, building trust and helping bring in new work. Develop our roster of creative collaborators and suppliers that keep our network strong.
• New business development – make a contribution to winning new business through identifying opportunities and supporting funding proposals.
• Movement building – over the next five years, help take the practices and strategies we’ve developed beyond Small Axe, through consultancy and thought leadership, to transform the operational capacity of the progressive movement.

Read more about us, the role and what we're looking for on our website.