Strategy & Operations Lead, EMEA

Socket.dev; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Firstwork seeks a high-impact strategist to join the Office of the CEO and own the European half of the agenda. You will shape the market entry plan, coordinate with leadership, and drive multi-market execution across Europe and beyond.

You’ll build board and investor materials, manage private equity relationships, set pricing and GTM strands, and lead cross-functional projects that move quickly from idea to live operation.

Qualifications

• 4–8 years in tier one strategy consulting, investment banking, private equity, or a strategy role in a fast-growing company.
• Ability to model ambiguous questions and write board-ready two-page analyses.
• Broad range to engage with a PE partner, a CFO and Head of Operations in one conversation.
• Experience across multiple European markets and at least one European language besides English.
• Bias toward finishing; delivering entities live rather than only writing recommendations.
• Practical use of AI and automation before relying solely on spreadsheets.

Responsibilities

• Own the European market entry plan from sequencing to entity setup and first customers.
• Build board, investor and strategic partner materials with the CEO and Chief of Staff.
• Support private equity relationships and pipeline across portfolio companies.
• Run pricing, packaging and competitive analysis for the region.
• Set the operating cadence for the European team with planning and metrics.
• Localise go-to-market with Sales, Marketing and Product, including messaging and contracts.
• Tackle high-impact projects the Office of the CEO needs done.

Skills

Strategy consulting

Investment banking

Private equity

Strategy role in fast-growing company

Job description

About Firstwork

Labour markets are broken. Millions of people are ready to work and can't start. Screening, right-to-work checks, contracts, onboarding and scheduling still run across disconnected systems, with hundreds of manual decisions in between. Firstwork builds AI agents that run frontline workforce operations end to end. We activate hundreds of thousands of workers a month globally for some of the world's largest employers and staffing firms, working forward-deployed inside the customer's operation. Backed by Y Combinator and Gradient (Google's AI fund), with offices in New York, with London and Dubai opening later this year.

Why this role

A significant part of Firstwork's growth over the next few years will be determined by how successfully we build the business in Europe. Which markets we enter and in what order, how we price against the incumbents, which partnerships and investors are worth the time, and how the company runs once it is spread across two continents. Those decisions sit with the CEO, and this role sits next to him and the Chief of Staff.

You work in the Office of the CEO alongside the Chief of Staff, and you own the European half of the agenda. That covers the market entry plan and the work of actually executing it, board and investor material, the relationships with private equity firms and their portfolio companies that drive our largest deals, and the strategic projects that have no owner yet. One week that looks like a pricing model. The next it looks like being in a major city getting an entity live and a first customer signed.

You will learn how a company really works, quickly, and then get handed a piece of it to run.

What you'll do

• Own the European market entry plan, from sequencing and targets through to entity setup and first customers
• Build board, investor and strategic partner material with the CEO and Chief of Staff
• Support the private equity relationships and the pipeline running through their portfolio companies, including the preparation and the follow-through
• Run pricing, packaging and competitive analysis for the region
• Set the operating cadence for the European team, meaning planning, metrics and the weekly rhythm
• Localise go-to-market with Sales, Marketing and Product, covering messaging, contracts and how we position on compliance
• Pick up the projects the Office of the CEO needs done properly and nobody owns

What we're looking for

• Four to eight years in tier one strategy consulting, investment banking, private equity, or a strategy role inside a company growing fast
• The ability to take an ambiguous question, build the model behind it, and write the two pages the board will actually read
• Enough range to be useful to a PE partner, a CFO and a Head of Operations in the same conversation
• A bias to finishing. Getting the entity live counts. Writing the recommendation doesn't
• Experience across more than one European market, and a European language beyond English
• A habit of reaching for AI and automation before spreadsheets and headcount

If you want the closest available seat while a company goes from one continent to two, this is the job.

Firstwork is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected status.