Head of Venture Operations, Odin
+ Stock options for all permanent employees
More information about location
Community & investment tools for founders, angels and VCs
Open for applications
Community & investment tools for founders, angels and VCs
1-20 employees
Open for applications
+ Stock options for all permanent employees
More information about location
1-20 employees
Company mission
To give more people the ability to vote with their money, and their time, on what the future looks like.
Role
Who you are
- Strong leadership skills, with the ability to set vision and direction while supporting the day-to-day
- Experience leading operations in a high-growth startup or fast-paced environment
- Proven ability to manage people effectively, including managing ICs and managers, giving feedback, and coaching for growth
- Demonstrated ability to build and restructure teams and implement durable processes
- Operational confidence across legal, financial, or compliance-heavy environments (you don’t need to be the expert, but you must be able to lead them)
- High emotional resilience and clarity under pressure - you can handle hard conversations and maintain perspective
- Strong commercial judgement – you make decisions that support wider business outcomes
- Comfortable taking ownership in ambiguous situations and moving fast without waiting for permission
- We don’t mind whether you’ve managed one function or six. What matters is your ability to lead through others, build systems that scale, and demonstrate the judgement, clarity and leadership required to operate at this level. We care just as much about how you think, lead, and learn as we do about what’s on your CV
Desirable
- Experience leading in a regulated environment (e.g. compliance-heavy or financial services context). Not essential - but helpful if you’ve had to build systems that meet regulatory requirement
- Experience scaling multiple teams or working across multiple domains (e.g. legal ops, customer success, finance ops)
- Prior experience hiring and building out middle management
- Exposure to investor operations or compliance workflows (e.g. KYC, AML, SPV structuring)
- Product intuition and experience working with engineering teams to build better tools and workflows
- Comfort working directly with founders and/or exec leadership
What the job involves
- We’re hiring a Head of Venture Ops to lead the next phase of Odin’s operational evolution. This is a rare opportunity to step into a fintech and build the function that keeps the engine running
- You’ll be responsible for the full operational stack: Deal Closing Ops, Customer Experience, and Compliance – with a remit that will expand to include Legal and Finance operations as we grow
- You’ll be stepping into a function that has made huge progress in a short time, but still needs the right leader to scale it
- Your role is to lead from the front, take ownership of people, systems, and outcomes, and shape how operations supports the next stage of Odin’s growth
- This is not a player-coach role. You’ll need to be hands-on at the start, onboarding as a senior operator who deeply understands how the function works
- But your mandate is much bigger: to shape the team, build the next layer of management in your function, and ensure the right resources and structures are in place to scale operations effectively
- You’re not here to take over Deal Ops, CX, Compliance, Finance or Legal – you’re here to lead the people who do, and enable them to perform at their best
- Reporting to Mary, one of our founders, this role is about owning and evolving the entire operations function at Odin - from what it is today, to what it needs to become as we scale
- You’ll focus on the UK and core operations to start, but the systems you build will lay the groundwork for international expansion - including our US launch
- Take end-to-end ownership of Deal Ops, from fundraising completion through to legal execution and distribution
- Manage the current operations team: Deal Ops associates, the CX team, and the Compliance function. You’ll be responsible for their development and performance
- As we grow, you’ll expand the function to include Legal and Finance operations, building strong cross-functional partnerships in both areas
- Shape the structure and future of the operations function. That means hiring and enabling the right senior team members across each operational area, and ensuring they have what they need to succeed as we scale
- Be a strong operational leader. You’ll lead by example, especially in the early months, getting hands-on where needed and setting the tone for operational excellence, not by fixing everything yourself, but by building systems and supporting others to thrive
- You’ll own the operational levers that drive commercial results - reducing close time and cost per deal, improving retention through better CX, and supporting product launches that unlock new revenue streams
- Build a culture of operational excellence – rigour, ownership, accountability, and pace – and model those values in how you lead
- Design and evolve team structures, workflows, and reporting systems. You’ll implement clear accountability, team rituals, and tracking mechanisms
- As part of the SLT, you’ll partner closely with founders and collaborate with product and engineering to ensure scalable, efficient workflows
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Odin is at the apex of two major trends in finance: the democratisation of access to private markets through technology, and the increasingly social feel of finance and investing. The startup began as a social network with an investment layer built on top, though it is now a more focused financial service that simplifies startup investing.
The company's roots in social and community speak to a unique trajectory it is on. After gaining a lot of traction with its syndicate-formation service, the startup has been looking to develop further products that decentralise and simplify capital rails for the innovation ecosystem. It’s likely that the product roadmap will be developed in conjunction with its customer base, many of whom attend Odin’s salons.
Though the company has had to navigate an environment where capital going towards innovative companies is at a fraction of where it once was, it appears to have emerged unscathed, if not stronger. In 2023, it raised £2.4 million in a seed round that included contributions from 220 angels through its own platform. It plans to use these funds to roll out its marketplace for people raising money to find investors, as well as support scale-up plans across Europe and possibly into Asia.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
May 2023
$3m
SEED
Aug 2021
$1m
ANGEL
Total funding: $4m
Company benefits
- 25 days paid holiday, excluding public holidays
- Flexible hours (we care about the results, not when you work)
- Laptop assigned, Mac or Dell (Windows)
- Parental leave
- £1000 yearly learning & wellness budget
- Generous options package
- Free lunch on Wednesdays
Company values
- Impact - You focus on doing the highest priority things first, and recognise they are often harder or less fun than other things you could be doing. You exhibit bias-to-action, and avoid procrastination and “paralysis by analysis” at all costs. You accomplish amazing amounts of important work in an efficient manner .You focus on results rather than on process (but you understand how a great process can help in some instances).
- Judgement - You make wise decisions calmly (people, technical, business and creative) despite ambiguity and stress. You keep us nimble by minimising complexity and finding time to simplify. You think strategically and can prioritise what makes sense for now vs later. You assess problems from first principles. You show depth to your reasoning and differentiate facts from assumptions.
- Honesty - You show integrity and always do what is right - for our customers, for your team, for the business. You are known for candour and directness. You do not shy away from difficult conversations. You are non-political: you only say things about fellow employees that you would say to their face. You are honest with yourself and quick to admit mistakes.
- Selflessness - You seek what is best for Odin rather than best for yourself or your group. You think beyond yourself about how you can positively impact others around you. You are not driven by ego or personal emotions in your decision-making. You share information openly and proactively that would be helpful for others.
- Curiosity - You understand things quickly and have an inherent thirst for knowledge. Everything is a strong opinion, weakly held, and you’re always open to changing your mind. You seek to gain a deep understanding of things and always question why things are a certain way, challenging prevailing assumptions. You seek to deeply understand Odin’s business: the strategy, product, industry, customers, and suppliers.
- Passion - You care intensely about Odin’s success. You celebrate wins. You are tenacious and you never give up. You inspire others with your thirst for excellence.
- Communication - You listen well, instead of reacting fast, so you can better understand. You are clear, concise and thoughtful in speech and writing, showing respect for others’ time in how you communicate. You treat people with respect regardless of their status or disagreement with you. You are a calm and level-headed presence in stressful situations.
Company HQ
Dalston, London, UK
Leadership
Mary Lin
(Co-Founder & Co-CEO)Ex-Product Manager and Software Engineer at multiple venture-backed startups. On Entrepreneur First: 5th cohort.
Paddy Ryan
(Co-Founder & Co-CEO)Previously worked at the Irish embassy in Moscow, before working at CrowdCube and building out Coca Cola's venture arm.
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