Head of Operations, AimHi Earth

• We’re now seeking a collaborative, diligent, hands-on, strategic, enthusiastic Head of Operations to complement our co-founders and to help us to grow from reaching tens of thousands to tens of millions
• Do you believe the words of H.G. Wells – that civilisation is in a constant race between learning and catastrophe – and that knowledge is the foundation of global community?
• Do you have the taste for an adventure into education technology, AI, climate and nature communications and systems transformation?
• Are you excited by the enormous potential for education, learning and training to rapidly evolve in this new era of AI?
• Do you believe that scalable, tech-enabled climate and nature learning products can instil the necessary stewardship, compassion and wisdom to change the course of history?
• Do you love to build and scale enterprises, hands-on, both for commercial success and to shape a better, more regenerative future?
• Do you have the grit, determination and ambition to cultivate and scale an early-stage start-up?
• Will you thrive in an organisation that’s radically open (we share and resolve tension very quickly), and where nature-centric thinking (thinking in ecosystems, putting nature first etc.) is embedded everywhere, from our to our partnerships strategy to our away day locations?
• If your answers are yes, we’re excited to hear from you
• A love of nature and thriving human civilisation, and a deep desire to protect both
• Experience in a key operational leadership position, scaling a technology start-up from the 10 people mark upwards
• A strong network for fundraising from angels, VCs, foundations etc., and experience raising investment capital in the region of £2mn - £10mn
• Experience with financial management in an equivalent or closely comparable paradigm
• Experience working in a leadership role as part of a remote or semi-remote team
• Bonfire-levels of enthusiasm, initiative and self-starter energy
• High EQ (a love of people and an ability to judge, manage and resolve tension from afar)
• Ability to work effectively as a team, and autonomously – particularly as a remote worker (discipline, self-motivation, great time management)
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• Healthy scepticism and an ability to ask good questions

Desirable

• As our Head of Operations, you will own, build and shape the operations of the business
• You will become one of our organisation’s key leaders. You will learn, grow and succeed together with us
• In three words, you will be our central coordinator, multi–faceted executor and trusted co-strategist
• This is a very hands-on role: you will be building the collective bike whilst riding it. Peddling, adjusting, testing, tweaking, oiling and streamlining. All whilst co-strategising with us
• By taking this role, you will be enabling our collective creative force, complementing our co-founders and wider team
• As our beating operational heart, you will help us to unlock the capacity to seize huge opportunities waiting in the wings (e.g. a chance to work with King Charles’ roundtable of CSOs)
• With you cultivating this role, our organisation will become ever-more nimble, efficient and enabled
• You will be pivotal in transforming our challenges into achievable milestones, our people into superstars, and our creations into a profitable, high-impact reality
• You will report to our CEO, Matthew Shribman
• Your role has room to grow, and will be grounded in the following (with rough percentage splits):
• Company operations coordination, execution and strategy (40%)
• Coordinate and actively help to execute our operations, from the big to the small, from horizon-scanning and opportunity-seeking to the implementation of crucial day-to-day systems (without overly systemising and killing creativity / dynamism)
• Build out our ops procedures and processes, including improving and optimising our tools and technology
• Monitor and set clear KPIs/OKRs (working with other senior leaders), ensuring everyone knows what they own, and how to act in the best interests of the whole
• Financial management (15%)
• Take charge of our finances and budgets to ensure strategic allocation of resources
• Work with our virtual CFO
• Supporting fundraising & investor relations (10%)
• Leverage your network and nurture new relationships to chase and court potential funders for our late seed / early Series A later this year (beginning Q3 2024, to close in Q2 2025)
• Maintain and deepen relationships with existing investors and interested parties, including sending electrically exciting updates quarterly
• Contract & deal management (10%)
• Ensure that our contracts and deals are negotiated and finalised in a manner that best represents our interests and aligns with our mission. You will be supported in this work by our legal counsel
• People, culture & ways of working (10%)
• Support our EA/Chief of Staff in building on our open, honest, frank, mutually-supportive culture, making it even better
• Oversee hiring, alongside our EA/Chief of Staff and relevant department heads
• Lead efficient and motivating team meetings
• Board management & meetings (5%)
• Organise and help prepare our quarterly board meetings
• Manage our Board administration and coordination
• And, lastly, as a nice-to-have, if you have the required experience:
• Supporting go-to-market strategy and implementation (10%)
• Devise and implement high-quality go-to-market strategies for our existing products
• Expand our top-of-funnel sales pipeline for our co-founder, Sarah, to convert
• Create opportunities to pitch new product ideas to relevant customers
• 30 days:
• Everyone in the company knows what their responsibilities are, what number(s) they own, and how what they’re doing contributes to the success of the whole
• Weekly kick-off meetings are evolving beyond sequential updates. You ensure that they’re as exciting as they are informative
• You have improved/established regular stand-ups, split by team, as standard
• You are becoming the key linking piece: everyone in the company feels more in touch with, supported by, and connected to the rest of the company by and via you
• You are aware of our funding pipeline, you have caught up on why certain funders said no to us in the past, and you are actively thinking about future funding options
• [If applicable, you understand our go-to-market strategy.]
• 60 days:
• Our financial model is built out to include a more radical product pivot scenario, on top of our three current staying-the-course scenarios. All models are associated with strategic short- and mid-term hiring and resource allocation plans
• Our board feels confidently updated by and connected with you as their core link to the operations of the business. Board meetings are planned by you and our board chair
• You are setting and structuring coherent goals for different departments in the business
• You are setting and structuring personal development and growth pathways for our staff
• Working with our CEO, you have created an exciting update for potential funders, and have used it to reignite old conversations and begin new ones with at least 5 potential funders
• You are able to handle most contract negotiation, with input from our legal counsel and CEO
• [If applicable, you’re on top of our pipeline, and you are actively making suggestions to improve our go-to-market strategy.]
• 90 days:
• Working with our CEO, you are actively helping to enable conversations with 10+ potential future funders (including current funders and those we already know). You have opened up several of these conversations yourself, and you are supporting our CEO in ensuring that all these funders are feeling aware, updated and increasingly excited about us
• You are actively planning conversations with suitable VCs to spar with over our current plans
• You are making strategic decisions on our near- and mid-term priorities and resource-allocation, demonstrably improving the efficiency, resilience and potential-for-creativity of the ship. Everyone is aware of and aboard with your decisions
• Working with our EA/Chief of Staff, our people processes are sufficiently built-out for an organisation of our size (regular check-ins, reviews, accountability, incentive structures etc.)
• You are increasingly interconnected with our product, partnerships and sales teams, discerning space for operational improvement and proactively fixing problems
• [If applicable, our go-to-market efforts are demonstrably improving based on your inputs.]

• We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis, but intend to close applications at the end of 16th June 02024 (UK hours)
• Our goal is to have someone onboard by the end of July
• You will be asked for:
• Your CV
• A brief cover letter sharing what excites you about working with us. We can generally tell when these have been created with generative AI. Honestly, we’d prefer that it’s short!
• 1. Apply
• 2. Competency Questionnaire
• 3. Behavioural Zoom call
• 4. CEO call
• 5. Meet the Founders in person if possible
• 6. References