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Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Hybrid
As Head of Operations UK, you'll lead the team that moves art in and out of the UK every day, from the most prestigious auction houses and galleries to collectors worldwide. You own the full picture: your people, your numbers (revenue, margin, lead time, client satisfaction, incidents) and the roadmap that makes our UK operations faster, more reliable and more scalable. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is process-driven and a systems thinker.
You will lead three Operations teams, each with its own team manager and each focused around a different typology of clients (auction houses, galleries and design). Within each team, your team will handle quoting, customer care, order processing, documentation, customs, freight and delivery for our UK-based clients. You’ll be responsible for ensuring that the processes in each team align with each other, and service levels are maintained across the teams. The warehouse and technicians won’t be in your scope, but you’ll be responsible for making sure that your team works well with the warehouse. For this reason, you will need to be on-site in our warehouse in West Drayton (near Heathrow) for at least 3 days per week.
You will report to the General Manager, sit in the UK leadership team, and work hand in hand with our Operations teams in Paris and New York, and also with Sales, Product and Finance.
Lead and grow the UK Operations team
Recruit, onboard and develop your team, and build the talent plan as the UK scope evolves.
Foster a positive, high-performing culture with ownership for each team-member, and where problems come with solutions; convene regular team meetings and organise team-building activities.
Ensure that each team manager runs objectives, performance reviews, salary reviews and career moves across the team, and be the first point of contact on all people topics.
Establish and maintain an effective team structure with clear roles, accountabilities and ways of working.
Conduct regular one-to-ones with the team managers, supporting the development and career progression of your direct reports.
Own the UK operational performance and workload management
Be accountable for the Operations team's key indicators: revenue, margin, lead time, client satisfaction and incident rate.
Maintains oversight of team output, inboxes, and dashboards through consistent routines and shared tools. Ensure workload and clients are well-allocated across the three teams, and that all clients receive an excellent service level operationally.
Report on UK performance in leadership forums
Shape the Operations roadmap and innovation
Define the vision and roadmap of UK Operations, aligned with our global operations strategy.
Be the owner of all major UK Operational processes, ensuring that they are well-defined within each team and regularly refreshed, including customs processes and maintaining important security accreditations.
Drive automation and AI adoption in day-to-day operations, so the team spends time where human expertise matters. You’ll need to be able to use AI effectively yourself.
Lead cross-functional projects with the other Operations teams and internal departments.
Be the go-to expert on complex operations
Acts as the primary escalation point for complex shipment issues and client concerns, exercising sound judgement under pressure with a client-first approach.
Delegates escalations to team managers where appropriate and ensures incident learnings are incorporated into team processes
Foster a culture of continuous learning in the team so that incidents are not repeated.
5+ years in operations, ideally a mix of consulting and a high-growth start-up or scale-up, in an operational or strategy & operations role. We will consider applicants who have only worked in consulting if you can show how you have driven results yourself.
2+ years managing teams, ideally managing managers. You develop people as much as you deliver results.
You bring consulting-grade structure with a start-up bias for action: you can diagnose a problem with data, design the fix and roll it out yourself.
You’re data-driven and process-minded, and you use technology, automation and AI day to day to solve real problems.
You’re client-minded and calm under pressure, as comfortable handling a dispute with a key account as coaching a junior coordinator.
You’re fluent in English with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Nice to have: experience in logistics or luxury, a proven track record of driving operational KPIs.
An opportunity to be part of a constantly developing and innovative company that is transforming the art logistics industry.
A competitive package
Flexible remote policy (up to 2 days per week remotely)
A dynamic and kind team spirit, where you have the space and support to fulfil your potential and your ideas are highly valued.
