Join to apply for the Chief Operating Officer role at Plexal
Join to apply for the Chief Operating Officer role at Plexal
The Role's Purpose
Plexal is experiencing rapid year-on-year growth and we are seeking a dynamic and experienced Chief Operating Officer to play a pivotal role in the leadership team to help us scale a world-class innovation business. The COO will work closely with the CEO to implement the company's strategic vision, ensuring operational excellence and driving growth. This role requires a dynamic leader with a strong background in operations, innovation, and consultancy. We need someone who thrives on driving exceptional quality and delivery at pace, whilst also working collaboratively across an organisation and connecting key business functions together to deliver collective impact.
The Role's Purpose
Plexal is experiencing rapid year-on-year growth and we are seeking a dynamic and experienced Chief Operating Officer to play a pivotal role in the leadership team to help us scale a world-class innovation business. The COO will work closely with the CEO to implement the company's strategic vision, ensuring operational excellence and driving growth. This role requires a dynamic leader with a strong background in operations, innovation, and consultancy. We need someone who thrives on driving exceptional quality and delivery at pace, whilst also working collaboratively across an organisation and connecting key business functions together to deliver collective impact.
We are looking for this role to start from April 2026
What You'll Do
Leadership: Enhancing operations capability within Innovation Services and collaborating with delivery leads, growth and wider management to provide cross-functional operational leadership which spans the full business lifecycle (pre-sales to project close)
Strategic Operational Planning: Collaborate with the CEO and other senior management to develop and execute operational strategies aligned with the Plexal’s mission, values and objectives and the companies wider strategic plan.
Aligning People and Process Capability with Product: Deeply understanding the product and proposition strategy for the business (owned by the CEO) and creating the process, people, technology and delivery model to allow us to delight our customers.
Resourcing: Owning the people assets in the Innovation team, ensuring the size, experience, motivation, and availability meets the needs of our customer priorities.
Order to Cash: Understanding, reviewing and owning the Order to Cash process in the Innovation business unit in order to ensure maximum and appropriate margin delivery and the timely receipt of payments from our customers based on the highest quality of delivery.
Innovation and Project Management: Drive cross-functional innovation initiatives, processes, and capabilities, fostering a culture of creativity and continuous improvement.
Operational excellence: Designing, implementing and scaling key operational processes which enhance Plexal’s delivery, prioritise quality and deliver exceptional business outcomes for Plexal and our clients
Commercial: Maintaining strong relationships with clients, ensuring their needs are met and expectations exceeded. Oversee contract management processes, supplier/ partner management activities, quality management, 3 rd party spend and customer delivery.
Operating model: Leading on operating model reviews and organisation design activities to support business growth and team expansion.
Team Development: Leading and mentoring a high-performing team, promoting professional growth and development.
Financial Oversight: Overseeing the financial performance within the operations functions, including budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.
Culture: Implementing people development processes, supporting in building capacity, overseeing resource management and leading on headcount planning and recruitment.
Business Intelligence: Extensive and regular reporting of profitability, risk, quality, resource utilisation (non-exhaustive)
Internal Customer: Acting as the lead internal customer for Enterprise IT, People & Culture, Learning & Development in order to drive transformation of our capability.
Quality systems and certifications: Be responsible for whole business compliance with quality processes. Maintain certification of quality standards eg. ISO 9001 and identify and lead on new certifications eg. potential ISO 27001.
* Requires regular business travel across all Plexal sites. The expectation is weekly travel to London, Cheltenham and Manchester and occasional international travel
* Needs the ability to manage and influence through both face-to-face and virtual team environments
* The role will require security clearance (SC), potentially to a high level (DV)
Essential
Your Skills
* Strong leadership skills, with strong team orientation and an ability to nurture and develop those around you
* Highly organised and able to drive projects through from inception to close
* Excellent strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities
* Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and drive results.
Essential
Your Experience
* Previous management-level operational experience within a growing scale-up, strategy or tech consultancy, professional services firm or fast-paced delivery role in government
* Experience leading teams, including line/ people management, performance management and interfacing with shared services such as HR, IT, Marketing and Operations
* Commercial experience, with previous experience having managed suppliers/ third parties, reviewing contracts and managing small / medium sized budgets (up to £5m)
* Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management, or a related field, or relevant working experience;
Desirable
* Resource management experience, gained within a consultancy or professional services environment
* Experience working in a client-facing environment, managing customer requirements and handling client / customer feedback
* Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management, or a related field, or relevant working experience;
Who You Are
* Comfortable with ambiguity and an individual who thrives in a fast-paced and dynamic work environment
* Able to exert influence across a range of teams and support in the development of new skills, approaches and ways of working
* High levels of accountability and ownership
* Resourceful and creative, with a demonstrable ability to solve problems and think critically
* Energised by the challenges and opportunities associated with a company experiencing rapid growth
Why us?
Plexal’s Values:
Mission: We inherit the mission of UK government and deliver it in an agile and creative fashion.
Collaboration: We believe in the power of working together.
Equality: We strengthen ourselves as a team by embracing the different.
Care: People are at the heart of what we do; we care about our customers, members and colleagues.
As a start-up, we thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment dedicated to empowering innovators. We embrace individuals who leverage technology and creativity to tackle our greatest challenges head-on. We strongly advocate for maintaining a harmonious work-life balance, our goal is to ensure every member of our team can authentically be themselves and live their best lives. We firmly believe that innovation and creativity flourish when we cultivate a diverse workforce, comprising highly skilled individuals with a wide range of perspectives to contribute.
In Return We Will Offer You:
* Salary: competitive to current market rates
* Annual bonus scheme
* A generous pension scheme (with a company contribution of up to 10%)
* Private healthcare, life assurance and critical illness cover
* 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
Plexal is an equal opportunities employer and we actively encourage applicants from individuals from all backgrounds. We are a Disability Committed employer and are willing to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
About Us
Plexal is the innovation company solving society's challenges through collaboration with government, startups and industry. The business is closing the gap between organisations – small and large, local and global, private and public – and working towards a common goal: using science and technology to deliver national security and prosperity. It was founded in 2017 as the innovation centre at Here East and is owned by clients of specialist real estate investment advisory company Delancey.
Providing bespoke consultancy services and state-of-the-art workspaces for over 1,000 innovators, Plexal sources the right partners from our ecosystem of 15,000 connections. It supports entrepreneurs, startups and scaleups building emerging technologies and operates across multiple sectors including cyber, healthcare, intelligence and defence, government, public safety, financial services and telecoms.
Expanding on its existing presence in London and Manchester, Plexal acquired a majority shareholding in Hub8 – the Cheltenham network of co-working spaces for cyber-tech, digital and creative startups and SMEs. This is part of an ongoing mission to build the UK’s most connected cyber ecosystem, with GCHQ’s more than 70-year heritage in Cheltenham.
Plexal delivers projects for key government departments and global tech companies including the National Cyber Security Centre, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Amazon Web Services and IBM. The NCSC For Startups alumni of over 60 companies has collectively raised over £430m and created over 700 jobs, while 72 cyber startups that have gone through Plexal’s LORCA accelerators have collectively raised over £300m, generated more than £68m in revenue and hired over 800 people.
Seniority level
* Seniority level
Executive
Employment type
* Employment type
Contract
Job function
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Management and Manufacturing
* Industries
Business Consulting and Services
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