Head of Operations

Head Of Operations

Gocertify is a bootstrapped UK tech start-up helping brands run smarter, more targeted reward campaigns.

We verify eligible audiences such as students, key workers and seniors, so brands can move away from broad discounting, protect brand value and offer the right rewards to the right customers.

We are trusted by 500+ brands, including Samsung, Sainsbury's and FARFETCH. We work with 2m+ shoppers a year, drive £125m+ in retail sales, and have grown profitably and bootstrapped since 2020.

We are a remote team of around 20 people, with monthly meetups in London. We have scaled by staying lean and highly productive, and we are intentional about protecting that agility as we grow. That means keeping our systems lightweight and our ownership clear, so the team can execute quickly, make good decisions and scale without unnecessary process.

Why This Role Exists

Gocertify has reached the point where better operating leverage matters more than simply adding more headcount.

The business already has strong foundations: talented people, great momentum, and specialist support across Finance, People, Legal and InfoSec. We are lean, high-output, and built around finding smart ways to operate. What we need next is a senior operator who can connect these pieces, strengthen our internal ops ecosystem, and help the company run more effectively as we grow.

This role sits at the intersection of company rhythm and hands-on execution: someone who can spot pain points, design solutions, and embed what works into how the business runs day to day.

A key lever for success will be using tooling, automation and AI well. In practice, that could mean deploying AI agents to surface insight from company meetings, building Airtable interfaces to manage contracts, or using Claude Code to analyse client performance. We want someone who's genuinely excited by this kind of leverage - who can see where modern tools can remove friction and make the business easier to run.

In the first phase, that will mean picking up a broad range of operational work directly so you can understand how the business really runs before improving, automating or redistributing it over time.

What's Already In Place

This role is not starting from scratch, and it is not expected to personally own every operational discipline.

• An established operating rhythm: fortnightly all-hands, monthly co-working, quarterly reviews.
• A People Lead who owns People strategy, delivery and craft.
• A Senior Ops Manager who leads Data Protection and InfoSec.
• Specialist finance support through a fractional CFO and Finance Manager.
• External legal support as needed.
• Two assistants already in the business, including one within Ops, with scope to scale assistant support further where it makes sense.

The Head of Operations will help these areas work together more clearly, improve what is already in place, and ensure owners have the context, systems and follow-through they need.

What The First Phase Of This Role Looks Like

To fix friction points, you first have to see them in action. Over your first few months, you will pick up a broad, hands-on operational remit to deeply understand how Gocertify runs.

This initial immersion is likely to include:

• Finance operations, including month-end cadence, invoice and debtor workflows, payroll changes and supplier management
• Legal, compliance and data protection, including contracts, DPAs, GDPR BAU, ISO 27001, insurance and vendor diligence
• Shopper support oversight, including tooling and operational readiness
• Systems, tooling and documentation, including automations, device management, access setup and Notion
• Company operating rhythm, including SLT cadence, all-hands, quarterly planning and reviews
• Cross-functional and commercial work where ownership or follow-through needs strengthening

Some of this work will remain part of the long-term remit. Some will be improved, automated or redistributed over time. Because the first phase covers a lot of ground, the right person will be energised by the breadth, use judgment to focus on what matters most, and start shaping better systems from day one.

Where the work proves too broad to sit with one person long term, we will hire or redistribute support around the role rather than expecting the Head of Operations to carry everything indefinitely.

Role And Scope

As Head of Operations, your primary job is to make the company easier to run as it grows.

You will own the company operating rhythm, lead cross-functional projects that need a clear operator, and improve the day-to-day workflows that keep the business moving.

You will also line manage the People Lead, Senior Ops Manager, and the Finance Manager helping both functions stay connected to company priorities and work as part of one joined-up operating system.

Working closely with the Founder, the wider leadership team, and specialist owners across Finance, Legal and Revenue, the focus is making sure important work has a clear owner, the right level of structure, and enough momentum to move forward on its own

What You Will Focus On

1. Strengthen the operational foundations of the business

Get close to existing processes, identify pain points, design better solutions, build them, test them, and keep iterating until they work in practice

Tighten the operational backbone across finance, compliance, support and internal systems

Improve tooling, documentation, access management and new-starter setup where the current setup is too manual or unclear

Build lightweight systems and workflows that are fast to use, easy to maintain, and proportionate to the stage of the business

2. Make complex cross-functional work move

Lead operational projects that cut across teams and need a clear owner

Turn unclear problems into practical plans, owners, timelines and decisions

Unblock progress where work is stalling between teams

Bring enough structure to keep important work moving without making the company feel heavy

3. Improve company rhythm and follow-through

Own and improve SLT cadence, all-hands, quarterly planning and quarterly reviews

Make decision-making and follow-through clearer across the business

Keep priorities visible and reduce drift without adding bureaucracy

Help the Founder and leadership team spend less time on day-to-day operational follow-up

4. Lead the ops ecosystem around the business

Line manage and support the People Lead, Senior Ops Manager and fractional Finance Manager

Make sure People, Ops, compliance, finance support and other core operational work stay aligned to company priorities

Use data and operational context to support better business decisions

Help the company stay lean and high-output as it grows