Head of Operations

The Head of Operations is responsible for leading and coordinating operational excellence across The Group's multi-jurisdictional business. Reporting to the Group COO, this role owns the Group Operating Model and works across jurisdictions to align core processes, procedures, controls and service standards so that the business operates consistently, efficiently and in a scalable way.

The role acts as the central point of leadership for operational issues and continuous improvement, identifying inefficiencies, coordinating remediation, and ensuring that change is implemented effectively across the Group.

This includes close day-to-day partnership with IT and Transformation on system configuration changes, process redesign, operating model evolution and the landing of transformation initiatives in local businesses.

The Head of Operations will work through and alongside Operations Directors (or similar roles, where they exist) in each jurisdiction, with dotted-line oversight of those local leaders, to create a joined-up operational community.

The role also works closely with Finance, Risk and Compliance to establish meaningful operational metrics, ensure policies and procedures remain fit for purpose and locally compliant, and provide high-quality operational insight to the COO and wider leadership team.

The role requires strong data analytics capability and a proactive engagement with AI, exploring practical ways to improve operational processes, reporting and decision-making. The role will also liaise closely with the Innovation function to provide operational input and ensure the business is leveraging the tools and capabilities being developed.
Key Responsibilities:

- Operating Model Ownership:

- Own, document and maintain the Group Operating Model, ensuring it clearly defines how key operational activities are delivered across jurisdictions and business lines.

- Establish a clear framework for operational governance, including process ownership, decision rights, escalation routes and standards for documentation.

- Ensure the Operating Model evolves in line with strategic priorities, acquisitions, regulatory requirements and technology change.

- Maintain a robust inventory of key operational processes, procedures, controls and service dependencies across the Group.

- Process Alignment & Continuous Improvement:

- Lead Group-wide efforts to align processes and procedures where appropriate, creating greater consistency, efficiency, resilience and service quality across jurisdictions.

- Identify operational inefficiencies, pain points, bottlenecks and duplication, and prioritise opportunities for simplification, standardisation and automation.

- Run structured reviews of key operational processes to improve turnaround times, control effectiveness, colleague experience and client outcomes.

- Promote a continuous improvement culture across the operational community, encouraging local ideas while ensuring change is prioritised and governed effectively.

- Operational Issue Resolution & Change Delivery:

- Act as a senior escalation point for cross-jurisdiction operational issues, coordinating analysis, decision-making and remediation to resolution.

- Work closely with Transformation and IT on system configuration changes, operational support requirements, incident themes and platform enhancements that impact business processes.

- Partner with Transformation teams to shape and coordinate implementation of operational change across jurisdictions, ensuring dependencies, readiness and local adoption are properly managed.

- Provide operational input into transformation initiatives, including practical feedback on process design, sequencing, resourcing, risks and how change is landing in the business.

- Support business readiness activities for change initiatives, including communications, training needs, process updates and post-implementation review.

- Liaise with the Innovation function to provide operational input