VP People & Operations in City of London

Job description

Title: VP People & Operations

Salary: Up to £150,000 + Equity

Location: London, hybrid with and travel to US

Speak To:

Olivia Finn

Who are they?

• A pioneering DeepTech start-up working on cutting edge technology with a massive global impact
• Rapid growth planned with imminent Series A funding expected and plans to scale from 15 to 80 people in 12 months.
• Led by seasoned entrepreneurs, driving a dual-hub Anglo-American organisation.

The Role:

• Define and implement processes and ways of working across London and Bay Area offices.
• Build leadership capability within highly technical science and research teams.
• Drive operational rigor through design and implementation of KPIs and operational discipline across the company.
• Build a hiring machine to attract world-class engineering talent in both UK and US markets.
• Help operationalise the company’s core values, and drive a collaborative and high-performance culture focused on results.
• Lay product ops groundwork and support the success of a new product leadership function.

Key Challenges:

• Build from zero: No formal People & Operations in place; this is ground zero, requiring immediate, hands-on delivery.
• Dual-location complexity: Navigating and unifying operations across distinct London and Bay Area hubs.
• Upskill technical leaders: Coaching highly technical leaders new to high-growth startup leadership.
• High-difficulty tariff: Spinning many plates simultaneously across teams and locations, demanding a high appetite for complexity.
• Navigate ambiguity: Thrive in a super-fast-paced environment requiring constant adaptability and ownership.

What Are We Looking For?

• Proven experience building and operating teams internationally, especially in the Bay Area/West Coast.
• Agile, diplomatic, and results-driven, implementing light-touch, high-impact processes.
• Highly strategic, emotionally robust, and capable of driving operational rigor in complex DeepTech spaces.
• Experience scaling companies, ideally Seed / Series A stage to beyond 200 people
• Previous No.1 in an operations or people function directly reporting to co-founders
• Confident operating across multiple domains beyond pure software (e.g. Hardware, datacentres, AI, robotics)
• Able to speak the language of product and coherently interact with and support the function’s success.
• Excellent influencer able to navigate and align very different types of personalities.

Why this role?

• Massive Impact: Address a global challenge of geopolitical importance and significant climate/nature impact, fundamentally reimagining AI compute.
• Groundbreaking Technology: Work on commercialising technology thought about for 30-40 years by computer science’s greatest minds.
• Fast-track to Scale: Join a company at Seed/Series A stage, aiming to build a trillion-dollar company with significant equity upside.
• Experienced Leadership: Work with an executive team with extensive startup experience (this is the CEO’s 7th startup – 5x raised and 2x exited).
• Autonomy & Ownership: Huge autonomy to build and own the People & Operations function from day one.
• Compelling Mission: A Google DeepMind-esque sense of mission, playing a material role in assembling the team that delivers it and potentially wins the Nobel Prize!

Is this role for you?

This role is for a builder ready to wear multiple hats, and self-direct. Not for those seeking pre-defined structure or top-down decision-making. Requires a high appetite for complexity and comfort navigating ambiguity. If this sounds like you, then please get in touch!

Salary: Up to £150,000 + Equity

Location: London

Team: Operations, People, Talent

Extra information

Status

Open

Education Level

Secondary School

Location

City of London

Type of Contract

Part-time jobs

Published at

15-08-2025

Profession type

Logistics jobs

Full UK/EU driving license preferred

No

Car Preferred

No

Must be eligible to work in the EU

No

Cover Letter Required

No

Languages

English