Head of Operations

HEAD OF OPERATIONS JOB DESCRIPTION

About 1st Formations

At 1st Formations, we empower entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses with confidence.

Running a business shouldn’t be slowed down by company formation, statutory compliance, accounting, or payroll. From day one, these essentials should be seamless, reliable, and intelligently handled - freeing founders to focus on building and scaling.

We’re a leading UK provider of company formation and compliance services, building a modern, fully integrated technology platform that supports founders at every stage of their journey. Our platform brings together formation, compliance, accounting, payroll, and ongoing business support in one cohesive experience.

No stitched-together services.
No legacy workflows disguised as software.

Just a single, scalable platform built for ambitious founders who want to move fast, stay compliant, and grow with confidence.

Why Join Us Now?

You’ll be joining a business with strong momentum, clear direction, and real opportunity for progression.

● £18m annual revenue, including £9m ARR

● Over 1 million companies formed

● Certified B Corp and Carbon Neutral Business

● Forecast to grow 5x–10x over the next three years

The Role

We are seeking a commercially minded Head of Operations to drive day-to-day operational performance and execution excellence across 1st Formations and its associated business lines.

The Head of Operations is responsible for driving operational performance, alignment, and execution across 1st Formations' customer-facing operations and associated service lines. This role provides operational leadership across customer sales, retention, customer service, mail, company secretarial (Co Sec), and the serviced offices/business centre, ensuring the company's vision is translated into scalable, efficient, and commercially successful outcomes.

The Head of Operations will lead the integration and optimisation of these service lines and functions, ensuring consistent performance, operational resilience, and the delivery of the company's commercial objectives.

Working in close partnership with the CEO, the Head of Operations will play a key role in translating strategic priorities into practical plans, ensuring disciplined execution, sustainable growth, and measurable performance across every function it owns. This is a hands-on leadership role; the Head of Operations sets the strategic direction for their functions but remains close to the day-to-day detail, working alongside function managers and front-line teams to ensure execution matches ambition. This is an office-based role, five days a week, at our head office in Covent Garden, London.

Key Responsibilities

· Own the operating strategy and day-to-day performance across customer sales, retention, customer service, mail, Co Sec, and the serviced offices/business centre; translating commercial objectives into functional plans while staying hands-on in execution.

· Set and manage the operating cadence for each function; targets, workflows, and standards, ensuring consistent delivery across all customer-facing teams.

· Build and own the reporting and KPI framework across these functions, giving leadership real-time visibility into performance, risk, and opportunity.

· Drive cross-functional collaboration, resolving operational bottlenecks to ensure smooth customer journeys and efficient ways of working.

· Partner with the CEO to evaluate growth opportunities; new service lines and market opportunities, assessing operational readiness to scale ahead of commitment.

· Develop and coach function managers and senior leaders, strengthening leadership capability and organisational effectiveness, and ensuring each function operates with clear ownership, commercial discipline, and measurable performance outcomes.

· Work with Product to lead operational improvement and transformation initiatives; systems, automation, process redesign, and technology enablement to enhance scalability, efficiency, and competitive advantage. This includes operational ownership of the migration of customers and functions onto the new platform.

· Ensure operational resilience, enterprise risk management, and regulatory compliance across all regulated activities, maintaining robust governance and controls across the Group.

· Develop a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and customer-centricity.

· Help ensure operational resilience and regulatory adherence across regulated activities within the Group.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Team Performance & Productivity

· Output/productivity per FTE across owned functions

· Employee engagement score and trend

· Team retention and voluntary attrition

· Function manager bench strength and internal promotion rate

Customer Experience & Service Delivery

· CSAT and NPS trends

· Complaint resolution time and effectiveness

· SLA adherence across owned functions

· Retention/churn rate linked to operational performance

· Facility occupancy and service standards

· Statutory filing accuracy and on-time completion rate

Operational Efficiency & Financial Performance

· Cost-to-serve across owned functions

· Revenue per employee within customer operations

· Process efficiency improvements (automation, cycle time, error rates)

· Scalability of operations relative to headcount growth

What we are looking for

· A commercially astute operator with experience running operations across multi-disciplinary or multi-entity service businesses; ideally within a scaling SME environment of a similar size to ours (circa 150 staff, £18m revenue) and with experience in a subscription, membership or B2B Services model

· Experience coordinating diverse business units or functions while maintaining performance accountability.

· Strong operational and organisational capability, with the credibility to work closely with senior leadership.

· Understanding of regulated, professional services, or compliance-led environments.

· A data-led leader who translates plans into measurable execution and consistent delivery.

· A collaborative leader who builds alignment across diverse teams and raises operational standards.

· A change-oriented operator who strengthens processes while supporting growth and innovation.

What We Offer

· £90k–110k and comprehensive benefits package

· Real opportunities for progression as the business scales

· The chance to influence both customer experience and product development

· A culture that values ownership, impact, and continuous learning

Equal Opportunities
1st Formations is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We consider all applicants for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, criminal history, disability, or gender identity. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.