Chief of Staff in London

About Apron

Apron is building something game-changing. Founded in 2021, Apron set out to help SMBs win. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, yet the systems they rely on, particularly around payments, are slow, manual and not built for them. The biggest threat to small business is cash flow, often stemming from a gap between the demand payments put on owners and the aptitude to make the payments effectively. Apron changes that. We are closing the gap by digitising and simplifying the payments process: capturing invoices, issuing expense cards, paying and getting paid, all in one place.

We have grown fast over the past few years, expanding our team to circa 100 individuals across the UK, Germany, Spain and more. We are backed by Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Zinal Grow and Tony Fadell and we've raised $50m. The ambition from here is not incremental growth. Apron is building a category-defining, global fintech business with a clear path to significant revenue scale and international expansion. The next phase requires not just great product and ambition, but a world-class operating engine.

The Opportunity

Apron is entering its next phase of growth, moving from strong product-market fit and rapid scaling to building the operating engine of a global fintech. As the company grows in size, complexity, and ambition, the opportunity is to ensure that execution compounds: that decisions translate into coordinated action at pace, that cross-functional work lands cleanly, and that the organisation scales with clarity. We are hiring a Chief of Staff to help build and shape that operating engine. This is a central, high-impact role working closely with the CEO and leadership team to increase velocity, strengthen alignment, and lay the foundations that will support Apron through international expansion and significant revenue scale. Done well, this role will materially shape how Apron operates and wins over the next chapter of its journey.

What You Will Own

• Turning Decisions into Organisational Action: You will ensure product and leadership decisions translate into coordinated action across the business. In a product-led company, decisions cannot live in the room where they are made. You will make sure context travels. You will translate the "what" into the "so what / now what." You will build clarity across functions so execution doesn’t rely on ad hoc reinforcement from leadership. Your goal is to hardwire alignment into how the organisation moves.
• Driving Cross-Functional Execution: Each quarter surfaces initiatives that cut across teams and are critical to company progress. You will own the end-to-end momentum of this work: Clear ownership, Defined timelines, Visibility across dependencies, Accountability for follow-through, Early escalation when things drift. This role sits at the intersection of teams. You will connect dots others don’t naturally see, bring the right people together, navigate trade-offs, and remove blockers quickly. The expectation is simple: cross-functional work moves at pace and lands.
• Building the Operating Engine: You will design and maintain a lightweight but powerful operating rhythm that supports speed without bureaucracy. This includes: Clear, repeatable ways to track priorities, Transparent updates and escalation, Consistent follow-through across teams. Apron operates at pace. Plans evolve and priorities shift. You will ensure the organisation can absorb change without losing clarity or momentum. You will also embed AI into how we operate, identifying where it can remove friction, increase leverage, and improve visibility. The goal is to scale intelligently, increasing output without increasing unnecessary complexity.
• Scaling with Clarity: As Apron grows, you will help ensure our ways of working scale with us. You will pressure-test what breaks as we grow, strengthen how decisions and communication travel through the organisation, and ensure growth sharpens rather than dilutes clarity. Crucially, you will help protect a culture of customer obsession as complexity increases. As the business scales, internal focus can creep in. You will ensure the organisation remains anchored in real customer impact.

Who You Are

• Values: High ambition and comfortable operating at hyper pace, Strong ownership mentality, you move toward problems, Low ego, team-first mindset, Deep belief in building something meaningful and lasting.
• How You Operate: You build trust across functions, You influence through context, not authority, You bias to action, You are comfortable in ambiguity, You hold the line on accountability.
• Skills & Experience: Proven generalist operator inside a tier one, fast-moving company, Strong program and project leadership across functions, Systems thinker who can design repeatable operating rhythms, AI-curious and practical in applying new tools, Real operating experience, not just advisory exposure, Consulting or investment banking backgrounds are welcome if followed by meaningful operating responsibility.

Why This Role Matters

This is not a facilitator role. This is a role for someone who wants to build the operating engine of a company with global ambition. If you are excited by scale, complexity, and the opportunity to shape how a category-defining fintech runs, this is a rare opportunity to do exactly that.

What We Offer

• Highly competitive salary
• Stock options
• Pension plan
• Health insurance with AXA (including Optical and Dental cover)
• Life Assurance with MetLife
• Enhanced parental leave
• Weekly Deliveroo allowance
• 29 days of holidays (on top of Bank holidays)
• Flexible working hours
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Electric vehicle scheme