Operations Director in Kent

About Us

Craven Street Wealth are award‑winning Independent Chartered Financial Planners and Wealth Managers, with offices across London and the South of England. We provide high‑quality, personalised financial advice to individuals, families and businesses, often working closely with other professional advisers to help clients make confident, well‑informed decisions. We have around 100 colleagues working both remotely and from regional offices in Bedfordshire, Dorset, Kent, London, Oxfordshire and Sussex. Everyone brings their own skills and experience, but they are united by shared principles: building deep expertise, creating tailored solutions, embracing innovation and delivering outstanding client service. Alongside strong professional credentials and industry recognition, Craven Street Wealth take pride in acting ethically and responsibly, with a genuine interest in wider social and environmental issues. Craven Street Wealth is part of Quanta group, a next‑generation financial services Group, providing a full wealth management service through three core businesses – Wealthtime, Copia Capital Management and Craven Street Wealth.

About The Role

Craven Street Wealth are looking for an experienced Operations Director to join the executive management team. This is a senior leadership role with real influence, helping to shape the firm’s strategy, people development, client proposition and overall performance. The role has a strong focus on operational excellence. You’ll be responsible for designing, delivering and improving the firm’s Target Operating Model (TOM), ensuring client service, paraplanning and operational teams operate efficiently, consistently and in line with regulatory expectations. This is a full‑time, permanent position, but flexibility in working patterns can be discussed.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic leadership: Contributing at board level to business strategy, policy and decision‑making, and helping translate strategic ambitions into practical, well‑run operations.
• Operational excellence: Designing and continuously improving end‑to‑end client service processes, from onboarding through to ongoing advice and servicing.
• Financial planning technical operations: Ownership of policies and procedures to support the delivery of financial planning, including ownership of advice policy, adviser competence assessments, advice suitability checking procedures.
• Client‑first service: Embedding high service standards aligned with Chartered status and FCA Consumer Duty, using clear workflows, SLAs and performance measures.
• Regulatory and governance oversight: Ensuring operations fully support FCA requirements, strong systems and controls, and effective risk management.
• Growth and scalability: Building an operational infrastructure capable of supporting regional expansion and future mergers and acquisitions, including integrating new teams smoothly and consistently.
• People leadership: Leading, developing and motivating operational, client service and paraplanning teams, and building a strong leadership structure for the future.
• Financial management: Managing the operational budget, ensuring cost efficiency without compromising client outcomes or service quality.
• Culture and ethics: Promoting a positive, ethical and inclusive culture, and acting as a senior ambassador for the firm when required.

You’ll work closely with the Managing Director, Compliance and other senior leaders to ensure the business runs smoothly, responsibly and is well positioned for future growth.

About You

This role would suit a proven operational leader from an IFA, wealth management or financial planning background. You’ll bring:

• Senior leadership experience in a regulated financial services environment
• A strong understanding of financial advice operations, paraplanning and client service models
• Experience designing and implementing scalable operating models
• Solid knowledge of FCA regulation, Consumer Duty and governance expectations
• A people focused approach, with experience leading and developing teams
• Budget management and commercial awareness
• Experience supporting growth, regional expansion or mergers and acquisitions