Chief Operating Officer in London

Be part of the leadership team shaping one of the UK's most ambitious data businesses. Our client is looking for a commercially minded Chief Operating Officer to help lead the next phase of growth for a company that already sits at the centre of the UK's private company intelligence market. This is a rare opportunity to join a profitable, high growth platform business with a strong reputation, a genuinely differentiated product, and a clear strategic roadmap towards international expansion and long term exit readiness.

The successful candidate will be responsible for driving operational execution across the business, translating strategic priorities into measurable plans, improving organisational effectiveness, and helping the company scale in a structured and commercially disciplined way. Alongside those responsibilities, the role also carries ownership of the company's finance function, making it ideally suited to an operational leader who is highly commercially and financially literate.

The business itself operates within the data and intelligence space, delivering insight and analytics used by advisory firms, investors, corporates, government organisations, and commercial teams to identify opportunities and make better decisions. With millions of companies traced across Europe, alongside a growing international footprint, the company has established itself as one of the most respected names in its market.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the COO will become the operational engine of the business. The CEO's focus will remain on long term strategy, external relationships, market positioning, and special projects, while the COO takes ownership of execution, accountability, planning, and operational performance across the organisation.

The company already has a clear strategic direction. What they now need is someone capable of turning those priorities into structured operational plans with clear owners, measurable outcomes, and accountability across the organisation. The COO will own planning cycles, KPI frameworks, reporting cadence, operational reviews, and cross functional execution across all departments. They will work closely with the leadership team to determine where resources should be allocated, which initiatives should be prioritised, and where improvements in efficiency and effectiveness can be made.

This role will sit at the centre of the company's day to day operational rhythm. Responsibilities will include monitoring commercial and operational KPIs, identifying bottlenecks before they become larger issues, improving communication and execution across teams, and ensuring strategic initiatives are delivered without becoming dependent on the CEO for operational oversight.

The company is also investing heavily in operational maturity and AI enablement. They are looking for someone who is naturally curious about AI tools and automation, and who can help the organisation become more efficient and effective through better use of technology, process optimisation, and scalable operational infrastructure.

Alongside operational leadership, the role also carries significant financial ownership. The successful candidate will oversee the company's finance function, replacing an existing fractional CFO arrangement and building the internal financial discipline needed for the next stage of scale. This includes ownership of management accounts, forecasting, budgeting, cash flow management, board reporting, resource allocation, and financial modelling.

Importantly, the company is not necessarily looking for a career CFO. They are open to strong operational leaders who have developed meaningful financial ownership as part of broader COO or operational leadership roles. Equally, candidates who began their careers in finance before moving into operational leadership environments would also be highly relevant. The key requirement is someone who is deeply analytical, commercially minded, comfortable owning financial performance, and capable of using data and financial insight to drive better operational decisions across the business.

The COO will become a key strategic partner to the CEO and wider board, helping shape decisions around pricing, hiring, investment, market expansion, and longer term growth planning. They will also support future debt or equity fundraising activity, investor reporting, and eventual exit readiness over the coming years.

This is not a solo operator role. The successful candidate will inherit an existing operational structure that includes a finance team, a Head of Operations with broader ops and people functions beneath them, and a General Counsel covering legal and governance responsibilities. The expectation is not that this individual personally executes every task, but that they bring structure, leadership, accountability, and operational clarity to the organisation as a whole.

The company is particularly interested in candidates who have operated within data, information services, analytics, or subscription platform businesses. Experience within traditional B2B SaaS environments is relevant, but the leadership team believes data businesses carry additional complexity around product value, recurring revenue dynamics, and commercial modelling, so exposure to that environment is strongly preferred.

Candidates are likely to come from high growth scale up environments, ideally within businesses ranging from 50 to 300 employees, where they have already held significant operational leadership responsibility. Experience around fundraising, debt financing, transaction processes, or exit preparation will also be highly valuable.

This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious COO to join a highly respected data platform at a pivotal stage of growth. The role offers significant strategic influence, close partnership with the CEO and board, meaningful operational ownership, and the opportunity to help shape the long term future of the business.

The role is London based and requires regular in person collaboration with the leadership team. Compensation includes a competitive salary alongside equity participation.