Operations Manager

Foundation Partners have partnered with Fidus on this search.

The Role

Fidus is a specialist Quantity Surveying & Contract Administration Consultancy operating in the high-end and super-prime residential property market. We're growing, and our senior team's time is increasingly consumed by operational and administrative tasks that pull focus from delivery, client relationships, and business development.

This role exists to fix that. We're looking for an Operations Lead who can take ownership of the commercial, contractual, and administrative machinery of the business - the things that need to happen reliably and on time, but that our QS team shouldn't be the ones doing.

This is not a PA or EA role. It's an Operations Lead role with a strong commercial and contractual backbone, for someone who wants to build something rather than just maintain it.

Total ownership & excellence is the foundation, a defining feature of the role will be to progressively automate and streamline your own responsibilities, freeing you up to take on higher-value work as the business grows. In line with this, we’re looking for someone who sees AI as opportunity, not a threat, a practical tool to build smarter systems over time.

Experience / Background

You may have had a Commercial Management or Operational Leadership role that focusses on building operational improvements over time (not just delivering tasks). You’ve potentially worked within a construction or property related business.

However - what matters more than your specific background is your approach, mindset and ability to learn fast. A proven ability to develop systems & processes improving output quality & efficiency.

Core Responsibilities

Risk & Compliance

• Managing consultant appointments - reviewing and negotiating contractual terms
• Collateral warranties - compiling, tracking, and issuing
• Insurance - becoming the in-house expert on terms, negotiation, and tracking renewal dates across consultants and contractors
• General internal risk and data management

Fidus Appointments

• Fidus appointment contracts with Clients
• Client on-boarding (KYC / AML)
• Commercial Structures for Projects
• Working with lawyers & accountants to ensure company structures are agreed, set up & operational
• Implementation & negotiation of contracts, novation agreements & warranties required in relation to these structures

Operational Coordination

• Proactively chasing and coordinating internal and external parties to keep things moving
• Manage trackers & processes to ensure full ownership and delivery of all responsibilities Business Improvement & AI Integration
• Researching, championing, and building AI/agentic AI tools to streamline operations
• Continuously improving and automating your own role as the business scales
• This is a growth area - what it looks like in year one will differ from year two as the business and its needs evolve

Key Attributes

• Commercially sharp – understands contracts, risk allocation, insurance, and what a fair and normal commercial balance looks like
• Execution-obsessed – gets genuine satisfaction from solving problems that aren't straightforward, and from seeing things through to completion
• Confident and credible – comfortable challenging senior people respectfully, pushing for action, and negotiating
• Fast learner – comes from an environment where they've had to figure things out themselves
• AI-curious and ambitious – excited by the opportunity to build a leaner, smarter operation using modern tools

Key Relationships

• Report to: Managing Director
• Stakeholders: Clients, Design Teams, Contractors, Consultants, Funders, Lawyers, Accountants
• Internal Collaboration: All Fidus team members across seniority levels

Logistics

• Salary Range: £50,000 - £70,000
• Location: Putney (Hybrid is preference)

A People team built for ambitious businesses

The old model for People & Talent doesn’t work for today's businesses. We've built a better one.

Traditionally, early-stage Founders had two options: handle People & Talent themselves, losing precious time they should be spending on product or go-to-market, or hire a generalist, expected to cover everything from culture to recruitment to performance. We offer a more impactful alternative: A fully flexible, fractional People & Talent team with specialist skillsets and hands-on delivery, ready to start driving impact for your business in weeks, not months.