Head of Operations & Scale for AI Growth in London

This is a vanishingly rare opportunity to be the ops leader of a very fast-growing company that has product market fit. If you’re ambitious, have an eye for detail, and want to be responsible for making a category-defining company run on rails - this role is for you. At PAIR, you’ll be our first senior operations leader: owning the people, finance, procurement, internal systems and operating rhythms that help a category-defining AI company scale.

Steve, our COS, has built the first version of PAIR’s operating foundations. You will make the boat go faster, and help make PAIR the best place people have ever worked. This role is for someone with exceptional operational judgement, strong ownership, and the ability to bring coherence and clarity to (occasional!) chaos. You’ll report to me directly (James - CEO and co-founder), and partner closely with all the Heads of Department as PAIR accelerates through its next phase of growth.

Core responsibilities:

• You’ll report directly to the CEO/co-founder and own the operational foundations that make PAIR easier to run: people and business operations, governance, legal coordination, internal systems and company cadence.
• You’ll be responsible for turning recurring operational work into reliable, AI-enabled systems that help PAIR scale without losing speed, quality or judgement.

What owning operations end-to-end looks like:

• You’ll own PAIR’s operating system across three core areas:
• People Operations: Own the systems and processes that help PAIR hire, onboard and support A-player attitude and aptitude.
• Business operations and company cadence: Keep the company running cleanly as it scales.
• Governance, legal and risk coordination: Keep PAIR’s operational risk visible, owned and under control.

What we are looking for:

• We’re a driven, ambitious start-up building an exceptional team. You’ll hit the ground running and quickly form part of the team.
• Own it, end to end: You take ambiguous, cross-functional work and land it.
• Commercial, people and operational judgement: You make good decisions with incomplete information.
• Systems thinker and company builder: You improve how the company runs, not just the task in front of you.
• Clear, trusted communicator: You write clearly, think crisply and escalate calmly.
• PAIR operating standard: You move with velocity over speed.

Must-have experience and skills:

• Significant, evidenced experience leading complex operational work in high-accountability environments.
• Evidence of owning business operations, people operations, strategy, governance, commercial operations or cross-functional operating systems.
• Strong process-scaling ability: you have built workflows, documentation, cadences or systems that added quantifiable value.
• Comfort working directly with founders, CEOs or senior leaders.
• Experience handling sensitive or high-trust work involving people, legal, finance, commercial, supplier or governance topics.
• Strong organisational discipline: you can manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, dependencies and stakeholders without losing the thread.

Nice to have:

• Experience in a fast-growing startup or scale-up and helped a company move from seed-stage operating rhythm towards Series A-style scale.
• Military-to-commercial, consulting, founder’s office, chief of staff, business operations, people operations or strategy background.
• Exposure to AI, B2B SaaS, enterprise sales, professional services, regulated sectors or workforce transformation.

What “exceptional” looks like:

• Exceptional in this role means you can enter a fast-moving, incomplete environment, absorb context quickly, simplify the mess, build scalable systems, and become trusted by the CEO and team to keep the company moving at pace without compromising standards.

How we work:

• We work hard, support each other, and share a bias for action.
• We balance speed with high standards, trust and ownership.
• PAIR is still small enough that one strong operator can materially change how the company runs.

About PAIR:

PAIR builds AI-native workforces by helping organisations adopt AI in ways that create measurable business outcomes. We work with extraordinary customers including PwC, the Ministry of Justice, The Crown Estate and many more.

Application process and details:

• Location: London, UK. Min 2 days in Chancery Lane office.
• Start date: July to September 2026.
• Reports to: CEO / co-founder.
• Type: Full-time.
• Annual leave: 25 days per year + bank holidays.

Hiring process:

• The application process has five stages: Submit a link to your CV and responses to our application form.
• 15-min phone interviews.
• Final-stage interview + task (3 hours).
• Decision and reference checks.

Final note:

We care more about evidence than polish. Strong applications will be specific, commercially aware and grounded in real examples.