Operations Director

Are you looking for a new challenge where your role can really make a difference to help shape a better way of life for people? If so, this could be the job for you. Resonance is one of the UK’s leading social impact investment companies. Since 2002 we have mobilised close to £500m of useful investment and grant capital into the hands of over 300 social enterprises and charities, enabling them to grow their impact, and make a difference to the people and communities they serve.

To help us continue this journey, we are looking for an Operations Director to join our growing team. As well as bringing boundless energy to the role, you’ll have the ambition to want to learn how our business works, understand our passion and our purpose, support and enable other leaders in the business to reach their goals, and use your drive to ensure that timescales are met. You’ll be part of the Resonance Leadership Team working across the organisation, but with particular focus on:

• People
• Compliance & Risk
• IT
• Data / AI

This senior role reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer and is part of our top-level Leadership Team. This key role is important to our future success. All your teams are currently based out of the Launceston office, so our expectation / preference is for you to be based here. Whilst we operate a flexible, hybrid working style, with a 9-day working fortnight, we also highly value the time spent together with colleagues and encourage at least 2 days per week in the office.

HERE’S WHY WE NEED YOU – PURPOSE

Resonance is actively growing, so you’ll need to enjoy working in a fast-paced work environment. Our values are:

• We are a bridge, not an institution
• We believe there is always a solution
• We build trusting and transparent relationships, one investment at a time
• When we strive for mutual profit, all of society benefits

To find out more about what we do: https://resonance.ltd.uk/

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL DO FOR US – RESPONSIBILITIES

You will provide overall leadership for Resonance’s Operations co-ordinating a number of functions each with their own technical leads:

• People Development – a team of two responsible for recruitment, training, facilitating internal and external secondments, championing our EDI ambitions and ensuring we stay ahead of the legal minimums ensuring staff and the business are kept safe.
• Data, AI and Automation – a team of three responsible for uncovering and implementing ways to streamline business functions so that they can scale effectively and error free. Additionally responsible for GDPR and finding ways to create value by understanding and responding to the intelligence our well managed data makes possible.
• IT – a team of two responsible for all our hardware and software, ensuring the teams are operational, trained in using our technology safely and productively, as well as ensuring that we comply with industry standards, such as Cyber Essentials Plus.
• Compliance & Risk – a team of two responsible for ensuring the business operates as an effective and well controlled FCA authorised firm. Particular focus on maintaining and effective forecasting of capital adequacy, certifying staff under Senior Managers Certification Regime, interfacing with our depositaries and keeping the business safe through fostering a responsible culture of openness and care across the business.

Our Operations team keep Resonance running safely and efficiently. These teams are often our early warning indicators if things are not going to plan and needing attention. There is a need to transition our historic approach where these functions have had dispersed leadership across a number of members of the Resonance Leadership Team to a co-ordinated leadership model embedded effectively right across the business. Communication will be key both within the team but across the business as well as externally. This is a team that needs to enable Resonance’s growth.

You will lead a team of around 9 people which has Operating Heads roles for each of the four areas above. As such, your leadership role will be to support, empower and coordinate their work, as well as making significant contributions to key areas where additional experience and capacity will aid the overall team’s progress, particularly by embedding the adoption of strong practice across the organisation. In addition, you will lead the response to external due diligence on all operational and risk mitigation matters supporting the raising of capital from investors and grant funders.

Key areas which the role will cover include:

• Leadership: This is role rooted in the Resonance Leadership Team feeding into whole organisation strategy and implementation. The Operations Director as with all members of RLT will be expected to attend all board meetings.
• Integration: assisting with the greater integration of systems and operational functions between departments etc. This is a whole organisational role to ensure smoother more integrated and efficient functioning including business sustainability.
• Efficiency: Helping bring together this multi-disciplinary team in ways that enable them to support each other, respond to organisational priorities and raise their profile across the business, ensuring Resonance is kept safe and efficient.
• Process: Helping build strong operational policies and processes for Resonance, spotting gaps and implementing solutions working closely with the finance team and individual business units on strategic planning.
• Compliance: Helping to evidence to institutional investors that Resonance’s fund operations are a “safe pair of hands” when looking after their capital. This will involve contributing to the design of fund operations, decisions on insourcing / outsourcing of various fund operational functions and supporting investor due diligence processes.
• Inspiration: Supporting team leads to fully develop the potential of a highly skilled and motivated team, and to grow in line with scaling of activity.

WHAT WE WANT YOU TO BRING TO US – SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

About You: Known as the person that gets things done, a safe pair of hands trusted to implement what is needed to make the organisation work smoothly and safely. Experienced in and capable of thinking through the implications of strategic options and decisions, translating them into actions and clear first steps. Delegating where appropriate without obfuscating responsibility. Exceptional communication skills able to distil and explain complex plans with interrelating constraints into simple pathways through. You will have a mastery of spoken, written and diagrammatic communication forms, as well as high IT competence. Strategic and Tactical agility – you will shift with ease between the detail and the strategic overview, supporting others to sequence their work setting clear parameters, predominantly acting as a practical enabler, but also prepared to roll up your sleeves when required. Strong on process – Your team will own the editorial function of most of the policies and procedures for the business. These need not only to be documented clearly, with examples and purpose / rationale, but also written and implemented with consistency to give all staff the best chance of following them. Comfortable balancing risks against opportunities. Your team are often responsible for setting controls for the business to keep it safe and monitor potential risks. Key to your role will be helping the organisation pay attention to the right risks at the right time without losing sight of the business opportunity. Driven to perform, naturally collegiate. You will be judged on the value you add primarily in keeping Resonance safe and efficient in our mission to mobilise useful capital into the hands of social enterprises but also on how you empower your direct reports and interact with other parts of the business. This will require a “one team” mindset to be continuously promoted.

Essential Competencies

• Fully subscribes to Resonance’s vision, mission and values
• Enthusiasm to work in an entrepreneurial and innovative environment
• Competent IT skills including experience of integrating web-based databases and other software to drive profitability and scale.
• Able to plan and prioritise own work and effectively support this skill in others, including colleagues that are not direct reports
• Willing to work flexibly within an expanding team, and to empower existing leaders and experienced team members within a larger team
• Professional and enthusiastic representative of the company, who enjoys helping build Resonance’s profile with external stakeholders
• Exceptional communication and organizational skills
• Experienced at managing and motivating a multi-disciplined team

Desirable Competencies:

• Experience of leadership in social enterprise / investment sector
• Experience of Compliance within an FCA authorization firm, People Development frameworks and HR law, IT, Data Management, Risk Management (though we acknowledge it is highly unlikely for any one candidate to have deep experience in all these areas)
• Experience of fund operations
• Knowledge and experience of contracting with Central and Local Government and in particular managing public money
• Investment, IT or HR qualifications

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO WORK HERE – ENVIRONMENT & BENEFITS

As well as working for an innovative, pioneering business with a strong social purpose and lots of variety we offer a competitive remuneration package, which includes participation for all staff in the Employee Benefit Trust. We have a flexible working environment with our full-time colleagues working a 9-day fortnight and hybrid working, with days in the office increasingly designed to be opportunities to build understanding, trust and collaborative solutions. Whilst we have an important job to do, we also prioritise keeping work fun, with regular offsites visiting and hearing from social enterprises and other stakeholders as well as time to engage with and celebrate milestones with colleagues. Resonance is a growing company, so you'll need to enjoy working in a fast-paced work environment with a very friendly and supportive team.

NEXT STEP

Please review our Job Pack for this position. If you have the relevant skills and experience, please submit your CV and cover letter by clicking the "apply for this job" button. Submit your completed application by midnight on 25 May 2026, although we reserve the right to close early if we feel we have sufficient candidates. We intend to hold first stage interviews week commencing 15 June 2026. We look forward to hearing from you.