Managing Director - New Venture in Salford

Bringing psychological thinking into organisational life. Founding leader of a start-up on a mission to change the way organisations look after their workforce.

The opportunity: This is a build-it-from-the-ground-up job. Noera in Practice is a brand-new company with a bold ambition: to deliver high-quality, specialist mental health and resilience support, something every employer can buy, deliver fast, and prove works. We are the commercial engine of Six Degrees Social Enterprise CIC, its wholly owned, profit-making subsidiary, free to move at start-up speed but anchored to a social mission. Every pound of profit flows back to Six Degrees Social Enterprise to reinvest into the local community.

We are looking for our founding Managing Director, an entrepreneurial, roll-your-sleeves-up leader who can take an approved business plan and turn it into a living, trading, scaling company.

At a glance:

• Company: Noera in Practice - a profit-with-purpose company, wholly owned by Six Degrees Social Enterprise CIC.
• Role: Managing Director (founding leader), reporting to the Noera in Practice Board.
• Time: 0.8 FTE in Year 1, with scope to grow as the business scales.
• Reward: £60,000 FTE (circa £48,000 at 0.8 FTE), with opportunity to increase, subject to sales.
• Location: Salford - Six Degrees base - Hybrid.
• Start: Immediate start.

What you get: A clear plan, committed investment, an established and supportive parent company, the chance to build something that genuinely matters and to share in its success.

What we do: Noera in Practice brings specialist psychological support out of long waiting lists and into the workplace. The aim is to develop psychologically healthy staff and organisations to be more effective.

We launch with three product lines:

• Psychological Triage - an accessible initial appointment to explore severity and urgency, and to agree an appropriate plan and next steps.
• Specialist Therapy - (on-demand, if required) access to specialist therapy and psychological expertise, delivered by a flexible network of associate practitioners.
• Resilience Programme - a proactive offer that helps employers build healthier, more resilient teams. Diagnostics, manager training, reflective practice, and a clear referral pathway when people need more.

The job in Year 1 is to pilot a runaway success and turn it into a repeatable, scalable model that wins client after client.

The role: As Managing Director, you are accountable for clinical, strategy, sales, delivery, finances, and culture. You are the first employee, salesperson, head of operations, and standard bearer for the brand, all at once. As we grow, you will build the team around you and step up into a cleaner leadership role. In the early days, expect to do a bit of everything. You will be supported by Six Degrees Social Enterprise and mentored by the Non-Executive Director for Noera in Practice as you establish and grow the organisation.

Build the company:

• Get Noera in Practice up and trading: lead incorporation, banking, governance, finance, insurance and systems from plan to operational reality.
• Put the foundations in place: a clean scheme of delegation with the Six Degrees Social Enterprise, the right tools, and lean processes that scale rather than slow you down.
• Steward the equity investment like it is your own: manage cash through the early funding gap and hit the milestones.

Win and keep customers:

• Deliver the established pilot: deliver it and prove it with hard evidence of impact and look to scale further.
• Build the pipeline beyond the first pilot: Own the target list, work warm introductions, show up where HR and workforce buyers are, and convert pilot success into the next ten deals.
• Be the face and voice of the company: Craft the pitch, write the proposals, close the business, and develop professional relations with clients.
• Build strategic partnerships with occupational health organisations, senior buyers including Chief People Officers, HR Directors and procurement teams across public sector organisations.

Deliver with quality:

• Build and lead the associate workforce model: Recruit, contract and look after a flexible network of high-calibre practitioners.
• Make online-first delivery feel premium, safe and effortless, with clinical governance, supervision and safeguarding wired in from day one (in line with the Six Degrees Social Enterprise framework) and have a good working knowledge of systems for online delivery.
• Design the measurement that turns good work into undeniable evidence.
• Act as Noera in Practice’s clinical voice in the market, translating psychological insights into clear commercial metrics.

Lead and grow:

• Set the culture: fast, kind, commercial, and focused on impact.
• Work closely with the Board: Bring sharp commercial judgement and honest reporting.
• Plan the scale-up: From a one-person start-up to a multi-client business with a team, by Year 2 and beyond.

Who you are: You do not need to tick every box. You do need to be the kind of person who runs towards a blank page and a big opportunity.

• An aspiring entrepreneur: You have built, launched or grown something, and you thrive in ambiguity and speed.
• Commercially aware: You can sell, price, negotiate and manage finances, and you are energised by hitting targets.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and relationship-builder: Credible with senior buyers in HR, people and workforce roles, and warm with the people you serve.
• Hands on and resourceful: Happy to do the unglamorous work yourself when the team is just you.
• Mission-driven: You want your work to mean something, and you believe purpose and profit can pull in the same direction.
• Experience in mental health, wellbeing, healthcare, social enterprise or workforce services.
• Knowledge of sales and marketing.
• Good working experience of clinical governance, associate/freelance delivery models, or online service delivery.
• Experience of networking.

How we will work together: You will report to the Board of Noera in Practice, a deliberately lean, three-person board built for a start-up who will offer support as required and mentoring:

• The Chair, the Managing Director of Six Degrees Social Enterprise CIC sits on the board to ensure that Noera in Practice stays true to its social mission and draws on Six Degrees’ clinical heritage, networks and support.
• An Independent Non-Executive Director, an experienced Non-Executive Director who brings commercial expertise, governance and an outside perspective. Is available as required and will offer mentoring to the Noera in Practice Managing Director (this role).
• The Managing Director of Noera in Practice (this role), you, bring the plan to life and are accountable for results.

The Board will meet monthly in Year 1. You will have real autonomy within an agreed scheme of delegation, supported by Six Degrees Social Enterprise and the Noera in Practice Board, both of whom are genuinely invested in your success.

Noera in Practice is an equal opportunities employer. We actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to building a team as diverse as the communities we serve.