Account Operations Partner in Edinburgh

At SmartPA, we are the engine of our clients' success. This particular role is embedded with one of our ‘dedicated’ clients—a high-growth, global tech giant. You aren't just a coordinator; you are the Workflow Architect and operational depute, working directly alongside the Key Account Manager. We are looking for a powerhouse who will act as the essential glue holding our cross-functional team together. You don't need to be a programmer or a developer, but you must possess a deep conceptual understanding of what technology, automation, and AI can achieve.

Working alongside the Key Account Manager, you will maintain a panoramic, holistic view of the entire account—partnering closely with our Automation, Quality Assurance (QA), and Pod Leads to identify where we can strengthen workflows and push boundaries. You possess an intuitive problem-solving mindset—frequently sensing where a process might bottleneck or where a client need isn't quite being met, and proactively connecting the dots to fix it. Partnering with the Key Account Manager on account growth and client satisfaction, you will be the bridge between technical capability, data-driven insights, and senior client stakeholders, ensuring our team operates as a frictionless, high-performing unit.

Key Responsibilities and Skills

• Holistic Workflow Architecture: Maintain a bird’s-eye view of account operations. You will collaborate daily with QA, Automation, and Pod Leads to spot operational friction, strengthen existing processes, and identify exactly where AI or automation could elevate service delivery.
• The Bridge to Innovation: You won’t be building the automations yourself (although curiosity is encouraged), but you will be the visionary who understands what is possible. You will articulate operational needs to our technical automation and AI teams, pushing boundaries to see how they can support the account.
• Data, Reporting & Risk Insights: Manage the account’s data narrative. Alongside the Key Account Manager, you will analyse performance metrics to provide sharp insights, celebrating successes while proactively flagging potential operational risks or bottlenecks before they impact the client.
• Change Management & Roll-outs: Act as the champion for internal evolution. When new automations or ways of working are introduced, you will lead the rollout—ensuring the team is supported, processes are adopted correctly, and transitions are seamless.
• Senior Stakeholder Engagement & Onboarding: Serve as a trusted, high-level point of contact for the client alongside the Key Account Manager. You will lead introductory meetings to seamlessly welcome new service users, conduct post-service 'check-in' calls to measure client satisfaction, and deliver polished presentations to main client contacts to share data and key operational findings.

About You

You are a strategic operational partner who possesses an analytical mind and exceptional emotional intelligence. You thrive working alongside a Key Account Manager in a fast-paced environment, taking total ownership of the account's operational heartbeat so they can focus on overarching strategy. You bring an intuitive approach to problem-solving; you don't just wait for data to tell you something is wrong. You naturally notice the subtle friction points between different teams and can intuitively sense how a new automation or AI workflow could smooth things out. You excel at translating the 'technical' into the 'functional'—whether that’s explaining a data trend to an internal team or presenting an operational victory to a senior client. You are structured, highly organised, and thrive on the challenge of bringing diverse, specialised teams together to create a unified workflow.

Experience

What You'll Need

• Corporate Team Leadership: Minimum of 5 years of experience managing and developing teams within a corporate setting, with a proven track record of fostering high-performing, collaborative units.
• Intuitive Problem-Solving: A natural instinct for operational mechanics. You can look at a complex, cross-functional workflow and intuitively spot the vulnerabilities, risks, or opportunities for improvement before they cause friction.
• High-Level Client Management & Presentation: Elite verbal and written communication skills. Working alongside the Key Account Manager, you are entirely comfortable presenting operational data to senior client contacts and possess the face-time confidence to lead introductory meetings, run recurring check-in calls, and manage client expectations with diplomacy and clarity.
• Conceptual Tech & AI Vision: A strong understanding of what automation and Generative AI can do for workflow efficiency. You know how to spot an automation opportunity and brief a technical team to build it.
• AI Fluency: Hands-on experience using Generative AI tools (like Gemini) to accelerate your own daily workflow, draft communications, or research complex problems. You actively use it and can instinctively spot where it can scale a team's capability.
• Async & Collaborative Mastery: A pro at driving cross-functional collaboration asynchronously. You know how to provide clear status updates, gather input from busy technical and delivery leads, and keep a team perfectly synchronised across digital channels without relying on endless live meetings.
• Tech-Native Process Curiosity: A natural instinct for finding productivity 'hacks' and features within the Google ecosystem. You hate manual, repetitive tasks and constantly look at workflows to see how the current tech stack can make them smoother.
• Analytical & Risk-Aware Mindset: Strong data literacy. You can look at a report or dashboard, extract meaningful insights, and proactively identify both operational risks and successes.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven experience bringing distinct teams together (e.g., technical, quality assurance, and delivery teams) to align on a single, holistic goal.
• Change Management Literacy: Success in supporting teams through process changes, ensuring new tools or workflows are rolled out effectively and enthusiastically.
• Google Suite Mastery: Expert-level familiarity with Google Workspace to manage account reporting, documentation, and communication ecosystems seamlessly.

Desirable:

• Operations in Tech: Experience working within or alongside high-growth tech organisations, understanding their pace, ambiguity, and communication styles.
• Global & Matrix Environments: Experience navigating complex, cross-functional corporate structures and coordinating across multiple virtual time zones to keep distributed projects aligned.

Work Remotely

This role is open to candidates across the UK. The exact arrangement can be tailored to the successful applicant, with options including an Edinburgh-based hybrid model (split between home and our Edinburgh office) or a fully remote setup. Regardless of your base location, you must have the ability and willingness to travel to London and/or Edinburgh for in-person collaboration sessions, interactive workshops, and critical client meetings (anticipated to be approximately once per month).

Schedule

Monday-Friday, 9am-5.30pm

Job Type

Full-time, Permanent

What's in it for you?

At SmartPA, we believe in rewarding talent and supporting your growth:

• Competitive Salaries
• Yearly Bonuses: based on company, department, and individual performance
• Flexitime Initiative: Work when you’re most productive (core hours: 10:00–16:30)
• 33 Days Holiday Because rest fuels greatness

About us

At SmartPA, we don’t just provide support – we transform it. Our vision is to deliver a world-class, human-centred, tech-enabled PA and admin service that delivers measurable results, today and into the future. Trusted by global leaders in industries like tech, automotive, retail and legal, we’re the engine behind smarter, more efficient operations. With a vibrant, client-focused culture and a team driven by creativity, no two days at SmartPA are ever the same! As we continue to grow rapidly, this is your opportunity to join us on the journey to becoming the most optimised administrative organisation in the world. If you’re ready to challenge the status quo and create meaningful impact, we want to hear from you!