[Hiring] Head of Operations @Intersect MBO

Role Description

The Head of Operations provides leadership and oversight across Intersect’s core operational functions, including Finance, Delivery Assurance & Administration, IT, and Procurement. The role ensures that operational activity is coordinated, reliable, and appropriately governed, with clear accountability across priorities, responsibilities, risks, and dependencies.

A key part of the role is providing senior oversight of Finance. Working with Intersect’s experienced Finance team and fractional CFO, the Head of Operations ensures strong financial planning, reporting, controls, and organizational discipline, and is able to confidently review and challenge financial information and risks.

Working closely with the Executive Director and other Heads within Intersect’s Sector Leadership Team (SLT), the Head of Operations translates organizational priorities into effective operational delivery, strengthens systems and ways of working, and ensures material operational or financial issues are surfaced and addressed appropriately.

Core Accountabilities

• Operational Leadership:
  • Provide oversight of day-to-day functioning across Finance, Delivery Assurance & Administration, IT, and Procurement.
  • Ensure operational functions have clear priorities, ownership, delivery cadences, and appropriate support.
  • Maintain operational continuity during periods of organizational change.
  • Act as the primary escalation point for material operational issues.
  • Identify gaps, dependencies, or inefficiencies across Operations and drive proportionate improvements.
  • Ensure effective coordination between operational functions and the wider organization.
• Financial Oversight:
  • Provide senior oversight of Intersect’s Finance function, working closely with the Finance team and fractional CFO.
  • Lead organizational budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning alongside the Executive Director and Finance.
  • Review and challenge financial reporting, forecasts, expenditure, and underlying assumptions.
  • Maintain visibility of cash position, runway, commitments, liabilities, and material financial risks.
  • Ensure appropriate financial controls, approval processes, and segregation of duties are maintained.
  • Ensure significant financial variances or risks are understood, addressed, and escalated appropriately.
  • Support the Executive Director and SLT with clear financial information and recommendations for organizational decision-making.
  • Maintain oversight of key statutory, corporate, and entity obligations, coordinating with specialist advisers where required.
• Delivery, Systems & Operational Maturity:
  • Ensure effective coordination across operational priorities, dependencies, and workstreams.
  • Review and improve operational processes, systems, and ways of working.
  • Move activity from ad-hoc practices towards repeatable, scalable, and well-understood processes.
  • Maintain appropriate controls without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
  • Ensure operational risks are identified early, clearly owned, and appropriately mitigated.
  • Provide clear operational insight and recommendations to the Executive Director and SLT.

Decision-Making Scope

• Owns:
  • Operational continuity and cross-functional alignment.
  • Senior oversight of Finance and financial management processes.
  • Organizational budgeting and forecasting coordination.
  • Core operational processes and ways of working.
  • Operational risk identification and escalation.
  • Operational improvement initiatives.
• Leads:
  • Cross-functional operational planning and coordination.
  • Financial planning and budget recommendations.
  • Operational process and systems improvement.
  • Coordination of statutory, entity, and corporate operational obligations.
• Consults:
  • Executive Director on material operational, financial, resource, or organizational decisions.
  • Fractional CFO and specialist advisers on technical accounting, tax, or statutory matters.
  • Other Heads where operational decisions affect their sectors or organizational priorities.

Key Relationships

• Executive Director: Priorities, financial and operational decision support, escalation, and organizational effectiveness.
• Finance & Fractional CFO: Budgeting, forecasting, reporting, controls, statutory obligations, and financial risk.
• Other Heads: Cross-functional planning, dependencies, budgets, and organizational alignment.
• Delivery Assurance & Administration: Delivery oversight, administration, milestone assurance, and escalation.
• IT & Procurement: Systems readiness, tooling, supplier management, and operational support.
• People & Organisational Dynamics: Support with workforce planning, organizational design, role clarity, and capability.
• External advisers: Accounting, tax, legal, audit, and corporate specialist support.

Success Measures

• Stable and reliable operational performance across Core Operations.
• Clear priorities, ownership, and delivery cadences across operational functions.
• Accurate and timely financial reporting, forecasting, and budget visibility.
• Strong visibility of cash, runway, commitments, and material financial risks.
• Effective and proportionate financial and operational controls.
• Risks and dependencies are identified and addressed before they materially affect delivery.
• Statutory and organizational obligations are clearly owned and completed appropriately.
• Operational processes become increasingly repeatable, proportionate, and scalable.
• The Executive Director and SLT have confidence in operational and financial information, recommendations, and execution.

Skills, Experience & Behaviours

• Skills & Experience:
  • Significant operations leadership experience within a complex, scaling, or evolving organization.
  • Direct experience with financial management at organizational level, including budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, and financial controls.
  • Strong financial literacy and the ability to confidently review and challenge financial information, assumptions, and recommendations.
  • Experience overseeing or working closely with experienced Finance teams, CFOs, accountants, or equivalent professional advisers.
  • Experience with corporate, statutory, entity-management, or compliance obligations.
  • Strong process design, operational improvement, and systems-thinking capability.
  • Experience coordinating multiple operational disciplines or workstreams.
  • Strong judgement and the ability to distinguish between issues that can be resolved operationally and those requiring executive or specialist escalation.
  • Able to translate organizational priorities into practical operational plans and ways of working.
  • Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional communication skills.
  • Comfortable leading specialist teams without needing to personally execute every technical discipline.
  • Comfortable operating in an evolving environment where structures and processes continue to mature.
• Desirable:
  • Formal accountancy training, part-qualification, or equivalent financial experience.
  • Experience operating across multiple entities or jurisdictions.
  • Experience working with Boards or executive leadership on financial and organizational matters.
  • Experience within a not-for-profit, membership, or internationally distributed organization.
  • Experience working within Web3/ Blockchain industries will strengthen your candidacy.

What will the hiring process look like?

• The suitable candidate will be selected through a three-stage recruitment process. All interviews will be conducted remotely via Google Meets.
• Introductory Call: An initial conversation with our People Team to confirm alignment and suitability for the role.
• Formal Interview: A detailed interview with our Interim Director of Operations to assess experience and fit from both technical and team perspectives. This will likely include a take-home task sent in advance to complete and present in this interview.
• Final Stage: A competency-based assessment with our Executive Director and additional opportunity to ask questions.

Intersect is an equal-opportunity organization. We value diversity of thought, identity, experience, and culture and are committed to building a leadership team that reflects the decentralized community we serve.

To learn more about Intersect MBO and what we do, please visit our Knowledge Base - https://docs.intersectmbo.org/