Operations Associate jobs

Founder's Associate | Strategy, Operations & Growth
International Wellbeing Insights
£32,000–£40,000 per annum, depending on experience, hours and level of responsibility, plus performance bonus scheme
Harefield, Middlesex | Full-time preferred, part-time considered for an exceptional candidate

We're looking for a multiplier.

Someone whose presence makes the founder, the leadership team and the whole organisation more effective. Someone who creates momentum, removes obstacles, improves decisions, and helps great ideas become reality.

If that description makes you think, "that's exactly what I love doing," we'd love to hear from you.

Help Us Create a Happier, Healthier and More Resilient World

For over 23 years, International Wellbeing Insights and The Stress Management Society have walked alongside organisations, some of the world's best-known brands, NHS trusts, charities, and growing businesses among them, helping them build healthier cultures, stronger leadership, and better mental health outcomes for their people. We're a small, close-knit, founder-led team of around ten, and we're entering an exciting new chapter of our own growth.

Most operations roles ask you to manage what's already there. This one asks you to help build what comes next.

We're looking for someone who wants to become a genuine partner to our founder and leadership team, someone who enjoys bringing clarity to complexity, creating momentum where others might see obstacles, and helping build an organisation capable of making a meaningful difference to people's lives.

This isn't simply an administration role. It isn't an executive assistant role, and it isn't a project manager role in the traditional sense. It's an opportunity to become one of the people helping shape the future of our organisation.

The Opportunity

You'll work closely with our Founder and leadership team, helping to ensure the business runs smoothly, priorities are delivered, opportunities are followed through, and the team is supported to do its best work.

In your first year, most of your time will be spent in operations: coordinating our facilitators and associates, looking after client contracts and onboarding, bringing clarity to our financial reporting, and being the calm, steady presence who makes sure our commitments to clients and to each other are met. This is meaningful, foundational work, not a waiting room before the "real" job starts.

As you settle in and we get to know each other, we'll grow your commercial and growth responsibilities together: supporting proposals, understanding our pipeline, eventually building relationships with clients directly. One morning you might be helping refine part of our growth strategy; by lunchtime, solving an operational challenge; in the afternoon, preparing for a client meeting or improving a process. No two weeks will look quite the same, and we want that pace of growth to unfold in a way that lets you build real mastery, not rush past it.

What You'll Be Doing

Business Operations

• Lead the continual improvement of the organisation's operational effectiveness
• Improve systems, processes and ways of working
• Create greater visibility, accountability and operational consistency across the business
• Develop and maintain operational dashboards and reporting
• Support operational planning, capacity planning and business priorities
• Help implement new technologies, automation and AI-enabled processes

Team Support & Leadership

• Coordinate leadership meetings and help maintain organisational rhythm
• Support recruitment, onboarding and induction of new team members
• Manage annual leave, team administration and internal communications
• Help create a positive, supportive and accountable culture
• Act as a trusted point of contact for operational matters

Commercial & Growth Support

• Support business development activity and commercial planning
• Coordinate proposals, contracts and client onboarding
• Maintain visibility of the commercial pipeline and sales activity
• Work closely with our Head of Growth and Development to improve commercial effectiveness
• Help ensure opportunities progress efficiently from enquiry through to successful delivery

Finance & Business Administration

• Improve financial visibility and operational reporting
• Support budgeting and cashflow planning
• Liaise with external finance, bookkeeping and accountancy partners
• Assist with invoicing, purchase orders, supplier management and credit control

Founder Partnership

• Become the Founder's trusted operational partner
• Translate ideas into practical implementation plans
• Help maintain organisational focus and momentum
• Reduce founder dependency through stronger systems, clearer ownership and improved operational leadership
• Enable the Founder to spend more time on strategic relationships, business development, partnerships and thought leadership

Who Tends to Thrive Here

People who've held real, hands-on responsibility in a smaller, closer-knit organisation, an Operations Manager, Business Manager, General Manager within an SME, Client Services Manager, or someone in a similar seat, where you've owned things directly rather than one step removed. You might also be an Executive Assistant or Operations Coordinator with genuine operational ownership, ready for a bigger challenge. What matters most isn't your exact title, it's that you've built or run something real, at whatever scale, and you're looking for a place to put down roots and grow, not a stepping stone to the next thing.

You're probably someone who naturally takes ownership without waiting to be asked, is energised by variety rather than frustrated by it, enjoys building systems rather than simply following them, and combines commercial thinking with genuine care for people.

Help Us Understand You, in Your Own Words

We care deeply about who you are and what you believe in, and we also want to make sure this role is genuinely right for you, not just something that sounds appealing on paper. So alongside your cover letter, we'd love you to share:

• A time you built or improved something operational, a process, a system, a way of working, and what it meant for the people around you
• A time you were part of a commercial conversation: a proposal, a negotiation, a pricing decision, however small it felt at the time
• What's kept you somewhere the longest in your career, and what you learned when it was time to move on

We ask these not to catch anyone out, but because we want to genuinely understand how you think and what you've built, so we can be confident this is a place where you'll flourish.

Salary, Benefits & Growth Opportunity

• £32,000–£40,000 per annum, depending on experience, hours and level of responsibility
• Discretionary annual performance bonus, linked to individual contribution and business performance
• Company pension
• Health and wellbeing programme
• Hybrid working, once you're settled in
• Personal development opportunities
• Company events
• Free parking
• The opportunity to work alongside leading global organisations

This role is intentionally designed to grow with both the organisation and the individual. We're not simply looking to fill a position, we're looking for someone who wants to become part of our next chapter. For the right person, there's a genuine, honestly-discussed path toward Head of Operations, Operations Director, or beyond, as you and the organisation grow together.

One Honest Note

We're a small, ambitious business, still building out our infrastructure, which is exactly why this role matters so much. If you thrive with a large team and established structure already in place, this may not be the right moment for you, and that's okay. If you'd love to help build that structure, and grow into more as you do, we'd love to hear from you.

What Success Looks Like, Within 12 Months

• The business operates with greater clarity and structure
• Team accountability and communication have improved
• Operational systems and ways of working are more consistent and effective
• Commercial opportunities are tracked and followed up consistently
• Financial visibility is stronger
• The Founder is spending less time firefighting and more time on growth, partnerships and delivery
• The team feels supported, empowered and aligned

Application Process

Please send your CV along with a cover letter that includes the three reflections above, alongside:

• What attracts you to our mission
• Where you see your career developing over the next 3–5 years

We read every application with care, and we'll do our best to respond to everyone who takes the time to write one.

If you're someone who loves solving complex problems, taking ownership, supporting people, and helping organisations reach their potential, we'd love to hear from you.

Pay: £32,000.00-£40,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company events
• Company pension
• Free parking
• Health & wellbeing programme
• On-site parking

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Harefield, Greater London: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Language:

• English (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person