Head of Operations
At AimHi Earth, our purpose is to ignite the desire to learn and act on what matters.
We are all focused on solving the following climate and nature space problem:
Far too many people see looming climate and nature collapse and don't know what to do. They feel helpless and unmotivated.
At the same time, companies and institutions now have ambitious net zero goals (and are beginning to set similar goals for biodiversity/nature). They increasingly want their employees and stakeholders to think about sustainability and regeneration all the time.
Yet, those same people, charged with reaching these brand new goals, don't know where to start – they’re not sufficiently activated, up-skilled, informed and energised.
At AimHi Earth, we…
- are a small, fast-moving and highly-motivated team
- just raised £1mn ($1.25mn) in seed funding from high-quality UK and Denmark-based funders to take us to the next level of scale
- are founded by three nature-first thinkers (majority women) dedicated to building a better future
- are supported by world-class organisations – Cambridge Zero (University of Cambridge), Nature4Climate, UNEP, Eden Project
- are supported by world-class advisors – Sir Jonathan Porritt, Dr Cécile Girardin, Sir Tim Smit, Erica Neve FRSA, Amali De Alwis MBE, Jon Drori CBE, Lord Jim Knight, Sabra Noordeen
- have already trained tens of thousands of people with our leading live experience EdTech product (>95% audience retention, >50% per-minute engagement)
- are at the forefront of setting a new standard for rapid mindset change at scale (>90% measurable behaviour change)
- have changed the kits of football players, the funding strategy of charities, the speeches of Olympic medallists, the output of broadcasters and the direction of companies
- are now winning work with world-class clients; from zeitgeist-defining companies to Fortune 500 giants (including Unilever, Sky, CapGemini, Universal, PepsiCo, BBC, NHS)
- Bella Soares (Head of Product) – serial product builder (9 years in tech – Ryde, Gameplan, TempTribe), raised >$10 mn in venture funding, UX wizard, prolific optimiser, aesthete
- Matthew Shribman (CEO) – serial founder, renowned science communicator (25mn views), TED speaker, 1st Class Oxford MChem, imagineer, inventor, connector, strategic thinker
- Sarah Humphrys (Head of Relationships) – get-s*It-done operator, exceptional partner-builder, deal-closer and revenue-builder, RSA Fellow, empath, constant motivator
So…
Do you believe the words of H.G. Wells – that civilisation is in a constant race between learning and catastrophe – and that knowledge is the foundation of global community?
Do you have the taste for an adventure into education technology, AI, climate and nature communications and systems transformation?
Are you excited by the enormous potential for education, learning and training to rapidly evolve in this new era of AI?
Do you believe that scalable, tech-enabled climate and nature learning products can instil the necessary stewardship, compassion and wisdom to change the course of history?
Do you love to build and scale enterprises, hands-on, both for commercial success and to shape a better, more regenerative future?
Do you have the grit, determination and ambition to cultivate and scale an early-stage start-up?
Will you thrive in an organisation that’s radically open (we share and resolve tension very quickly), and where nature-centric thinking (thinking in ecosystems, putting nature first etc.) is embedded everywhere, from our board to our partnerships strategy to our away day locations?
If your answers are yes, we’re excited to hear from you.
More about AimHi Earth
As you will know, wildfires are raging, floods are displacing tens of millions, tropical diseases are intensifying, crops are failing, and nature is collapsing. The emergency is just beginning.
At AimHi Earth, we’re working to slow and then reverse the emergency – to bring human systems into line with the natural limits of our only home.
The race between education and catastrophe has never been tighter.
This is why we’re working to combine digital tech, pedagogy, behavioural science and argumentation theory to rapidly up-skill and empower enormous numbers of people to transform complex systems.
This is why our mission is to activate hundreds of millions of nature-first thinkers and innovators, to accelerate the evolution of our economy and society to one of sustainability and regeneration.
We do all this work not just for our shareholders, but for future generations, for nature, and to further fairness, freedom and kinship among global citizens.
The role summary
As our Head of Operations, you will own, build and shape the operations of the business. You will become one of our organisation’s key leaders. You will learn, grow and succeed together with us.
In three words, you will be our central coordinator, multi–faceted executor and trusted co-strategist.
This is a very hands-on role: you will be building the collective bike whilst riding it. Peddling, adjusting, testing, tweaking, oiling and streamlining. All whilst co-strategising with us.
By taking this role, you will be enabling our collective creative force, complementing our co-founders and wider team. As our beating operational heart, you will help us to unlock the capacity to seize huge opportunities waiting in the wings (e.g. a chance to work with King Charles’ roundtable of CSOs).
With you cultivating this role, our organisation will become ever-more nimble, efficient and enabled. You will be pivotal in transforming our challenges into achievable milestones, our people into superstars, and our creations into a profitable, high-impact reality.
Requirements
Key Responsibilities
Your role has room to grow, and will be grounded in the following (with rough percentage splits):
- Company operations coordination, execution and strategy (40%)
- Coordinate and actively help to execute our operations, from the big to the small, from horizon-scanning and opportunity-seeking to the implementation of crucial day-to-day systems (without overly systemising and killing creativity / dynamism)
- Build out our ops procedures and processes, including improving and optimising our tools and technology
- Monitor and set clear KPIs/OKRs (working with other senior leaders), ensuring everyone knows what they own, and how to act in the best interests of the whole
- Financial management (15%)
- Take charge of our finances and budgets to ensure strategic allocation of resources
- Work with our virtual CFO
- Supporting fundraising & investor relations (10%)
- Leverage your network and nurture new relationships to chase and court potential funders for our late seed / early Series A later this year (beginning Q3 2024, to close in Q2 2025)
- Maintain and deepen relationships with existing investors and interested parties, including sending electrically exciting updates quarterly
- Contract & deal management (10%)
- Ensure that our contracts and deals are negotiated and finalised in a manner that best represents our interests and aligns with our mission. You will be supported in this work by our legal counsel
- People, culture & ways of working (10%)
- Support our EA/Chief of Staff in building on our open, honest, frank, mutually-supportive culture, making it even better
- Oversee hiring, alongside our EA/Chief of Staff and relevant department heads
- Lead efficient and motivating team meetings
- Board management & meetings (5%)
- Organise and help prepare our quarterly board meetings
- Manage our Board administration and coordination
- Supporting go-to-market strategy and implementation (10%)
- Devise and implement high-quality go-to-market strategies for our existing products
- Expand our top-of-funnel sales pipeline for our co-founder, Sarah, to convert
- Create opportunities to pitch new product ideas to relevant customers
To provide more clarity on what we’ll be looking for from you, here are a set of provisional milestones for your first 30, 60 and 90 days…
30 days:
- Everyone in the company knows what their responsibilities are, what number(s) they own, and how what they’re doing contributes to the success of the whole
- Weekly kick-off meetings are evolving beyond sequential updates. You ensure that they’re as exciting as they are informative
- You have improved/established regular stand-ups, split by team, as standard
- You are becoming the key linking piece: everyone in the company feels more in touch with, supported by, and connected to the rest of the company by and via you
- You are aware of our funding pipeline, you have caught up on why certain funders said no to us in the past, and you are actively thinking about future funding options
- [If applicable, you understand our go-to-market strategy.]
- Our financial model is built out to include a more radical product pivot scenario, on top of our three current staying-the-course scenarios. All models are associated with strategic short- and mid-term hiring and resource allocation plans
- Our board feels confidently updated by and connected with you as their core link to the operations of the business. Board meetings are planned by you and our board chair
- You are setting and structuring coherent goals for different departments in the business
- You are setting and structuring personal development and growth pathways for our staff
- Working with our CEO, you have created an exciting update for potential funders, and have used it to reignite old conversations and begin new ones with at least 5 potential funders
- You are able to handle most contract negotiation, with input from our legal counsel and CEO
- [If applicable, you’re on top of our pipeline, and you are actively making suggestions to improve our go-to-market strategy.]
- Working with our CEO, you are actively helping to enable conversations with 10+ potential future funders (including current funders and those we already know). You have opened up several of these conversations yourself, and you are supporting our CEO in ensuring that all these funders are feeling aware, updated and increasingly excited about us
- You are actively planning conversations with suitable VCs to spar with over our current plans
- You are making strategic decisions on our near- and mid-term priorities and resource-allocation, demonstrably improving the efficiency, resilience and potential-for-creativity of the ship. Everyone is aware of and aboard with your decisions
- Working with our EA/Chief of Staff, our people processes are sufficiently built-out for an organisation of our size (regular check-ins, reviews, accountability, incentive structures etc.)
- You are increasingly interconnected with our product, partnerships and sales teams, discerning space for operational improvement and proactively fixing problems
- [If applicable, our go-to-market efforts are demonstrably improving based on your inputs.]
- A love of nature and thriving human civilisation, and a deep desire to protect both
- Experience in a key operational leadership position, scaling a technology start-up from the 10 people mark upwards
- A strong network for fundraising from angels, VCs, foundations etc., and experience raising investment capital in the region of £2mn - £10mn
- Experience with financial management in an equivalent or closely comparable paradigm
- Experience working in a leadership role as part of a remote or semi-remote team
- Bonfire-levels of enthusiasm, initiative and self-starter energy
- High EQ (a love of people and an ability to judge, manage and resolve tension from afar)
- Ability to work effectively as a team, and autonomously – particularly as a remote worker (discipline, self-motivation, great time management)
- Exceptional problem-solving skills
- Healthy scepticism and an ability to ask good questions
- Experience crafting and executing go-to-market strategies
- Experience working in the climate and nature space
- Experience working in the education/EdTech product and training space
- Experience developing and scaling products, particularly with an EdTech focus
- Experience in the assessment product space
- A love of, and experience in partnership building and strategic networking
- An understanding of climate science, ecology, sustainability, regeneration
- Insight into leveraging digital technology for engagement and learning
We take great pride in our people and culture. We trust and admire one another, and we all share the twin desires of wanting to build a great company and combat the climate and nature emergency.
We comprise 20+ people working remotely around the world, and we talk openly and honestly, regularly. We aim to enable all of our team members to do their best work, be themselves, and ultimately feel energised every Monday, so here are some of our perks:
- Generous equity offered alongside remuneration
- Flexible hours (as long as you get the work done, you’re available for scheduled meetings and you’re able to take urgent calls during standard hours, you can work flexibly)
- Remote working with a vibrant, international team, and an open, respectful, values-based culture
- Three one-week in-person team gatherings per year (costs covered)
- Substantial annual leave (25 days pro-rata + local bank holidays + bonus days at Christmas)
- Generous and flexible annual wellbeing and professional development budget
- Access to co-working facilities in London
- Workplace Pension Scheme in NEST’s ethical pension fund
- Opportunity to connect with a larger community, via our memberships, fellowships and associations with local and global organisations
- Invitations to events and learning opportunities
- The chance to become an integral and formative part of a fast-paced, rapidly growing project that’s changing the world for the better.
Remote work is not for everyone. With it comes freedom, but also isolation. Some enjoy remote work. Others do not. Some like global video calls. Others find them hollow.
We are a group of people who thrive on freedom and diversity, connect well over calls, and love to be working in synchronicity with people around the world. To balance our digital work lives, all our team members have active communities around where we live.
You will not get those regular water-cooler moments, nor those Friday afternoons at the pub with us (save for our week-long get-togethers). You will get a hugely dedicated, diligent team of smart, dynamic people, ambitious about changing the world for the better, and always ready to talk with one another.
Like us, you will be inspired by your colleagues (as we hope to be by you), and you will likely make life-long friends. But if you are worried that you may want more day-to-day, in-person interactions with the people you work with, then a role with us might not be for you.
About AimHi Earth
Visit www.AimHi.Earth for more information about us or contact rachel@aimhi.earth if you’ve any questions.
You can also:
- Get on top of our work defining Green Skills
- Catch up on one of our climate broadcasts, live from the Eden Project
- See what people think about us on our TrustPilot
We embrace diversity at AimHi Earth and are committed to welcoming people into our team and contractor pool regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability.
We are especially keen to encourage applications and interest from individuals underrepresented in our organisation and sector. We are very aware that the climate and nature crisis intersects with social injustice. Furthermore, to build an organisation that is effective in turning around the climate and nature emergency, we know that we need a team with all kinds of different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds.
Good luck!
We understand that applying for a new job takes a lot of work and we really value your time. We are really looking forward to reading your application!