Operations Consultant (International Social Impact Organisation)

About the Role

About Us: Pay As You Go COO

Pay As You Go COO brings together the best of fractional leadership and consulting in a way that’s truly fit for smaller businesses.

With decades of experience in high-growth companies, we combine hands-on operating experience with structured, project-based delivery that’s focused, practical, and built for modern startups.
We work with founders, leadership teams, and individuals navigating complex strategic and operational decisions. Whether they need hands-on support to prepare for investment or clear strategic planning to reach their next revenue milestone, we’re here to help our clients make big leaps at every key inflection point.

We provide practical strategy, finance, and operations support - from shaping new ventures and bringing structure to messy work, to building the operational and financial clarity needed for sustainable growth, strong governance and long-term organisational impact.

About the Client

Our client is a globally connected social impact organisation operating across multiple jurisdictions and focused on research, leadership development, systems change and long-term societal impact.

Following a significant organisational transition and the establishment of a new UK charitable entity, the organisation is entering a period of operational maturity. While strong foundations already exist, the leadership team is seeking support to strengthen governance processes, operational controls, reporting structures and back-office operations in a way that is practical, proportionate and fit for purpose.

The organisation already benefits from specialist legal, governance and finance support. The challenge is less about developing new policies and advice, and more about operationalising them effectively through systems, processes, reporting and day-to-day ways of working.

About the Role: Operational Mobilisation & Delivery

We’re looking for an experienced Operator to take ownership of the mobilisation and embedding of the back-office operations and finance-operations activity.

This is not a solo mission, nor is it a traditional consultancy project.

You’ll work closely with the Pay As You Go COO leadership team, acting as the embedded operational lead responsible for helping design, implement and coordinate the operational infrastructure required for a growing international organisation.

While you bring strong operational judgement, delivery capability and organisational skills, you will be supported by (and expected to utilise) Pay As You Go COO’s operating frameworks, governance models and project delivery structures.

Key Responsibilities:
- Supporting discovery workshops and operating model reviews
- Mapping current and future-state operational processes
- Building and maintaining project plans and delivery roadmaps
- Implementing operational systems, tooling and ways of working
- Establishing governance structures and reporting rhythms
- Coordinating delivery across multiple stakeholders and teams
- Documenting operating procedures and organisational knowledge
- Supporting operational compliance, administration and finance operations
- Developing management reporting processes and governance reporting packs
- Supporting the creation of board, trustee and leadership reporting materials
- Helping establish meaningful financial and non-financial performance reporting
- Preparing the organisation for transition to a permanent operational leader

About You

Mission-driven operator: You are comfortable operating within organisations where impact, purpose and stakeholder relationships matter alongside operational effectiveness. You are excited by helping organisations build the foundations required to increase their long-term impact.

Collaborative builder: You enjoy working within an established framework rather than reinventing the wheel and understand how to balance autonomy with collaboration. You build trust quickly, communicate clearly and enjoy working closely with founders, leadership teams and diverse stakeholders.

Operational generalist: You have experience across operations, governance, project delivery, organisational systems and business administration, and are comfortable moving between strategy and execution. You are equally happy facilitating a leadership discussion, documenting a process, implementing a new system or following up on actions to ensure delivery happens.

Governance and compliance minded: You are comfortable translating policies, legal advice and governance requirements into practical day-to-day operating procedures. You understand that compliance is rarely a policy problem and more often an implementation challenge.

Financially literate: You should be comfortable working with management reporting, financial controls, operational risk and finance processes. You are able to identify weaknesses, blind spots and opportunities for improvement. Experience designing or improving management accounts, board reporting or operational performance reporting would be highly advantageous.

Startup / scale-up fluency: You understand how to work in environments where priorities evolve quickly, resources are constrained and structure is still emerging. You are comfortable bringing order to complexity and balancing pragmatism with rigour. Experience working with UK charities, foundations, social enterprises or regulated organisations would be highly advantageous. Familiarity with Charity Commission governance expectations, trustee reporting requirements and operational compliance frameworks is strongly preferred.

Strong project and programme manager: You are highly organised, able to coordinate multiple workstreams simultaneously and comfortable driving projects forward through influence rather than hierarchy.

Excellent communicator: You have strong written and verbal communication skills and are comfortable documenting processes, preparing reports, facilitating meetings and working with stakeholders at all levels of an organisation.

Systems thinker: You enjoy designing and implementing operational processes, systems and ways of working that improve organisational effectiveness without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Ownership mentality: You are proactive, resourceful and comfortable operating independently while remaining highly collaborative. When you spot a problem, your instinct is to solve it. You proactively identify issues, volunteer information, drive work forward without constant direction and take responsibility for outcomes.

What You'll Be Doing
- Reviewing existing operational, governance and finance processes
- Mapping current-state and future-state operating processes
- Assessing implementation of existing policies and identifying operational gaps
- Translating policies and internal controls into practical day-to-day procedures
- Supporting the development of management reporting and governance reporting packs
- Designing and implementing management reporting processes
- Developing board, trustee and leadership reporting packs
- Creating meaningful operational and financial performance reporting
- Working with existing finance, bookkeeping and advisory providers to improve visibility, controls and decision-making
- Reviewing financial controls and helping identify operational risks and blind spots
- Improving document management, information governance and organisational record-keeping
- Supporting GDPR and data management initiatives alongside specialist advisors
- Designing operational rhythms, governance calendars and accountability structures
- Implementing project management tools, templates and operational workflows
- Supporting procurement, supplier onboarding and vendor management processes
- Creating SOPs, process documentation and operational playbooks
- Helping prepare the organisation for future audits and governance reviews
- Supporting delivery against a structured operational mobilisation plan
- Working closely with client leadership and Pay As You Go COO to prioritise and execute operational improvements

Success in this Role. By the end of the engagement, we would expect to see:
- Clear visibility over operational, governance and compliance obligations
- Robust and documented internal controls
- Improved financial and management reporting
- Operational processes that are consistently followed in practice
- Stronger governance and decision-making rhythms
- Greater audit and compliance readiness
- Improved document management and organisational knowledge sharing
- Reduced reliance on founder-led operational coordination
- Clear ownership, accountability and reporting structures across the organisation
- A documented operating model that can be maintained and developed internally

Engagement Details

Format: Part-time, project-based engagement. We anticipate the role requiring approximately 2–3 days per week over an initial four-month period, although there is flexibility around how those days are structured. The engagement will combine hands-on operational delivery with participation in discovery, planning, governance and organisational development activities.

Timeline: We expect the engagement to begin with an intensive discovery and mobilisation phase, followed by a period of operational implementation and delivery, before transitioning into handover and organisational embedding. Subject to organisational needs and mutual fit, there may be opportunities to extend or evolve the engagement beyond the initial scope.

Duration: Initial four-month engagement supporting the establishment of operational, governance and back-office foundations within a growing international organisation.

Reporting to: Founder of Pay As You Go COO. Working closely with the client leadership team on a day-to-day basis.

Location: Remote / flexible. Applicants should be comfortable working across multiple time zones. Occasional in-person meetings may be required, ideally in London, although this is not a strict requirement.

Terms

This engagement is offered at a guide rate of £600 per day (plus VAT where applicable), depending on experience and suitability for the brief.

Because this is a collaborative delivery between yourself and Pay As You Go COO, the engagement is managed under our umbrella. Our fee structure is simple: we retain 15% of the day rate to cover project governance, senior operational oversight, mentorship, client relationship management, sourcing the engagement and access to our operating frameworks and delivery methodologies.

This structure ensures the client receives a high-quality, embedded operational leadership experience while providing you with ongoing support, guidance and escalation cover throughout the project.

Next steps

Please submit your application as soon as possible and by 23.59 on Friday 12th of June.

We will review applications on a rolling basis and expect to hold initial conversations with shortlisted candidates over the coming weeks.

This engagement is due to commence 22nd ofJune.