We’re looking for someone with the magic combination of supreme organisational skills, a love of people and strong commercial instincts to join us in the critical role of Resourcing and Operations Manager.
You’ll be excited by the opportunity to supercharge our business and our team by matching people to client work in a way which balances profitability, people development and the quality of the work.
A background in resource management (you might also call it scheduling, casting or something similar), operations or project management in a busy creative or tech consultancy/agency would be very valuable in this role. That said, you’ll get our attention if you’re fascinated by how businesses like ours operate (and how things could be done
Who we are
&us is an Innovation and Transformation consultancy which partners with clients to develop their own capabilities, enabling them to work more bravely and innovate intelligently. We have a strong client portfolio, across Technology, Pharma, Financial Services and Retail. Our best work sees us working hand-in-hand with our clients to make things, coaching them as we go in the skills, tools, and mindset they need to make sustainable changes for the better, and to realise their vision for their company and for themselves.
Currently, the &us team consists of 36 perms and a diverse network of skilled freelance associates, based primarily in London and the South East, but also in Europe and New York. We envisage growing to round 60 over the next 2 years.
This is a permanent role, based in the UK, with the flexibility to work from home on a regular basis, and all the benefits of working in a growing, forward-thinking consultancy
What we need you to do
This is a linchpin role which sits at the heart of our business. You’ll work with pretty much everyone at &us, but most closely with our client leads, practice Directors and the Ops, Growth and senior management teams, to strategically plan our people to client work and priority internal projects.
To do this well, you’ll need to build and maintain an unparalleled knowledge of current and future projects, people and their super powers, and develop relationships that ensure you’re always in the loop. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to keep all that info in your head – rather you’ll own and hone the systems and processes necessary to keep on top of things. We suspect you may be quite fond of a spreadsheet.
You’ll be part of a team of five dedicated to ensuring that &us runs in a way which is both efficient and human-friendly for our clients, our team and everyone we do business with. As a growing company, we guarantee that there will be plenty of interesting opportunities for development – in Operations or beyond – as we scale.
As a Resourcing and Operations Manager at &us, your responsibilities will include:
Resource management
- Plan and manage the assignment of the &us team (our “resources”) to projects in such a way as to balance profit, client needs, and people’s career development.
- Maintain an accurate, up-to-date resourcing system which can be relied upon by multiple users and stakeholders.
- Understand the needs and timings of new projects and line up suitable people to deliver the work.
- Be the primary point of contact for resource requests, and proactively resolve problems of under or over allocation, or conflicting resource priorities.
- Build strong relationships with the practice leads and support them with resourcing decisions which further the development of their teams.
- Evolve resourcing tools and processes as needed.
- Manage holiday requests and absence reporting, and any other admin which is relevant to ensure our resourcing picture is accurate.
Commercial and billing support
- Work with our Finance Manager to ensure information for invoicing and financial forecasting is accurate and up-to-date.
- Ensure timely completion of timesheets by the team (and approve freelancer timesheets when needed).
- Provide support to resolve time-tracking queries.
- Contribute to pricing decisions and help make sure that work can be delivered profitably.
- Ensure that commercial considerations are taken into account throughout the resourcing process and help educate and coach the wider &us team to work in a commercially savvy manner.
Reporting and forecasting
- Provide regular, accurate and actionable resourcing data and insights to drive operational decisions.
- Work with our Finance Manager to streamline the flow of information, and improve the accuracy of our forecasting.
- Evolve reporting as the needs of the business change.
Recruitment
- Own and develop our network of experienced, reliable freelancers.
- Work with recruitment agencies where needed to source new candidates for short term and specialist vacancies, and oversee the hiring process to bring them on-board.
Operations
- Collaborate with the internal Ops team to spot opportunities for improvement, and to define or evolve processes as we grow.
- Manage ad hoc projects within the operations area.
What skills do you need?
- Detail-oriented and highly organised
- A natural problem-solver with a ‘can-do’ attitude
- Great interpersonal skills – including discretion
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
- Able to facilitate meetings and resolve conflict.
- Delight in building collaborative relationships
- Motivated by making sure others have a positive experience
- Adept at multi-tasking and navigating (often quickly) changing priorities
- Skilled at implementing and improving people-centered processes
- Pick up new tools and software with ease
- Curious about what can be done better
What’s in it for you
- Be an essential ingredient of a successful, young consultancy that offers that rare balance between play, freedom, shaping a business and security.
- Join and grow an awesome team of smart, interesting, curious, compassionate people who love to create good trouble.
- Incredibly rewarding experiences – we’ll do everything we can to help you make the most of your career with &us.
- Oh, and a competitive salary and generous benefits.
Want to join &us?
If so, we’d love to get a sense of how you think. Please send your CV to alex@andus.co and use your cover letter to tell us why you’re the Resourcing and Operations Manager we’re looking for.
We value great writers and communicators. Please don’t write long answers.
We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.