About the role

You will build and run the operations behind Coalescent Cognition, giving our research and engineering team the support they need to develop and deliver our products. This means owning day-to-day operations across financial planning, recruitment, people processes, contracts, compliance and the practical running of the company.

You will report to our CEO and work closely with the founding team, Head of Research and CTO. You will turn company priorities into workable budgets, hiring plans and operational processes, making sure responsibilities are clear, commitments are tracked and decisions are followed through.

This is a hands-on leadership role, with no existing operations team to inherit. You will build financial forecasts, run recruitment, manage suppliers and resolve operational problems yourself. We already have legal and accounting relationships in place for you to inherit. You will manage these relationships and bring in specialist input, making sure advice and agreed actions are carried through.

What you’ll do

Depending on the stage of the company, your work will include:

• Own budgeting, cash-flow forecasting and financial planning, maintaining a clear view of spending, commitments and runway, and explaining the implications of hiring and investment decisions.

• Run financial operations with our accountants and payroll provider, including invoicing, payments, expenses, payroll, VAT and regular management reporting.

• Run recruitment with the hiring leads, from sourcing and candidate communication to interviews, offers, Right to Work checks and onboarding.

• Establish and manage people processes, including employment contracts, pension auto-enrolment, leave, benefits, review cycles and offboarding, and set up and administer share option arrangements and cap table records with our advisers.

• Manage supplier relationships and contracts with clients, research partners and advisers, including obligations under our agreements with UCL, tracking terms, renewals and outstanding decisions.

• Make sure research studies and client projects have the agreements, budgets, schedules and practical arrangements they need.

• Oversee data-protection and information-governance processes, including participant and client data under UK GDPR, working with our CTO and Head of Research.

• Maintain an operational calendar covering Companies House filings, applicable tax filings and claims, insurance renewals and contractual commitments, working with the relevant advisers and internal owners.

• Support the CEO with fundraising and board reporting, preparing financial information, maintaining due-diligence materials, and coordinating SEIS/EIS processes, grant administration and reporting where relevant.

• Build practical systems for purchasing, company records, equipment, office arrangements and internal administration, using automation where it makes the company more effective and improving processes as the team grows.

You may be a good fit if you

• Have owned substantial operational responsibilities in an early-stage company, research organisation or similarly demanding environment.

• Have strong financial skills and can build and maintain budgets, cash forecasts and scenario models, challenge assumptions and explain what the numbers mean for decisions.

• Have experience leading work across several functions, such as finance, recruitment, people operations, contracts and supplier management.

• Can turn loosely defined priorities into clear plans, establish who is responsible and make sure work is completed.

• Are comfortable moving between planning and detailed execution, including handling routine tasks that need to be done accurately and on time.

• Exercise sound judgement with confidential financial, commercial and personal information, and recognise when specialist advice is needed.

• Can prioritise under uncertainty, raise problems early and recommend a practical course of action.

• Use AI tools fluently in your own work, with the judgement to check what they produce and protect confidential information.

• Communicate clearly, build trust across different disciplines and can challenge a decision constructively when the evidence warrants it.

Your background might be in operations, finance, business management or a related field. We care most about the responsibilities you have held and the systems you have built and run; a particular degree or previous COO title is not required.

Strong candidates may also have

We do not expect every candidate to have all of these strengths:

• Early-stage operations. Experience establishing the financial, people and administrative foundations of a small company, and adapting them as the team grows.

• Financial planning and fundraising. Experience with runway modelling, management reporting, investor due diligence, board materials, SEIS/EIS or supporting a funding round, and tools such as Xero.

• Research and university spinouts. Experience working with scientific teams, university partners or licensed intellectual property, including managing contractual obligations with legal advisers.

• Recruitment and people operations. Experience hiring technical or research staff, managing recruitment partners, setting up EMI schemes and building effective onboarding and people processes.

• Grants and research funding. Experience with applications, project budgets, expenditure records, claims and reporting for funded research or innovation projects, such as Innovate UK or UKRI grants, or R&D tax relief claims.

• Contracts and governance. Experience managing external legal and accounting advisers, maintaining statutory records and handling insurance, data protection or client due diligence.

• Operational systems. Experience implementing finance, HR, recruitment or project-management tools, and using automation to reduce repetitive work while keeping appropriate checks.

The opportunity

You will shape how Coalescent Cognition operates as part of our early leadership team. Working directly with the CEO and founders, you will connect our research ambitions with the people, resources and practical arrangements needed to deliver them. Your work will help the company make informed decisions, use its funding well and build a team that can work effectively together.

What we offer

• A competitive salary and meaningful equity through share options.

• Hybrid working from our office in Bloomsbury, central London, with 4 days a week together in person.

• 28 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, and a workplace pension.

• A learning budget and time for conferences.

• The chance to shape a new company and develop a new approach to measuring human and AI metacognition as part of the founding team.