Group Operations Manager Full Time NEW

Group Operations Manager

Company: Kinrock Limited

Reports to: Group Managing Director

Location: Bristol (Mon-Wed in office, Thur-Fri optional)

Compensation: £50,000-60,000 plus bonus and benefits

Holidays: 26 days plus Bank Holidays

Equity: Possibility of equity participation for the right individual as they grow into a broader leadership role

About Kinrock

Kinrock is an established and growing Bristol-based corporate learning group that owns two specialist learning businesses: Zing365, serving the UK insurance sector, and Redmill Advance, serving the financial advice sector. Between them the businesses deliver both self-study e-learning and live training (both online and in-person) across technical skills, compliance knowledge, soft skills, business skills and leadership and management skills. All of this is delivered on our innovative online learning platform to hundreds of large corporate clients. 

Over the next 18 months, we are relaunching our learning platform, achieving ISO 27001 certification, and merging both businesses into one Kinrock brand with three unified divisions (commercial, learning and technology). Our mission is to provide best-in-class Learning Solutions for Ambitious Organisations. Today the focus is financial services and insurance, with plans to expand across professional services more broadly. 

The Senior Leadership Team comprises the group Managing Director and the Managing Directors of the two current brands. The Group Operations Manager will support the SLT in making sure the two companies today and the three divisions post-integration are operating intentionally, efficiently and to a high standard. He or she will be the ‘glue’ that ties everything together and frees up the SLT to focus on growing the business, developing great products and serving clients. This person will also play a hands-on role in the January 2028 integration of both businesses into one Kinrock entity, which is a genuinely exciting thing to be part of at this stage of a career.

Duties:

• Own clear documentation of and ensure adherence to SOPs across the two companies today (and divisions post-integration)
• Own meeting documentation including action items, attending all recurring meetings across the companies today (and divisions post-integration)
• Own task management (both recurring and project-based) across the organisation (including for external contractors), ensuring that tasks are completed on time by the right team members
• Ensure that our CRM and other internally developed tools are being consistently used and with good data and best-practice hygiene
• Support the SLT in setting quarterly and annual OKRs and business planning
• Own performance management, ensuring one-on-ones and appraisals are completed
• Own general HR admin e.g. onboarding/offboarding, holiday compliance, benefits, training/upskilling, exit interviews, employee records, as well as ‘live’ job descriptions for all employees
• Own supplier assessment, diligence and management
• Ensure all SharePoint sites and libraries (across both companies and all functions) are well-organised and in good housekeeping order
• Own documentation of policies and procedures, the employee handbook (all with the help of external advisors)
• Maintain an intranet site where employees can access useful information
• Be a liaison with our external bookkeepers/accountants and our external IT company
• Manage office operations across Bristol and Linlithgow – ensuring both offices are well-run, well-presented and Health & Safety compliant
• Be the ISMS Manager for the organisation, owning our ISO 27001 accreditation/compliance (with specialist consultant assistance)
• Be our Data Protection Officer (with specialist consultant assistance)
• Be our H&S Officer (with specialist consultant assistance)
• Maintain a risk register for the organisation and implement mitigation controls
• With the help of our external advisors, ensure the business is audit-ready and due diligence-ready at all times – for both clients and future investors.
• Support the organisation in recruiting, maintaining an official company description, templates for job ads/descriptions, and the latest offer letter and contract templates (with external assistance)
• Organise team events, away days and initiatives that bring people together and reinforce a shared Kinrock identity ahead of and through the merger.

Must-have skills & experience:

• 3-5 years experience in an operations role at a start-up, scale-up or SME where you performed to a very high standard – this is the single most important thing we are hiring for
• Strong affinity for using AI (e.g. Claude) and software tools to improve your own workflows and make companies better, while making sure their use does not impact on quality
• A demonstrable talent for clear and precise thinking and communication
• Experience with supplier assessment and management and contract management
• Experience with documentation, e.g. SOPs, OKRs, policies, meeting notes
• Comfortable working horizontally across an organisation, inspiring confidence while bringing people along
• Solid Excel and data skills – you have used Pivot Tables, Data Filters and VLOOKUPS before and have a talent for identifying the one or two things that matter in order to fix an issue
• Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience.

Nice-to-have skills & experience:

• Experience and proficiency in a Microsoft 365 environment (rather than Google Workspace)
• Working knowledge of GDPR and data governance in a B2B context.
• Experience as an ISMS Manager or owning an ISO certification internally
• Some HR generalist experience including performance management and appraisals
• Experience in a regulated sector – financial services, insurance, legal or similar.
• Experience or a genuine interest in the broader education/learning sector

Must-have personal characteristics:

• Above all else, you are an extremely high-agency individual who is a natural problem-solver and cares about the actual results, with a strong sense of ownership and urgency
• Exceptionally well organised, with a passion and talent for “things just working”
• Highly intelligent and curious with high attention to detail
• A doer rather than a strategist – you get satisfaction from making things work, not just planning them
• Deeply organised – your systems and your thinking are clear even when the environment around you is not.
• Low ego and high standards – comfortable being the person who makes everyone else’s work better without needing the credit.
• A clear, direct communicator in writing and in person – with people at every level of the organisation.
• Ambitious – you want to grow with the business and help shape what Kinrock becomes.

To apply please send your CV and a covering note to contact@kinrock.com with ‘GOM Role‘ in the subject line. In your covering note tell us specifically why this role and why now. Please do not use AI to write your covering note – we want to hear your own voice. Applications without a covering note will not be considered.