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Strategy and Operations Lead

Salary: c.£90,000
Bonus: Discretionary
Location: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays-Thursdays - in our office, Monday and Friday - your choice)
Employment Type: We plan for this role to be full-time, but we’re open to discussing flexible working arrangements

About ARIA

ARIA funds breakthrough R&D for society. With an unprecedented level of independence and operational freedom, we are rethinking how to best support scientists and engineers whose work can change the world. We are growing our team to develop bold new approaches that can scale – from programmes to systems, processes and everything in between. If that sounds fun, come and build ARIA with us.

Learn more about how we work here.

Role Summary

This is a crucial role in building ARIA into a world-changing organisation. Reporting into the Chief of Staff, this role will provide fast-moving strategic and delivery capability to enable ARIA to meet its ambitious objectives. This includes leading on high-impact projects, supporting across all organisational coordination - including strategic planning - and being secretariat to the board and executive team. Above all, you’ll need a flexible mindset, willing to step into any problem that the organisation needs you to solve.

What you’ll do

The scope of the role will evolve as ARIA continues to grow, but will broadly involve the following:

• Proposing, launching and executing special projects that will have a significant impact for ARIA and its strategic objectives
• Partnering with the Chief of Staff across all executive and cross-organisational coordination, including strategic planning and managing the ARIA ways of working guide
• Leading on a wide range of cross-functional processes and capabilities (e.g. OKRs) that impact the whole organisation
• Tracking ARIA’s strategic objectives and identifying potential opportunities to accelerate progress
• Supporting the board and executive team, including production of board reports and fast-response strategic projects
• Managing corporate performance and impact reporting, including the ARIA Annual Report
• Supporting the leadership team with queries from key external stakeholders

Who you are

• You have experience in a start-up, strategy consulting or delivering at pace within government or science and research
• You have led complex projects, with multiple different stakeholders, to deliver widespread impact in an organisation
• You have experience of directly supporting executives in delivering strategic projects
• You are a creative, highly resourceful problem solver and a fast learner
• You are comfortable at tackling problems outside of your experience and can combine research with first-principles thinking to solve them
• You are a doer. You thrive on high throughput and strategic execution
• You are a highly effective and structured communicator, able to flex your communication style towards different stakeholders and team members
• You are incredibly organised, able to bring order to the world around you and balance many competing priorities at once
• You are comfortable with uncertainty and thrive in a highly dynamic, fast-paced and early-stage startup environment. This means you’re willing to take on any problem that your team needs you to
• You are passionate about improving the world with science and motivated by the opportunity to build an iconic and world-changing organisation

Not sure you meet 100% of our criteria? Don’t worry! If you believe that you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply. We want to attract the broadest array of candidates, including those with diverse workplace experiences and backgrounds. Whether you’re new to the field, returning to work after a gap in employment, simply looking to transition, or taking the next step in your career path, we will be glad to have you on our radar. Please use your cover letter to tell us about your interests and what you hope to bring to this role.