Open Systems Lab is a non-profit R&D company that brings together brilliant people to work on some of society’s most difficult challenges: how can we plan and build better places? How can we end the housing crisis? How can we create a zero-carbon economy, and resilient communities? How can government work better? We design, test and deploy real systems for a new economy.

All of this is only possible because we create a platform for teams of designers, researchers, engineers and domain experts to do this work. Over the last few years, we have grown from a tiny startup to an organisation of 19 people. We do not want to become a huge organisation, but we do want to have a big impact, and we are looking for someone who can help us continue to stay lean, and sustain and develop our success so far.

As operations lead, you will lead the the day-to-day running of the company. You will be responsible for HR, finances, insurance, compliance, and our internal systems and processes, including governance and processes for continuous learning, improvement and resilience. Working closely with the CEO you will support the project teams to deliver on their goals, create a framework around them, and provide help and support where needed. In short, you will be responsible for the good running of the ship.

You do not need to be a subject matter expert in any of the domains that Open Systems Lab works in, nor do you need deep expertise in any of the areas listed below, but you will need to have a high level understanding of all of them.

There will also be additional opportunities to proactively support business development, our commercial operations and grow our relationships with funders – if this is an area that you are interested in and can bring strengths to.

Above all you need to be a practical, reliable, get-things-done sort of person. In a small organisation, you will not have in-house administrative staff working for you, nor will you be tightly managed. You will have to show leadership and judgement, and be responsible for making sure that we get the basics right, even while working in innovative ways.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Drawing up and managing budgets; financial reporting
• Working effectively with professional service providers, such as accountants, lawyers
• Assessing the suitability and broad implications of contracts
• Paying invoices on time, and chasing invoices
• Protection of intellectual property such as trademarks and domain names
• Keeping track of our software licences and physical assets
• Forward-planning to ensure we’re making best use of resources
• Meeting legal requirements for running a company
• Ensuring we follow best practice in employment and recruitment
• Ensuring the requirements of grant funding are met
• Organising documents and internal knowledge for easy retrieval
• Organising occasional events and venues (such as board meetings, advisory meetings, 6-monthly strategy weeks)
• Acting as an open point of contact within the team for operational matters or other issues.

We’re looking for someone who is committed to keeping our operations lean – focusing on what really matters, cutting out unnecessary complexity, and making sure our energy goes into high value work, not waste or busy-work.

Above all, we’re looking for someone who is deeply motivated by operational excellence –  transforming the world by creating the environment for a small, happy team to do their best work. Together we can have an impact that is far greater than the sum of our individual parts.

• Work with a small, incredibly talented, friendly, and motivated team of people in a high-expectations, but always kind and inclusive environment. You will be part of a team coming up with creative strategic and tactical solutions to tackle wicked problems.
• A level of autonomy, mastery and purpose that you don't find in most organisations.
• Ridiculously flexible working. Work where you want and when you want (most of the time at least).
• Take a key role in helping to continue the development and success of Open Systems Lab, making it deeply sustainable, and putting it into a position to lever systemic transformation. In short, use your time to leave our society better, not worse, than we found it.