Head of Operations - Site Lead

Job description

We're looking for a Head of Operations to lead our Manila operation, a team of 45+ across accounting, customer support and other functions, responsible for delivering the statutory accounts, tax filings and day to day service that support GetGround's UK property investment platform. This is a role for a qualified accountant who has progressed beyond technical delivery into operational leadership. You'll own the performance, quality and culture of the Manila operation, while also acting as the senior technical escalation point for the accounting team. This role reports to the Managing Director, Accounting & Customer Operations, based in the UK. THE OPPORTUNITY GetGround has £2bn+ in assets on platform and more than 30,000 users across 70 countries. Behind that sits an operation preparing over 7,000 sets of UK statutory accounts and corporation tax returns every year, making it the largest team in the business. Our ambition is to more than double that output through AI, automation and better processes, and this role will be central to making that happen. You'll help shape how the operation works, where technology can remove manual effort and how we continue improving productivity without compromising quality. This is an opportunity to shape the operation, not simply run the existing process. You'll take ownership of delivery and quality across the accounting function from day one, with scope to take wider responsibility for customer support and other functions as the role develops. You'll also be the senior leader on the ground in Manila, responsible for building a high performing operation and an environment where good people want to stay and develop. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP - Own end to end delivery of the annual accounts cycle for 7,000+ UK property companies, including capacity planning, allocation and work in progress. - Take accountability for meeting Companies House and HMRC deadlines, with the planning and controls needed to keep late filings to a minimum. - Own the quality of work produced by the team and the review structure that supports it. - Identify recurring errors and address the root cause through training, process improvements or better tooling. - Work closely with the customer support team and wider Manila operation, with scope to take on further responsibility as the role develops. TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP - Act as the senior technical escalation point for UK statutory accounts and corporation tax matters under FRS 105 and FRS 102 Section 1A. - Support the team on complex cases where additional technical judgement is required, including stepping into client conversations where appropriate. - Set and maintain the technical standard across the team, while developing capability within the management and review layers. - Assess technical capability as part of recruitment and help shape how the accounting team is trained and developed. SCALING THROUGH AI AND AUTOMATION - Lead the adoption of AI and automation across the operation, ensuring the team uses the tools effectively and consistently. - Act as a key feedback channel into the development of our AI tools, identifying where they work well, where they fall short and where the team is working around them. - Identify opportunities to improve existing processes through AI, automation or better ways of working. - Work closely with the teams building and improving our tools, bringing practical operational feedback and helping shape what should be developed next. BUILDING THE TEAM AND CULTURE - Lead and develop a team of 45+ across accounting, customer support and other functions, working through supervisors and team leads. - Own recruitment for the Manila operation, working closely with our People team in London. - Take responsibility for engagement, retention and progression across the team. Attracting good people matters, but retaining and developing them is just as important. - Build an employee experience that reflects GetGround's values while working effectively within the Philippine market and culture. - Be a visible and approachable leader across the Manila office. ABOUT YOU You're a qualified accountant who has spent the last several years leading teams rather than preparing accounts yourself. You have enough technical depth to provide senior judgement when needed, but your real strength is building and running teams that deliver consistently. You bring: • Qualification and technical depth: CPA or equivalent, with the technical judgement to support and challenge a high performing accounting team. • Leadership at scale: Proven experience leading 30+ people through a management layer in a high volume, deadline driven environment. - Operational rigour: You understand capacity planning, productivity and quality, and know how to turn operational data into action. - A focus on improvement: You've improved how work gets done, not simply asked teams to do more. You're comfortable challenging existing processes and looking for better ways of working. - Interest in AI and automation: You're genuinely interested in how AI and automation can improve the operation and are comfortable driving adoption and providing practical feedback. - People leadership: You build teams people want to stay in, develop strong managers beneath you and are credible with both the wider team and senior leadership. - Ownership: You're comfortable making decisions, taking responsibility and keeping things moving without needing constant direction. Highly desirable - Experience with UK statutory accounts and corporation tax. This would be valuable, but can be learned by the right person. - Experience in property, real estate or financial services. - Exposure to shared service centres, BPO or outsourced finance operations. - Experience leading a customer support or service function alongside a technical operation. - We know great candidates don't always match every point on a job description. If the role excites you and you meet most of what we're looking for, we'd still encourage you to apply. What we are building: The first end-to-end real estate investment offering - making the dream of owning real estate more accessible to everyone globally. Diversity & inclusion at GetGround: We encourage applications from all sections of society and we believe in the criticality of an inclusive culture. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other basis as protected by law. - 42% of our employees identify as female or non-specified, 58% as male - 22 nationalities represented across offices in 5 countries - Our work on Design Accessibility https://medium.com/@GetGround/design-that-works-for-everyone-accessibility-at-getground-a7cf7ca867f0 - Inclusion is at the heart of our culture - we celebrate and reflect on key D&I and cultural events such as: Black History Month, International Women's Day and Pride For more information on how we store your candidate data, please see our recruitment privacy policy https://25516403.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/25516403/GetGroundRecruitmentPrivacyPolicy.pdf.