THE GOOD FOOD INSTITUTE EUROPE: Head of Operations (Remote within Europe)

Head of Operations – Remote

Helping people, animals and the planet as the driving force behind our day-to-day operations and support functions

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production in order to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger, to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering.

We work with scientists, businesses and policymakers to make plant-based and cultivated meat (grown directly from cells) delicious, affordable and accessible. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2022 Year in Review and our 2022 Europe Highlights blog post to find out more about who we are and what we do.

We are looking for a Head of Operations to oversee and lead the smooth functioning of our internal operations, providing the necessary support to ensure our teams can achieve their goals. For more information about this role, please take a look at the job brochure.

How you will make a difference 

Your role will have high responsibility and high impact. You will significantly influence how quickly Europe and the world move to a more ethical and sustainable food system. 

Reporting to the Managing Director, you will be responsible for the smooth running of our people operations (including talent acquisition and management, HR, diversity and inclusion, team culture, etc), financial management (including financial planning, bookkeeping, reporting, etc), risk management, internal processes and policies, legal and compliance, and much more as we expand into new countries in Europe. Ultimately, your strong generalist skillset will ensure we are an efficient, compliant, effective, inclusive and happy organisation.

To achieve this, you will:

• Lead and oversee the development and implementation of efficient processes for all of GFI Europe’s operations, including:
  • People operations: lead on HR, talent acquisition, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), team culture, oversight of payrolls and employee files, ownership of team handbooks and policies, etc.
  • Finance: manage our day-to-day financial operations including working closely with GFI colleagues in the United States on monthly reporting, audits, etc.
  • Legal and compliance: ensure we are fully legally compliant, lead on governance requirements/reporting, and liaise with lawyers as needed, lead on contracting external suppliers and grant recipients, etc.
  • Administrative: support IT and technical needs, data and automation, project coordination between our departments, strategic and routine reporting, office rental/management, event coordination, safe and efficient travel bookings, etc.
• Balance the need to work strategically and proactively with also working reactively and responsively as required.
• Manage relationships with vendors including outsourced accountants, auditors, insurers, etc.
• Perform the above duties for GFI Europe’s Belgian-registered entity as well as for our branches and registrations in other countries (currently in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK).
• Line manage other members of GFI Europe’s Operations team.
• Perform any other duties as required.

Who we’re looking for: 

You must have:

• A passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.
• Demonstrable experience in operations, administration, HR, DEI, finance or another relevant field (interpreted broadly).
• A high degree of organisation and efficiency, and a passion for devising and managing effective systems, fixing problems, and ensuring accurate, high-quality administration.
• Comfort with working under pressure in complex, often ambiguous and sometimes unglamorous workflows. 
• Experience compassionately and successfully line managing people, and getting the best out of colleagues, ideally in a remote environment.
• An ability to work strategically and to prioritise the most impactful work.
• Strong financial literacy, and excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent people skills — high emotional intelligence, the ability to communicate effectively, and to work well in a team.
• A personality that gets enjoyment and satisfaction out of making things run smoothly and ‘making the magic happen’.
• Enthusiasm, a strong work ethic and self-motivation; a sense of ownership and responsibility to drive outcomes.
• An affinity with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and with maintaining our welcoming and supportive culture.
• Good level of IT literacy and a willingness to learn new software packages.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken.

It would be an advantage to have some or all of the following attributes, but none of them are prerequisites, and we very much welcome applications from candidates without any or all of them:

• Experience managing the operations of a Belgian nonprofit organisation.
• Experience using QuickBooks, Salesforce, Google Workspace, and Asana.
• A legal background, or experience in contract administration or grant funding.
• The ability to work in European languages in addition to English. The ability to work in French and/or Dutch would be particularly beneficial but is not a requirement.

We want the best people and we don’t want biases holding us back. We strongly encourage people of every colour, orientation, age, gender, origin, and ability to apply. As we are a pan-European organisation, we welcome applications from people from nations, locations and cultures across the whole continent. Because we value a diverse workplace, we prioritise an inclusive climate absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.

The Fine Print:

• Terms of employment: Full-time (flexible hours), permanent.
• Location: Flexible – we will consider applicants from anywhere in Europe. This is a remote role, and you will be able to work from home, or anywhere you choose. We are happy to consider supporting costs for co-working to enable you to work from an office if you wish. The whole GFI Europe team aims to get together in person approximately twice per year for around 3-4 days at a time. Travel costs will be covered by GFI Europe within our travel policy.
• Salary and benefits: The salary and benefits package for all of our roles are researched and benchmarked based on similar nonprofit roles in the country/location of hire. Due to capacity, we cannot complete that research for every European country in advance, but approximate indicative ranges (gross salary plus benefits including home-working allowance) are likely to be:
  • €5,172.41 – €6,034.48 per month if based in Brussels, Belgium.
  • €5,451.58 – €6,306.40 per month if based in Germany.
  • £60,000 – £66,000 per year if based in the UK.
  • We actively encourage people from all countries across Europe to apply for this role.
•  Right to work requirements: The successful candidate must, by the start of the employment, have permission to work in the country where they are based, and to be able to travel within the EU.
• Application Deadline: 21st May 2023, 11.59pm CEST. We will get back to all candidates after that date, no matter the outcome of their application. You should expect to hear back from us within about a week of the deadline.

Application process

Please upload your CV and sample work tasks through this short application form. The sample work tasks document can be found here.

We want you to have every opportunity to shine and show us your talents – we are happy to make all the reasonable adjustments that we possibly can to make sure the assessment process works for you. Email us at europe-hiring@gfi.org

The full application process is outlined in the job brochure. We really look forward to hearing from you!

Any questions? Join our team for a live Q&A at 3pm CEST on Wednesday 10th May 2023. You can submit questions anonymously in advance via this form. The recording will be available on this page after the webinar.

If you have any questions about this role, please do reach out to us at europe-hiring@gfi.org. If you’ve read this far but decided not to apply, please share this job description with someone else in your network who you think might be a good fit for the role! Thank you.