Head of Operations and Customer Success
2 days ago
London
Head of Operations and Customer Success \n (aka Director of Getting Sh*t Done) \n \n Full-time, on-site – London \n £60,000–£75,000 + meaningful equity \n \n Watergate helps buildings detect leaks, cut water waste, and reduce the carbon footprint of every litre, proving the impact with data. \n \n We’re building the missing circuit breaker for water. Every building has fire protection. Every building has security. Almost none have proper water protection, despite leaks causing huge financial and operational damage. We’re here to fix that. \n \n Now we need a Head of Operations and Customer Success. \n \n We’re at the point where the founder can’t be the operational backbone – or the central point of contact for our most important customers – on their own. We need a senior leader who can help run the business, turn priorities into execution and make sure every customer gets lasting value from Watergate. \n \n This is a hands-on leadership role spanning two closely connected areas: running the company effectively and making our product work for our customers. You’ll keep the business moving across delivery, finance, people and internal systems, while owning the customer journey after installation – from onboarding and training through adoption, ongoing support and long-term value realisation. \n \n Our anchor clients are major organisations with multiple stakeholders, buildings and operational priorities. You’ll build trusted relationships across those organisations, understand what success looks like for them and be their principal point of contact when questions or problems arise. \n \n In addition to B2B customer support, you’ll also lead the wider Customer Experience function, including D2C customer service, tickets, complaints and returns. This isn’t a role for someone who wants to manage from a distance. You’ll be in it – talking to customers, solving problems, building systems and improving how we work. \n \n We’re deliberately lean. That’s not code for chaotic. It means small team, high trust, high ownership and high output. \n \n We also use AI tools heavily across the business: operations, admin, analysis, research, communication and execution. Not because it sounds modern, but because it’s how a small team moves faster and does better work. You don’t need to be technical, but you do need to be genuinely AI-native in how you work. If you’re not already using tools like Claude or ChatGPT regularly to improve speed, quality and output, this probably isn’t the right fit. \n \n We have an operating company in the UK, a subsidiary in Poland, ongoing R&D, and plans to expand internationally. More moving parts, more opportunities, and more need for someone who can bring order without adding drag. \n \n This is a place for people who work hard, think clearly and use tools intelligently. Two out of three won’t cut it. If you like building the machine while it’s running, keep reading. \n \n What you'll own \n Customer success and strategic relationships – Owning the post-installation customer journey for our key B2B clients. You’ll build trusted relationships across our anchor client organisations and act as their principal point of contact, understanding their objectives, coordinating the resolution of issues and ensuring commitments are delivered. \n \n Onboarding, training and adoption – Helping customers use the technology, app and dashboard effectively; interpret insights; manage alerts; and understand their water savings and wider benefits. You’ll help them embed Watergate into day-to-day operations and realise measurable value over time. \n \n Customer experience leadership – Leading the CX function across B2B and D2C customers, including support tickets, complaints, troubleshooting, returns and escalations. You’ll set service standards and improve response and resolution processes. \n \n Customer insight and continuous improvement – Turning customer feedback, recurring issues and usage patterns into better products, processes and communications, working closely with product, technical, sales and delivery teams. \n \n Finance and commercial – Cashflow, budgets, payroll, invoicing, and reporting to the board, shareholders and investors. You’ll work with our bookkeeper and accountant across both UK and Polish entities. You don’t need to be a finance specialist, but you do need to read the numbers and act on them. \n \n People – Recruitment, onboarding, HR and culture across the UK and Poland. As we grow the team, you’ll help build the function. \n \n International expansion – As we move into new markets, you’ll help build the processes, partnerships and operational foundations that make it possible. \n \n Strategy and execution – Partnering with the CEO on planning, fundraising prep, investor communication, and the decisions that don’t fit neatly into anyone else’s job description. Spotting friction before it becomes a problem, and helping sort it early. \n \n Systems and tools – Improving how we work, including where AI can remove manual work, speed up decisions and increase output. \n \n Office operations – Keeping the office, systems, documentation and suppliers running properly \n \n What we’re looking for \n\n • 5+ years in operations, client delivery and engagement, business operations, chief of staff or a similar role in a fast-moving company, including time inside an early-stage or scaling startup\n, • Experience establishing and owning customer or stakeholder relationships, bonus if this includes training and customer support\n, • A strong relationship-builder who can earn the trust of stakeholders at different levels and take ownership of customer issues through to resolution\n, • Strong operational judgement and a bias for action\n, • Commercially literate – comfortable with budgets, numbers and board-level reporting\n, • Highly organised, reliable, and calm under pressure \n, • Comfortable owning a wide brief and switching between strategic and practical work in the same hour \n, • Clear, professional communicator with corporates, investors, partners and internal teams\n, • Someone who builds systems, not just manages tasks \n, • Genuinely AI-native – already using Claude, ChatGPT or similar tools regularly, and always looking for ways to push them further \n, • Strong with Google Workspace, spreadsheets and modern workplace tools \n, • Bonus if you’ve worked across multiple entities or jurisdictions \n, • Bonus if you’ve worked with property companies, facilities teams, housing providers or elsewhere in the built environment\n, • Hands-on, with no ego about the work \n, • 100% in-office in London (Sustainable Ventures, County Hall, Waterloo)\n\n \n You'll probably do well here if you... \n\n • Like ownership more than oversight\n, • See loose ends before other people do\n, • Bring order to a fast-moving environment without draining the energy out of it\n, • Enjoy building trusted, long-term relationships with customers or stakeholders\n, • Can translate technical or operational detail into clear communication and guidance\n, • Care about what happens after a project is delivered and whether end users are actually getting value from the product\n, • Are as comfortable solving small operational problems as improving bigger systems\n, • Like using new tools when they make the work better\n, • Want to play a meaningful role in building a company, not just filling a seat in one\n, • Don’t need chasing\n\n \n What you'll get \n\n • £60,000–£75,000 base salary, depending on experience\n, • Meaningful equity\n, • Life and health insurance\n, • Whatever tools you need to do the job properly\n, • Professional development budget\n, • Real scope to shape how the company operates and how customers experience our product\n, • Close partnership with the founder and visibility across the whole business\n, • Genuine room for the role to grow as the company grows\n, • A smart, ambitious team building something that matters\n\n \n Location \n Full-time and on-site in London at our new offices in Sustainable Ventures, County Hall \n \n Hiring process \n We move fast and we don’t waste your time. \n\n • Apply to careers@watergate.ai with your CV and a short cover note – tell us why this role, not just why you’re looking\n, • Initial screening call – fit, motivation and practicalities\n, • Take-home task – a realistic operations or business problem you’d actually face here. We respect your time and won’t ask for more than a few hours\n, • Problem-solving interview – we’ll walk through your task and a live business scenario. We’re looking for structured thinking and clear judgement, not memorised frameworks\n, • Informal final stage with the founder and a senior team member – relaxed setting, outside the office. The work questions are mostly answered by this point. This one is about whether we'd actually want to spend our days working together.\n, • References and offer\n\n \n No bloated process. Just enough to know, on both sides, whether this is right. \n \n Apply \n If you’re the kind of operator who loves building structure, driving execution, developing trusted customer relationships, and helping run a business properly, we’d like to hear from you. \n \n Tell us why this role fits you, and why you fit it.
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