Kestrix
Strategic Operations Manager
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About Kestrix
Kestrix uses drone-based thermal imaging and AI to map and quantify how heat escapes from buildings, assess heat pump and solar readiness, and generate energy retrofit plans for homes at scale. Our data and patent-pending algorithmic analysis helps landlords, local authorities, and energy suppliers understand the optimal upgrade pathway for each home – enabling the effective allocation of scarce time, labour, and financial resources into housing decarbonisation and regeneration.
To date, Kestrix have mapped more than 10,000 homes, serving 25+ enterprise customers across the UK, Germany, and the US. We have raised £3.5M in funding from leading PropTech and climate tech VCs (Pi Labs, the Conduit EIS Fund, and Carbon13 among them) as well as government bodies such as InnovateUK and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). We are an agile team of 12, meaning you will have real ownership and impact from day 1.
About this role
This position begins as a 10-month maternity cover for our Operations Manager. However, Kestrix is growing rapidly, so this is a permanent contract. After the 10-month period, you will transition into a permanent operations, growth, or strategy role tailored to the business' evolving needs and your core strengths. This role is generalist by design. You will spend half your time managing supplier relationships, negotiating for competitive pricing for Kestrix, and ensuring our grant-funded projects run smoothly. The other half will be spent supporting the CEO with business operations and strategy, tracking budgets and co-owning the company's financial model to ensure our day-to-day processes don't break as we scale.
What you'll do
Business operations
- Support the CEO & CTO in financial modelling, budget tracking, and monthly management accounts, liaising with our external accountants.
- Manage supplier and customer procurement relationships to ensure Kestrix invoices, is paid, and pays its suppliers on time.
- Drive open ended strategic thinking on revenue operations topics like pricing, sales pipeline optimisation, market sizing, and revenue forecasting.
- Support team onboarding and people-ops activities as we grow.
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Drone operations & project management
- Manage relationships with our contracted drone partners across the UK, US, and Germany (scoping, scheduling, price book maintenance, etc.) and build new relationships.
- Ensure operators meet our security, compliance, and quality standards (insurance, licences, operational safety), and ensure customers receive their data on time.
- Manage quarterly reporting, cost claims, and compliance for InnovateUK-funded grant projects, keeping them on track against milestones.
- Track internal delivery metrics and flag timeline or budget risks early.
Legal, compliance and risk
- Draft, review, and manage contracts with clients, vendors, and partners, helping the co-founders navigate legal documents day-to-day. (No legal background required; just rigour and attention to detail).
- Support on platform security and data protection compliance.
- Identify risks to the business and coordinate with the relevant team members on how to mitigate them.
Essential traits
- Critical thinking ability. You lead with the implication, not just the work. When you bring us analysis, you tell us what it means, not just what it is.
- Self-direction. You come with a plan for sign-off rather than questions about what to do.
- Comfort with spreadsheets & numbers. You are native in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets and can build models and track budgets.
- Proactivity in problem solving. You spot problems that need solving and solve them independently.
- Strong communication skills. Organised, clear and to the point, in writing and speech.
- Commercial instinct. You think about customers, costs, and project margins.
- Experience. 2+ years in an ops, commercial, or consulting role, ideally in a commercial business.
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Nice to have (not required)
- Experience in a fast-paced commercial environment (e.g. startup, scale-up, banking, or consulting).
- Knowledge of the UK social housing, built environment, or residential energy sectors.
- Prior direct experience in project management.
- Interest in, or experience with, drone or drone operations.
- Knowledge of SAP, RdSAP, EPC, HEM, and similar standards.
What you'll get
- 25 days holiday, plus your birthday off
- Also the week between Christmas Day and New Year, with flexibility to shift for those of non-Christian religious backgrounds.
- Hybrid working 2 days a week together at Geovation, our co-working space in Clerkenwell, London (the space is yours to use on non-team days too). Core hours are 10-4, with flexible working around those.
- Pension contributions: 4% of salary, via salary sacrifice.
- Weekly team lunch on us, wellness membership, regular team socials, and an annual offsite with great colleagues.
Hiring Process
- Fill out our short application form with questions on your relevant experience and why this specific role interests you, plus CV sharing instructions: forms.gle/e3PoDd9UVDXPiZGX6
- Introductory Interview with Valerie, our Operations Manager (30 minutes).
- CEO Interview with Lucy, our CEO (30 minutes).
- Working Session: With Lucy, Valerie, and Matt (CTO) for 90 minutes, in person in London. This will include a brief, practical exercise based on Kestrix data (provided to you with a 48-hour window over a weekend to complete beforehand) to see how you think through problems. It will also include a 20 minute session led by Matt (CTO).
- Offer and take up of 2 references.
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