Technical Operations Lead - London (F/M/D)

Flowdesk's mission is to build a global financial institution for digital assets, one designed from the ground up for market integrity and efficiency. To achieve this in a rapidly evolving market, we apply a disciplined, first-principles approach to everything we do.

This approach is embedded in our core services, from institutional liquidity provision, trading solutions, OTC execution to our comprehensive treasury management offerings. This is how we cut through the noise and build robust and scalable systems across all our business lines.

As Technical Operations Lead, you'll drive operational execution across Engineering, Infrastructure, IT, and Cybersecurity. This is a delivery-focused role, turning ambiguous needs into clear plans, aligning stakeholders, managing vendors/procurement, and ensuring cross-organization integrations ship on time and to the expected quality bar.

This role requires technical competence (e.g., basic scripting, observability tools, ticketing/work tracking), but the primary driver is ownership, coordination, and operational excellence.

Requirements:
Key responsibilities

Program Delivery & Execution

• Drive critical engineering/infrastructure/IT/security initiatives from idea to delivery.
• Translate high-level goals into scopes, milestones, and actionable workstreams.
• Run project rituals (kickoffs, weekly reviews, risk/issue tracking, retros).
• Maintain clear status reporting - timelines, dependencies, risks, decisions needed.

Requirements Gathering & Cross-team Alignment

• Liaise with product, trading, research, finance, compliance, and ops teams to collect requirements.
• Convert requirements into technical deliverables with owners and acceptance criteria.
• Proactively manage dependencies across teams and vendors.

Vendor management & procurement

• Organize vendor selection - requirements, RFPs, demos, evaluation matrices.
• Coordinate procurement - quotes, approvals, renewals, contract workflows.
• Manage vendor delivery - timelines, SLAs, escalation paths, and outcomes.

Cross-organization integrations

• Coordinate integration projects spanning systems, teams, or environments.
• Ensure interoperability requirements are documented and validated.
• Drive cutovers and migrations with rollback plans and stakeholder comms.

Operational rigor

• Establish lightweight processes for intake, prioritization, and execution.
• Own the "single source of truth" for plans, decisions, and delivery metrics.
• Improve recurring pain points via automation, standardization, and better runbooks.

Expected competencies

Must-have

• High agency and end-to-end ownership - sees gaps, takes initiative, and drives outcomes without needing heavy oversight.
• Proven ability to execute through ambiguity - clarifies unclear requirements, makes pragmatic calls, and keeps momentum.
• Comfortable delivering under urgent deadlines - prioritizes ruthlessly, manages tradeoffs, and communicates impacts early.
• Strong project execution - planning, prioritization, dependency management, follow-through.
• Clear communication - concise updates, escalation, and decision facilitation.
• Vendor/procurement experience - sourcing, evaluation, contract coordination.
• Comfortable partnering with engineering/security teams and navigating technical tradeoffs.

Technical baseline (not the core of the role)

Practical familiarity with

• Scripting/automation basics (e.g., Bash/Python)
• Observability and dashboards (e.g., Grafana)
• Work tracking (e.g., Jira)
• Documentation/runbooks (e.g., Confluence/Notion/Markdown)
• Able to ask the right technical questions, validate acceptance criteria, and spot delivery risks.

Nice-to-have

• Experience in regulated environments (SOC2, DORA, ISO 27001) and security delivery.
• Experience with infrastructure projects (Kubernetes, networking, IAM, cloud/bare metal).
• Familiarity with incident management, change management, and on-call operations.

What success looks like (first 3–6 months)

• Highest-priority initiatives are consistently delivered on schedule with clear ownership.
• Stakeholders see fewer surprises - risks and dependencies are surfaced early.
• Vendor/procurement cycles become faster and more predictable.
• Cross-team integration work ships with clean cutovers, documentation, and measurable outcomes.

Benefits:
• International environment (English is the main language)
• Pension
• 100% health coverage
• Team events and offsites

Recruitment Process

• HR interview (30')
• Technical interview - Hiring Manager (30')
• Team Member Technical (45')
• CTO (45")
• Chat with the Head of People (30')

On the agenda, discussions rather than trick questions! These moments of exchange will allow you to understand how Flowdesk works and its values. But they are also (and above all) an opportunity for you to present your career path and your expectations for your next job!

We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments or have specific needs to enable you to participate fully in the interview or assessment process (e.g., a sign language interpreter, extra time for a test, or an accessible location), please contact us to discuss how we can support you.