Operations Manager - Challenge Works - 12 months Maternity Cover

The Role

- what you’ll do

Manage CW finances through our programmes and proposals

• Go-to point of contact for our programme teams on their budgets:
  Checking variances and how these impact our overall Challenge Works financial positionAdvice and signposting to team members on our financial processes (budgeting, re-forecasting and tracking).Feed into CW-wide management information to guide strategic decisions
• Manage the Challenge Works central budget—overseeing the tracking of income, expenditure, and processing invoices accurately
• Work with the Head of Operations to improve financial monitoring across Challenge Works, collaborating with Nesta Finance to improve grant management and programme reporting.
• Consolidate utilisation and financial data into clear dashboards for leadership.

Develop our CW team

• Support the Head of Operations with resourcing our programmes and making recruitment decisions.
• Lead the recruitment process for all roles below band 5 and support hiring managers to get the best outcomes from their recruitment process.
• Support our team members and line managers with more complex HR queries and processes, liaising with the Nesta People Team.
• Manage the planning of Challenge Works team Away Days to build and maintain team culture and skills
• Responsible for organising the L&D offering for Challenge Works including running team-wide training based on operational or organisational initiatives (e.g. budget management, line management, feedback).

Help Challenge Works to run smoothly and keep us connected with wider Nesta

• Keep operations and systems running seamlessly - act as the go-to expert on our internal tools and systems and maintain the templates, guides and process maps that help the team deliver.
• Support leadership - Organise, attend and record actions for all Challenge Works Leadership Team meetings—taking minutes and ensuring action follow-ups.
• Keep internal communications flowing - manage team-wide operational updates so everyone stays informed and aligned across the right channels.
• Deploy AI effectively to deliver your own work and spot opportunities where it could help streamline processes for the team.
• Connect Challenge Works with central Nesta - maintain our strong working relationships across Nesta's central functions - including Finance, People, L&D, Legal, and IT to pull in specialist support whenever needed.

The Person - who you are

We are looking for someone with the following skills, experience and attributes:

• A track record of monitoring project budgets, resource allocations, and operational data (using tools like PowerBI) to minimise financial variance and deliver clear management reports for leadership.
• Experience hitting the ground running to run and maintain established operational processes without needing extensive hand - holding.
• Exceptional organisation skills to manage competing priorities and tight deadlines calmly, maximising output within a part-time schedule.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to build trust quickly with senior leadership, programme teams, and central support functions like Finance and People teams.
• A reliable completer - finisher who spots potential bottlenecks early, takes ownership of day-to-day issues, and keeps tasks moving forward independently.
• Confident using AI for efficiency whilst maintaining quality outputs
• Comfortable using project management platforms (such as Asana), CRMs (such as Salesforce), Google Workspace and Slack.
• Solid understanding of internal governance, contract/procurement good practice, and handling sensitive and confidential information with

What we offer:

Hours: 30 hours (4 days) per week

Reports to: Head of Operations

Salary: £50,700 - £67,800 pro rata (offers are expected to be made towards the bottom of the band)

Location: Hybrid with 2 days per week in our London Blackfriars office

Term: Fixed Term 12 months maternity cover