Head of Operations (Trade Lifecycle)

Head of Operations - Trade Lifecycle
Location: Hybrid (4 days per week split across our London HQ and Portsmouth office)

Ready to shape the engine room of a high-growth platform?

We're looking for a strategic operator; someone who can stabilise and lead critical trade lifecycle functions today, while continuously evolving how we operate for scale and margin tomorrow. This isn't a role for passengers - it's for someone who thrives in complexity, drives results, and wants to leave a legacy.

You'll lead and scale the full post-sale trade lifecycle at Checkatrade. That means owning performance across Credit Operations, Retention, and adjacent revenue-critical workflows with a mandate to improve what works, redesign what doesn't, and evolve the operating model as we grow.

What you'll do

• Own the end-to-end transformation of post-sale trade ops; fix what's not working, scale what is, and design what's next.
  

• Own performance across Credit Control, Retention, and other post-sale trade workflows. You'll drive revenue recovery, reduce churn, and keep payments on track with relentless focus on performance and impact.
  

• Redesign key processes: saves, collections, renewals, recovery, for speed, accuracy, and automation. You'll partner with Product, Data, and Ops to get it done.
  

• Build and lead a high-performing team. Directly manage our UK leads. Indirectly lead 20-30+ offshore FTEs across our BPO partners.
  

• Own the numbers. You'll run daily, weekly, and strategic reporting using Sheets, SQL, and Looker - no waiting on analysts here.
  

• Continuously assess and evolve our post-sale operating model: identifying gaps, unlocking efficiencies, and standing up new capabilities where needed to support scale, margin, and revenue protection.
  

• Embed a culture of ownership and high performance. Scorecards, QA, progression paths,all driven by you.
  

• Be a go-to for lifecycle ops. You'll represent this function in forums across Commercial, Sales, Product, and Exec.
  

What you'll bring

• 7-10 years in operational leadership across CX, RevOps, lifecycle or collections. You've managed UK and offshore teams, including BPOs.
  

• A track record of transformation. You've scaled or turned around teams, processes, or full functions.
  

• Data confidence. You're fluent in SQL, Sheets, and Looker and use them to drive performance, not just measure it.
  

• Commercial edge. You've worked with revenue levers like churn, recovery, or payment compliance and you've moved the dial.
  

• Systems thinking. You get scalable design, love automation, and ask: "Can this run without us?"
  

• People-first leadership. You're hands-on, build trust fast, and know how to bring clarity in chaos.
  

• Grit and pace. You're comfortable in the messy middle where decisions are fast, problems are complex, and the path isn't always clear.

Why this role, why now?

We're not here to maintain the status quo. We're building a smarter, faster, more resilient platform and the way we operate has to keep up. If you're looking for a role where your work genuinely moves the needle and where there's real headroom to shape what comes next - you've just found it.

About us

We're Checkatrade - the UK's leading platform for finding a tradesperson. With more than 50,000 trades listed and over 6 million reviews, we help homeowners get jobs done right and help tradespeople grow their business.

We're growing fast, with big plans to become the go-to brand for home improvements. If you care about great work, take pride in the details, and want to make an impact, you'll fit right in.