BLOOM
Operational Lead — Systems & Delivery
Full-time · London, Hybrid (2 days in office) · Reports to Chief Experience Officer
About Bloom
Bloom is a next-generation career coaching platform on a mission to make high-quality coaching accessible to everyone at work — not just leaders and executives.
We combine human coaching with AI-powered insight to deliver scalable coaching experiences to global organisations. Our offering spans 1:1, triadic, group, and 1:Many formats, and we're continuing to evolve how people learn and grow at work.
We're entering our next phase of scale. Our clients include some of the world's leading organisations, and our product is growing faster than our current systems were designed to handle. That's where this role comes in.
The Role
We're looking for an Operational Lead (Systems & Delivery) who can do two things equally well: lead the people behind Bloom's coaching delivery — a network of practitioners who aren't your direct reports — and build the systems that let that delivery run at scale.
This isn't a role for someone who maintains operations, and it isn't a role for a pure systems builder either. It's for someone who can win the trust of a network of people they don't formally manage, and then build the infrastructure that makes that network work at scale.
You'll own the operational engine behind Bloom's coaching delivery: the workflows, tools, automations, and processes that allow us to run high-quality coaching without everything running through a person. Just as importantly, you'll be the person coaches, CSMs, and your own team look to for clarity and direction — this is a leadership role over people first, and a systems role second.
You'll work closely with the Chief Experience Officer, translating coaching experience strategy into functioning systems — and pushing back when the strategy needs to be more buildable. You'll also work cross-functionally with Product and Customer Success, acting as the operational layer that connects them.
This role sits at the intersection of people leadership, operations, and systems design. If you've led or influenced a group of people you didn't formally manage — a coaching network, a freelance or contractor community, a cross-functional group with no reporting line to you — and you've also built internal tooling, redesigned delivery workflows, or led automation projects, we'd love to talk.
You don't need to have worked in coaching or L&D specifically — our in-house coaching expertise covers that. But you do need direct experience leading or influencing people who weren't your formal reports. That instinct matters more to us than industry knowledge.
How You Think About Operations
We're specific about this because it shapes everything about how this role works.
- You bring people with you — clarity and calm under pressure aren't separate from the systems work, they're how the systems work actually gets adopted
- You treat internal operations as a product — with users (coaches, CSMs, clients), friction points, iteration cycles, and a roadmap
- You ask “why does this process exist?” before you improve it, and you're comfortable retiring things that no longer serve
- When you spot a manual process, your first instinct is to understand it fully — your second is to design it out
- You distinguish between “fix it now” and “build it properly”, and you know when each is right
- You build for the next 10x, not just the next quarter
- You're comfortable with ambiguity, but you create structure for the people around you
What You'll Own
Coach Network Leadership
- Be the primary relationship and point of trust for Bloom's coaching network — people who don't report to you but whose quality and consistency you're accountable for
- Design the systems and communication frameworks that keep the network informed, motivated, and performing
- Own the capacity model — how we forecast demand, allocate coaches, and respond when supply and demand are misaligned
- Maintain visibility across network health by region and format — and build the insight layer that surfaces problems early
- Partner with Coach Growth Partners on performance and quality; own the operational decisions that follow
Delivery Systems & Automation
- Own the end-to-end delivery infrastructure for Bloom's coaching programmes across all formats
- Audit existing workflows and identify where manual effort, inconsistency, or fragility exist
- Design and implement automation and AI-assisted processes that replace operational drag
- Build the tooling and system logic that makes delivery reliable without requiring constant human intervention
- Hold the balance between shipping now and building something that scales
Quality & Standards
- Define what ‘operational quality’ means at Bloom, and build the systems that measure and maintain it
- Improve how we identify, escalate, and resolve delivery issues — reducing time-to-resolution and increasing consistency
- Ensure coach-facing systems and communications reflect Bloom's evolving delivery standards
Data & Insight
- Define what we track, why we track it, and what we do with it
- Build reporting rhythms and dashboards that give the business genuine operational visibility
- Translate data into decisions, not just summaries
Team Leadership
- Lead and develop a small, high-impact team across operations, coach network, and quality
- Build a culture of ownership, systems thinking, and structured proactivity
- Create clear operating rhythms, expectations, and development paths within the team
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Act as the operational interface between Coaching, Product, and Customer Success
- Contribute to product decisions — especially where delivery and platform intersect
- Lead operational readiness for new client launches, pilots, and format rollouts
What We're Looking For
People & Network Leadership
- Experience influencing or managing a network of people who aren't direct reports — contractors, freelancers, a professional community, or a similarly autonomous group where authority is earned rather than structural
- Demonstrated presence and clarity leading a room live — not just producing strong written plans
- Experience managing and growing individuals or small teams
- Creates clarity and accountability without needing to be in the room for every decision
Core Experience
- Background in operations, product, growth, or systems roles at a scaling company
- Track record of redesigning — not just improving — operational workflows
- Experience building or owning internal tooling, automation, or systems (not just using them)
- Comfortable working across Product, Customer Success, and Operations functions
Systems Thinking
- Able to hold the architecture of a complex system in mind while fixing something specific
- Strong instinct for where automation adds real value vs. where human judgment is irreplaceable
- Comfortable designing workflows from scratch, not just optimising what exists
Mindset
- Entrepreneurial — spots opportunities, takes ownership, doesn't wait to be asked
- Practical and pragmatic — knows the difference between the ideal solution and the right solution for now
- Strong communicator who brings structure to complexity without oversimplifying it
- Comfortable making calls with incomplete information
- Brings energy and calm in equal measure
Nice to Have
- Direct exposure to coaching, L&D, or behavioural change environments
- Experience using or building with AI / LLM-powered tooling in operational contexts
- Familiarity with workflow platforms such as Make, Zapier, Notion, or Airtable
Why Join Bloom
- Play a central role in scaling a product that is reshaping how organisations develop their people
- Work directly with senior leadership and have real influence over how Bloom operates and grows
- Build systems that directly impact thousands of coaching users globally, and lead the network that delivers it
- Be the person who defines what operational excellence looks like at Bloom — not inherits someone else's version of it
- A culture of high ownership, honest feedback, and meaningful work
Hybrid working. London-based. 2 days in office.
Application Form Questions
Designed to surface systems thinking, product mindset, and network leadership — not just operational experience.
Q1 — Automation and AI in operations
Describe a time you used automation or AI to meaningfully change how an operation worked — not just to save time, but to change the underlying model. What did you build, what tools did you use, and what did you deliberately keep manual and why?
Q2 — Designed from scratch
Tell us about a system, workflow, or internal tool that you designed or significantly shaped from scratch. What problem were you solving, how did you think about the architecture of the solution, and what would you do differently now?
Q3 — Your internal users
Think about a team or group of people whose experience of an internal system or process you've been responsible for.
How did you understand what they needed? How did you improve it for them?
Q4 — Working across teams
Give us an example of working across Product, Customer Success, or a similar function to deliver something operational. What was your role, what tensions came up, and how did you navigate them?
Q5 — Scaling something that was already working
Tell us about an operation or delivery model that was functioning well at one scale but started to break as demand grew. What changed, what did you prioritise, and what trade-offs did you make?
Q6 — Leading without formal authority
Tell us about a time you had to lead or align a group of people who weren't your direct reports — a freelance network, contractors, a cross-functional group, or similar — especially when they didn't initially agree with your direction. What did you do, and how did you know it had landed?
Interview Process
Stage 1
Focus: Experience & Fit — background, motivation, early signal on systems thinking and network leadership
With: CXO
Time: 30–45 min
Stage 2
Focus: Deep Dive — operational challenge review, DISC profile, Working With Me doc
With: CXO + team
Time: 60 min
Stage 3
Focus: Culture & Team — values fit, working style, team dynamics, and whether the room comes away confident this person can lead them, not just direct them
With: Maddie, James, John
Time: 45 min
Stage 4
Focus: CEO / CFO — strategic alignment, ambition, long-term fit
With: Al (+ Jack, tbc)
Time: 45 min
