JOB DESCRIPTION

Senior Operations Manager

Location: Remote (Preference for candidates within +/-3 hours GMT)

Reports to: CFO

Job type: Full-time 

About the role 

Caribou is a global, remote-first consultancy working at the intersection of technology, inclusion, and impact. With a team of 50+ people across 20+ countries, we partner with foundations, companies, and governments to reimagine and deliver impact in a digital age.

We design strategies, manage funds, uncover insights, and measure impact to help organisations mobilise technology for inclusive and sustainable growth. Core to our culture is supporting staff autonomy over where, how, and when they work, with our annual in-person retreat bringing the full-time team together (recent locations include Kenya, Rwanda and Cape Town).

As our portfolio of multi-donor programs and innovation funds grows, so does the complexity of operating responsibly across jurisdictions, funding instruments, and regulatory environments.

The Senior Operations Manager is a critical cross-organisational role that owns Caribou’s operational governance, due diligence, compliance, and risk architecture. This person ensures that our contracts are adhered to, our donor obligations are met, our systems are fit for purpose, and our downstream grant deployment is robust and defensible. The role also plays a central part in ensuring Caribou remains nimble as it grows, simplifying where possible while maintaining strong operational discipline.

This is a hands-on role for someone who combines structured thinking with operational execution. They will shape frameworks and personally run core processes, working closely with Program Leads, Finance, and senior leadership to ensure Caribou operates with clarity, discipline, and confidence. 

Key Responsibilities

Institutional governance & compliance

• Own and maintain Caribou’s operational governance framework, including approval authorities, contracting controls, and procurement standards.
• Ensure robust documentation and internal control practices that support audit readiness and donor scrutiny.
• In partnership with the CFO and legal counsel, assess and manage Caribou’s legal and regulatory exposure when entering new jurisdictions or adopting novel funding instruments (e.g. entity registration, tax implications, returnable or recoverable grant structures).
• Translate donor and contractual obligations into clear, practical operating procedures for delivery teams.
• Continuously simplify and optimise policies and workflows to maintain operational discipline without unnecessary administrative burden for Caribou or our partners.
• Review client contracts to ensure that Caribou is compliant with client requirements, and assess if any modifications are required to Caribou operating procedures or policies as a result. 
• Own and update Caribou operational policies, draft new policies when required, and take responsibility for socializing these with the team to ensure adherence.
• Support business development processes on all ops and compliance matters, such as gathering compliance documents (policies, registration documents, etc) or satisfying bid requirements (e.g. obtaining bank guarantees).

Due diligence & risk management

• Own and conduct Caribou’s two-level due diligence process for downstream grantees, partners, and suppliers as necessary.
  • Level 1: institutional, legal, compliance, sanctions, and financial health screening.
  • Level 2: commercial viability, business model robustness, and alignment with fund objectives.
• Maintain structured documentation, risk classifications, and decision logs.
• Lead and maintain Caribou’s enterprise risk register, covering partner, jurisdictional, regulatory, and instrument-level risks.
• Escalate material risks and propose mitigation strategies.

Program operations

• Lead operational compliance across programs and funds, ensuring contracts are adhered to on time and within budget.
• Own operational aspects of donor reporting (timeline tracking, documentation completeness).
• Design and maintain grant payment trackers and monitoring tools.
• Partner closely with Finance to ensure budget alignment and compliant disbursement.
• Identify and resolve operational bottlenecks affecting delivery quality.
• Manage Associate onboarding, experience and offboarding end-to-end, including collaboration with project teams to maintain a talent pipeline.

Supplier and procurement management

• Lead supplier sourcing, evaluation, negotiation, and quality control.
• Ensure suppliers deliver against agreed budgets, standards, and timelines.
• Maintain preferred supplier lists and logistics playbooks.
• Align supplier practices with Caribou’s procurement and compliance standards.

Events & Experience Operations 

• Lead logistics for Caribou-hosted conferences, roundtables, workshops, and executive gatherings, including sourcing and securing high-quality accommodation, venues, transport, catering, AV, and room setup.
• As needed, oversee on-the-ground delivery during international trips, managing suppliers and participant movements calmly and discreetly.
• Handle changes and disruptions with structured, solution-oriented problem-solving.
• Support hybrid and multi-location event delivery where required.
• Ensure logistics enable strong content delivery and a seamless participant experience.
• Manage logistics for company retreats and cowork weeks.
• Provide targeted executive travel coordination where operational oversight adds value.

Systems, data & organisational intelligence

• Own organisation-wide platform and systems procurement.
• Define requirements, evaluate vendors, and support commercial negotiations.
• Oversee implementation and adoption.
• Ensure systems across Finance, HR, IT, and Program teams work coherently.
• Strengthen the quality and usefulness of operational data across the organisation, ensuring performance information (e.g. pipeline visibility, timesheet accuracy, project reporting discipline, documentation standards) supports strategic planning and accountability.
• Where data gaps exist, design focused pilots or process adjustments to generate insight and inform decisions on growth, resource allocation, and operational improvement.

Cross functional integration & organisational effectiveness

• Act as a central operational counterpart across Program, Finance, HR, and IT.
• Clarify accountability boundaries and improve coordination between teams.
• Identify recurring sources of friction and resolve them constructively.
• Proactively raise standards for how work is structured and delivered.
• Act as an early signal for organisational strain or misalignment, surfacing issues thoughtfully and helping leadership respond decisively and constructively.
• Contribute to a high-trust, high-accountability culture by modelling clear communication, mature decision-making, and pragmatic problem solving across distributed teams.

This role may also be asked to carry out tasks or to take on responsibilities not set out here but which it would be reasonable to expect of someone in this position. 

About You

You must be someone that:

• Has substantial experience in operations, compliance, risk, or governance within complex, multi-stakeholder or donor-funded environments.
• Has directly led due diligence processes covering legal, financial, and commercial assessment.
• Is comfortable assessing risk in emerging market and early-stage company contexts.
• Has experience managing contract compliance and ensuring obligations are met in practice, not just on paper.
• Understands how regulatory requirements shift across jurisdictions and can evaluate implications before commitments are made.
• Builds systems and processes that bring clarity without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Partners effectively with program and finance colleagues while maintaining clear accountability boundaries.
• Balances rigour with pragmatism when making operational decisions.
• Communicates confidently with senior stakeholders and is comfortable escalating risk where appropriate.
• Operates calmly and decisively in ambiguous or high-pressure situations.
• Has experience working in digital development, technology-enabled, or fast-moving environments where adaptability and systems thinking are critical.
• Understands the realities of remote-first, globally distributed teams and can strengthen alignment and performance across geographies.

Preferred experience:

• Experience in consulting, fund management, development finance, or innovation funding contexts.
• Exposure to and understanding of the digital development sector and the realities of early-stage enterprise environments.
• Time spent working across multiple regulatory jurisdictions.
• Comfortable leading operational system selection and implementation.

What We Offer

• A front-row seat to the inner workings of a mission-driven, global consultancy.
• Opportunities to learn and grow across collaborative functions.
• A supportive international team that values flexibility, inclusion, and collaboration.
• Fully remote work, with occasional in-person opportunities and team retreats.

Find out more: https://caribou.global

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