Head of Operations Excellence - London/West Africa - Rainforest Builder

About the Organisation:

Rainforest Builder is a large-scale tropical forest restoration company operating in West Africa, focused on restoring degraded, biodiverse ecosystems through long-term, community-centred projects. 

With operations across multiple countries, a workforce of 2,000+ employees, and thousands of hectares already restored, the organisation is scaling towards 100,000+ hectares under management in the next three years.

Projects are long-term and aligned with leading international standards (e.g. VERRA VCS, CCB), delivering measurable climate, biodiversity, and socioeconomic outcomes in partnership with global organisations and local communities.

The Role:

Sitting in the co-CEO Office, you will be the co-CEO's right hand on operational execution — diagnosing gaps, designing systems, and embedding them across projects and functions. The role is not tied to a single function. You will move across priority areas (forest protection, restoration, livelihoods, ESG), going deep on one problem at a time and leaving behind scalable systems.

This is a hands-on transformation role: diagnose → design → implement → embed. Your mandate is to take us from project-based execution to repeatable systems, bringing structure, accountability, and leadership visibility to fast-scaling operations across geographies.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports — your influence comes from structured thinking, rigour, and trust, not headcount.

Requirements

• Diagnostics: Rapidly assess operational performance, identify bottlenecks, and prioritise high-impact interventions.

• System design: Build SOPs, workflows, and decision-making processes that are practical, field-ready, and scalable.
• Performance & accountability: Define KPIs, build reporting frameworks and dashboards, and establish clear ownership across teams.
• Implementation: Work directly with field teams to roll out systems and ensure adoption through training and iteration.
• Tooling: Evaluate and introduce tools that improve data collection, operational tracking, and decision-making.
• co-CEO support & stakeholder representation: Act as a proxy for the CEO on operational priorities and cross-functional execution. Over time, the role is expected to involve managing high-level meetings with senior stakeholders in West Africa — including government representatives, ministers, and strategic partners — alongside or on behalf of the co-CEO. Final decisions remain with the co-CEO.

What Success Looks Like (12–18 Months):

• Consistent operating systems embedded across all major functions
• Reliable KPIs and reporting across projects and geographies
• Measurable improvements in operational efficiency and execution quality
• A strong accountability culture, with less firefighting and ad hoc decision-making
• Real-time performance visibility for leadership
• Growing presence in senior external engagements, building toward independent representation of the CEO with government and strategic partners

Who you are:

• 4–7 years total, of which at least 2 in top-tier operational consulting (Newton, Partners in Performance, AlixPartners, Alvarez & Marsal, Kearney, or equivalent) or high-performance operational roles in complex, field-based environments
• Strong track record solving operational problems and implementing durable systems, KPIs, and performance frameworks
• Exceptional structured thinking; able to move between strategy and execution seamlessly
• Credible and composed in senior stakeholder environments — able to hold your own with executives, partners, and government counterparts
• Equally effective with field teams and in the boardroom
• Low ego, high ownership, strong bias for action, and resilient in ambiguous, fast-changing settings
• Willing to travel frequently and spend real time in the field
• Motivated by long-term environmental and social impact
• Experience in emerging markets preferred

Location:

• West Africa (Ghana / Sierra Leone) preferred; London considered. Frequent site travel required (strict minimum requirement of 15 weeks travel per year if London-based).

Benefits

• Competitive salary plus benefits

Know someone suitable for the role? Please email [email protected] to learn about our referral fee for this role.