VP Business Operations, International, London

We have partnered with an exciting organisation within the marketing, data and technology space, to hire an exceptional operational leader to support the business in its next phase of growth.  

About the Company 

This is a large, globally established organisation operating at scale across the marketing, data and technology ecosystem, with a footprint spanning multiple international regions. The international business is entering a period of significant change, with active workstreams spanning globalisation of internal functions, cloud migration and evolving operating models across markets. The business is lean and commercially focused and currently lacks a dedicated operational owner for many of these cross-cutting initiatives, meaning things can be dropped without one clear point of accountability. 

This is a newly created role, reporting into senior international leadership, designed to free up that leadership’s time for higher-level strategic priorities by taking full ownership of the operational agenda. 

About the VP Business Operations Opportunity 

This is not a client-facing or revenue-generating role. Instead, you’ll own the internal operational backbone of the international business, translating corporate strategy into clear, actionable plans, and making sure high-priority projects that don’t have a natural home elsewhere in the business actually get delivered. 

You’ll sit across a wide range of workstreams, from international project management and process optimisation, to representing the international perspective in group-wide committees. You’ll need a genuinely global mindset, comfortable localising initiatives designed at a global level for specific markets. 

This is an autonomous, hands-on role rather than a traditional oversight position. You’ll be expected to take an idea, turn it into a structured project plan, and drive it through to delivery yourself, while also building the case for where operational investment and prioritisation should go next. 

Key Responsibilities of the VP Business Operations 

• Translate corporate strategy into actionable operational goals, metrics and guidelines across the international business 

• Own and drive a portfolio of strategically important internal projects that currently sit without a clear operational owner 

• Monitor and improve the efficiency of internal business processes, implementing changes to scale systems and reduce cost 

• Run multiple strategic projects concurrently across different markets and business functions 

• Establish KPIs to evaluate performance and support data-driven decision-making 

• Proactively identify and mitigate operational, governance and business risk 

Key Requirements of the London VP Business Operations

• Significant experience operating within a marketing, data and technology agency or comparable large-scale environment 

• A process-driven project manager by nature, with a track record of prioritisation, efficiency improvements and scaling internal systems 

• Experience operating across multiple international markets, with a genuine global mindset and the ability to localise global initiatives 

• Strong analytical skills, comfortable with data, budgeting and forecasting 

• A confident communicator and project leader, able to bring people on a journey and build cohesive cross-functional teams 

• A background rooted in operations, marketing or delivery rather than sales, client management, creative or HR 

• High degree of accountability and ownership; this is an empowered, autonomous role rather than a traditional hands-off project management function 

This is a rare opportunity to join a globally established leader in the marketing, data and technology space and shape the operational future of its international business, with genuine scope to grow well beyond the initial remit of this role. 

Apply

If you have the relevant experience and this opportunity sounds interesting to you, please get in touch with our team, including a copy of your CV as soon as possible via the form below.

Hanson Search is a globally recognised, award-winning talent advisory and headhunting consultancy. Our expertise lies in building successful ventures worldwide through our recruitment, interim and executive search in communications, sustainability, public affairs and policy, digital marketing and sales and commercial.

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