BUSINESS SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LEAD

Glassworks London is an independent women’s fashion retailer founded in 2010, operating across retail stores, ecommerce, sourcing, product, marketing and fulfilment. We are building a more scalable, systems-led organisation with clearer ownership, better operating visibility and stronger use of AI-assisted workflows.

THE ROLE

We are looking for a practical, high-agency Business Systems & Technology Operations Lead to turn business problems, manual workflows and founder-held processes into reliable operating systems and implemented technology that people can actually use.

You will take problems from diagnosis and requirements through solution selection, configuration, implementation, testing, rollout, adoption and ongoing improvement across business software, integrations, automation, reporting, access management and AI-assisted workflows. Where deeper technical expertise is required, you will define the requirement, coordinate appropriate external support and retain internal ownership of implementation, technical delivery and system knowledge.

Reporting initially to the Founder / CEO, you will work closely with the Head of Business Operations and functional owners across the business. Functional owners retain their business judgement and outcomes; this role owns the systems and technology enablement around them. Physical device support at UK sites sits with Operations & Facilities.

WORKING PATTERN / LOCATION

Full-time remote role. Applicants may be based outside the UK, including India, South Africa or Eastern Europe, but must work substantially within UK business hours.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Diagnose business problems, map workflows, handoffs, dependencies and failure points, and translate them into clear system requirements.
• Design clear, usable operating systems, source-of-truth structures, workflows, forms, databases, dashboards, reporting infrastructure and SOPs.
• Research and evaluate technology and vendors against business requirements, cost, usability, integration, implementation effort, support, scalability and risk.
• Configure and implement business systems directly where appropriate, and coordinate specialist vendors, developers or implementation partners where deeper expertise is required.
• Coordinate data structure, mapping, migration, validation and source-of-truth rules.
• Design and implement integrations and automation using APIs, webhooks and appropriate no-code / low-code tools, with clear exception and failure handling.
• Plan and run testing and UAT, including permissions, edge cases, failed integrations and fallback processes.
• Own rollout, user training, adoption monitoring, documentation and post-launch system improvement.
• Own the process and control layer for company technology and business software, including SaaS inventory, licences, system owners, company domains and hosting, Google Workspace and cloud-storage administration, permissions, password-manager governance and joiner / mover / leaver access workflows with HR Operations.
• Build or coordinate reporting and dashboards that support real operating decisions rather than passive reporting.
• Convert appropriate AI-assisted work into controlled, repeatable workflows with defined inputs, approved context, permissions, human QA and fallback processes, and help teams use approved AI tools effectively.
• Turn founder-held knowledge, meetings, transcripts and repetitive decisions into controlled workflows with clear actions, owners, deadlines and evidence.
• Own and improve company file, document and knowledge-management infrastructure, including naming, access, version control and source-of-truth discipline.

Workstreams may include WMS / inventory, fulfilment and shipping, returns, ecommerce platforms, CRM / customer service, finance and HR systems, product data, access management, reporting / BI, automation and proprietary internal decision systems.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for evidence of:

• personally taking meaningful business systems through implementation, not only recommending tools;
• turning unclear business problems into practical, usable systems;
• strong business-process diagnosis and ability to extract knowledge from founders, managers and subject-matter experts;
• software and vendor evaluation, configuration and implementation;
• integrations, automation, APIs or webhooks;
• structured business data, mapping, migration and validation;
• UAT, QA, edge cases and failure handling;
• permissions, access, source-of-truth and technology-administration discipline;
• system rollout, user training and adoption;
• managing external developers, vendors or specialists while retaining internal ownership;
• practical AI workflow implementation inside controlled business processes;
• simplifying complex processes without over-engineering;
• a tool-agnostic approach: you choose the simplest useful system, not the fanciest tool;
• clear documentation and communication with non-technical users.

You should be commercially minded, highly structured, tool-agnostic, comfortable working across functions and focused on adoption and operating outcomes rather than technology for its own sake.

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE

• Business requirements are translated into fit-for-purpose systems and technology.
• Implementations reach working production use rather than stopping at recommendation.
• Founder-held workflows become usable organisational capability.
• Business systems have clear owners, permissions and sources of truth.
• Company domains, cloud systems, software access and critical technology administration are controlled and documented.
• Data, integrations and automations operate reliably and failures become visible.
• Managers know where to find current documents, systems, actions and information.
• Meetings and recurring workflows convert into clear actions and evidence without repeated founder chasing.
• Dashboards show exceptions, blockers and overdue work.
• Users understand and adopt the systems they are expected to use.
• Recurring problems lead to system improvement rather than repeated manual work.
• AI-assisted workflows are controlled, useful and reviewable.
• External specialists are used effectively without creating unmanaged technical dependency.