The posting
Intelligent Change creates products that help people live more intentional, fulfilling lives.
We are the company behind the Five Minute Journal, Productivity Planner, Life Designer Journal, Get Closer and a growing collection of products used by millions of people around the world.
Our ambition is much bigger than selling journals.
Our mission is to positively impact 1% of the world's population, 80 million people, by creating products, experiences and ideas that help people change their lives.
We are now looking for one of the most important hires in the company's next chapter:
A Head of Operations / Integrator who can turn vision into execution.
The Role
You will work directly with our Founder & CEO, Alex Ikonn, as his operational counterpart.
Alex is strongest in vision, product, brand, storytelling, partnerships, creative direction and seeing opportunities before they are obvious.
Your strength should be taking that vision and making it happen.
You will own the operating system of Intelligent Change: priorities, people, accountability, execution, numbers, meetings, systems and follow-through.
Think of this as a Visionary + Integrator partnership.
You don't need Alex to become more operational.
You need to make the company operationally excellent around him.
This is not a traditional Head of Operations role where you simply oversee logistics and processes.
You will be helping run the company.
What You Will Own
1. Turn vision into execution
Take ideas, conversations and strategic priorities and translate them into:
- clear objectives
- owners
- timelines
- KPIs
- budgets
- next actions
- accountability
At any moment, the team should know:
What matters most? Who owns it? Where are we against plan? What's blocked? What happens next?
2. Run the operating rhythm
Build and own a simple company operating system including:
- annual and quarterly priorities
- weekly leadership meetings
- KPI dashboards
- project accountability
- decision tracking
- forecasting
- resource allocation
- performance reviews
- clear escalation paths
We want fewer meetings, clearer decisions and dramatically better follow-through.
3. Lead the team
You will become the person responsible for making the leadership team function as one company rather than a collection of departments.
That means:
- setting expectations
- creating accountability
- coaching leaders
- identifying gaps
- resolving cross-functional issues
- improving communication
- helping hire exceptional people
- addressing underperformance quickly and constructively
You should be comfortable being both highly supportive and highly demanding.
4. Own operational performance
You should understand the commercial engine of the business, not just operations.
Intelligent Change operates across:
- DTC / Shopify
- Amazon
- wholesale and retail
- international distribution
- product development
- inventory and supply chain
- partnerships and collaborations
- digital products
You don't need to personally execute every function.
You do need to understand how they connect and make sure the whole machine works.
5. Create financial discipline
You will work closely with finance and the CEO to make sure decisions translate into profitable growth.
You should be comfortable with:
- P&Ls
- budgets
- contribution margins
- inventory
- cash flow
- forecasts
- hiring ROI
- departmental spending
- scenario planning
We want someone who naturally asks:
What is the return? What is the opportunity cost? What happens if we don't do this?
6. Simplify the business
We don't believe scaling means adding endless people, meetings, software and complexity.
Quite the opposite.
Your job is to continually ask:
How can we make this simpler?
Simpler systems.
Fewer priorities.
Clearer ownership.
Better tools.
Smaller, stronger teams.
More output.
7. Build an AI-first company
We believe the next generation of great companies will operate very differently.
AI should not be a side project.
It should become part of how the company thinks and operates.
You should be excited about using AI to improve:
- decision making
- reporting
- project management
- research
- customer insights
- forecasting
- documentation
- internal knowledge
- workflows
- automation
- individual productivity
You don't need to be an engineer.
But if your instinct is to keep adding headcount to solve problems that technology can solve, this probably isn't the right role.
We want to build an unusually productive company with a relatively small team of exceptional people.
What Success Looks Like
Within your first 90 days:
- The company has one clear operating system.
- Everyone knows the company's priorities.
- Every major initiative has a clear owner and deadline.
- Leadership meetings are focused and decisive.
- There is one source of truth for company KPIs.
- Operational bottlenecks are visible and actively being resolved.
- Alex is spending substantially less time chasing execution.
- The team knows exactly who makes which decisions.
- You have identified unnecessary complexity, systems and spending.
- You have a clear view of the organisational structure needed for the next stage.
Within 12 months:
Intelligent Change should feel like a significantly more disciplined company without losing the creativity, humanity and entrepreneurial energy that made it successful.
We should be able to grow without chaos.
Who We Are Looking For
You are probably someone who:
- Has successfully operated inside a founder-led consumer business.
- Has meaningful experience leading operations and cross-functional teams.
- Understands ecommerce, retail and physical products.
- Has managed a P&L or had significant financial responsibility.
- Can move comfortably between strategy and execution.
- Is extremely organised without becoming bureaucratic.
- Has high standards and is comfortable holding people accountable.
- Communicates clearly and directly.
- Can make decisions with incomplete information.
- Sees problems before they become emergencies.
- Naturally creates clarity from ambiguity.
- Is commercially minded.
- Is highly resourceful.
- Understands that priorities require saying no.
- Has strong emotional intelligence.
- Doesn't need constant direction.
- Knows when to challenge a founder and when to execute.
- Gets satisfaction from making organisations work exceptionally well.
- Is genuinely excited about AI and the future of work.
Experience in a profitable or bootstrapped business is particularly valuable to us.
We care much more about resourcefulness, judgement and results than corporate pedigree.
The Founder Relationship
This part matters.
You will work very closely with Alex.
He moves quickly, generates ideas constantly and is deeply involved in product, brand and the future direction of Intelligent Change.
We are not looking for someone who tries to slow that down.
We are looking for someone who can capture the energy, separate signal from noise, establish priorities and turn the right ideas into reality.
You need to be comfortable saying:
"This is a great idea, but it isn't one of our three priorities right now."
And equally comfortable saying:
"I've got it. You don't need to think about this again."
There needs to be high trust in both directions.
Once responsibility is agreed, you will have genuine authority to operate.
We don't want a coordinator.
We want an owner.
You Might Not Be Right For This Role If...
You need perfectly defined instructions before starting.
You enjoy discussing problems more than resolving them.
You default to adding headcount instead of improving systems.
You have spent your career inside very large organisations where resources were abundant.
You avoid difficult conversations.
You confuse being busy with making progress.
You need consensus before making decisions.
You don't enjoy numbers.
You think AI is mainly ChatGPT for writing emails.
Or you want the title of an operator without the accountability of being one.
Location
We are based in London and would strongly prefer someone who can spend meaningful time with Alex and the team in person.
This is a senior, hands-on role and proximity matters.
