Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Who are 118118 Money?

At 118 118 Money, we are dedicated to helping Britain achieve financial fitness. In 2023, we proudly relaunched the iconic 118 118 twins, reaffirming our commitment to improving the financial health of individuals across the nation. Our loans and credit cards are designed specifically for those often overlooked by mainstream lenders, empowering over 800,000 customers on their journey to better financial well-being.

Our vision is to champion financial fitness throughout Britain by offering accessible products, valuable resources, and unwavering support. We are on a mission to provide fair and transparent credit solutions that promote financial well-being for all.

With an impressive 4.8 Trustpilot rating, we take pride in being an approachable lender, ready to provide clear financial support. If you’re inspired by what you’ve read and want to make a real difference in people's lives, keep reading — your next opportunity to contribute to our mission could be just a few clicks away!

What you'll do

We are looking for a hands-on, strategic and highly analytical Deputy Chief Operating Officer (COO) to support the COO in driving operational excellence, executing key initiatives, and ensuring seamless collaboration across the business.

This role is ideal for someone with a strong operational background, financial services experience and a natural curiosity for how the business works. The ability to consume large volumes of data, analyse it, generate meaningful insights and turn those into practical, organisation-wide solutions is central to success in this role.

The Deputy COO will play a key part in identifying issues before they surface, monitoring performance levers through MI and driving improvements that deliver real impact.

We’re looking for someone with a consultant mindset; able to get into the detail, understand the business end-to-end, and think critically about what the data is telling us.

Key Responsibilities

• Project Support & Delivery: Provide hands-on support to the COO in managing and executing key projects. Ensure initiatives are completed on time, within scope, and aligned with business objectives.
• End-to-End Process Management: Take ownership of ensuring operational processes are executed effectively, thinking holistically about how different parts of the business interact and improving efficiency where needed.
• Data-Led Insight & MI Development: Gather and consume large amounts of data from across the business. Analyse this data to extract key insights and trends, and translate them into clear, actionable intelligence.
• Issue Identification & Problem-Solving: Use MI and trend analysis to proactively monitor the organisation’s key operational drivers. Spot early warning signs of issues before they escalate, investigate root causes and propose practical, insight-led solutions.
• Operational Improvement: Assist in identifying inefficiencies and implementing hands-on, practical solutions to improve operational effectiveness and business performance.
• Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Act as a key interface between the COO and senior management teams, ensuring alignment on strategic priorities and operational goals.
• Performance Monitoring & Reporting: Track progress on key initiatives and provide insights to the COO and senior leadership, ensuring timely updates and necessary adjustments.
• Regulatory Compliance: Support the COO in ensuring that all operational activities and projects align with regulatory requirements and internal policies.
• Ad-Hoc COO Support: Provide flexible, hands-on support on a variety of strategic and operational tasks, adapting to changing priorities and business needs.

What you need:

Qualifications & Experience

• Strong understanding of the financial services industry, including operational complexities, regulatory requirements, and business challenges.
• Willingness and ability to be hands-on in executing projects, solving problems, and ensuring smooth operations.
• Experience supporting or managing projects with a focus on practical implementation and measurable outcomes.
• A background in management consultancy or a strategic/operational role where problem-solving, insight generation, and business transformation were key components.
• A clear ambition to progress into the role of Chief Operating Officer, with a strong desire to take on increasing responsibility.
• Ability to assess complex business issues, identify practical solutions, and implement operational improvements effectively.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to interact with senior leadership and clearly convey complex ideas.
• Experience in a management consultancy or an equivalent strategic/operational role in financial services.
• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Operations Management, Engineering, Mathematics or Law.

Personal Attributes

• Takes ownership of tasks and follows through to execution with a hands-on attitude.
• Strategic Thinker with Attention to Detail. Balances big-picture thinking with a focus on execution and operational details.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment, able to switch between strategic and hands-on work as needed.
• Works well across functions, building relationships with key stakeholders to drive projects forward.

What's in it for you?

• A competitive salary.
• Flexible, hybrid working opportunities.
• Company bonus scheme - if the business does well, you should get rewarded for your hard work.
• 25 days annual leave, (plus bank holidays) increasing to 27 after two years service and 30 after five.
• Company pension scheme – we provide an enhanced pension scheme with generous employer contributions to set you up for the future which includes life cover of 4x your base salary.
• Eye test - you can claim a freebie each year, or if your needs change.
• Employee Assistance Programme - we offer membership to a recognised scheme to support you and your wellbeing.
• A strong ethos of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
• Wide business exposure, in terms of business disciplines, projects and stakeholders.
• Direct contribution to business transformation and growth.
• Huge learning and career progression opportunities.
• Being valued as an individual from our team.
• Full training, support and mentoring to develop a successful career in financial services.

Like what you've heard? Great - apply now!

As a candidate, we know the interview process can be daunting and it’s important that you have a great experience with us. We will do all we can to make sure you are fully informed and excited by our story so we get to see the best from you. If you need any adjustments made to help you with the interview process, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate them.

Following your application, we will want to learn more about you, your motivations, experiences, and values. In turn, you get to learn about our business, our culture, the role and what we can offer you.

Equal Opportunity Employer

At 118 118 Money we are passionate about equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are committed to being representative of different cultures, background, lifestyles, and groups, where everyone has an equal chance to succeed. It is our policy to treat everyone fairly and to ensure no one is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment. We recognise that everyone has different needs and while we can’t accommodate every flexible working request we are more than happy to have a conversation about it.

If you think you’d be great for the role, but don’t necessarily tick all the boxes, we’d still love to hear from you, so apply today and take the first step towards an exciting future!

How we handle your data

118 118 Money requires your personal data to process your application for a position within our Company. If your application is successful through to telephone screening/interview, and you are not selected for a role, we may store your personal data for 12 months to enable our HR team to contact you should future roles be advertised.

Where you apply, but are not selected for telephone screening/interview, we will delete your personal data once the position is filled.

118 118 Money does not use automated decisioning or profiling when selecting candidates. For your rights under GDPR please see our Privacy policy.

Please be aware that should we pursue your application, all our Financial Services employees will be expected to complete background checks to assess suitability for employment, these include; a criminal record, identity, sanctions, adverse finance, fraud prevention and reference checks to comply with our regulatory requirements.