Director of Operations, APAC

Overview

Reporting to the Managing Director APAC, the Director of Operations will lead business functions that keep the region moving. This is a broad, hands-on role for someone who can pick up a wide range of priorities, impose practical structure and drive execution across countries, functions, and time zones.

The role suits a fiercely driven operator who is meticulous, commercially alert and comfortable in ambiguity. The successful candidate will bring order to chaos without becoming constrictive. They will create enough structure for the business to scale, while preserving the speed, urgency and inventiveness required in a start-up environment.

This is a key leadership hire to help build the operating foundations for a fast moving regional business.

Responsibilities

Regional Operations

• Lead the operating rhythm for APAC, including planning, reporting, governance, leadership meetings and follow-through on regional priorities
• Build practical systems, processes and routines that help the region operate with clarity, pace and accountability
• Identify operational gaps across the geography and take ownership of issues that do not yet have a natural home
• Bring discipline to a fast-moving environment without adding unnecessary bureaucracy

Business Execution

• Lead or coordinate core business functions across APAC, including business operations, commercial operations, finance processes, people operations, procurement, workplace, vendor management and internal systems, depending on business need.
• Work across countries and functions to remove bottlenecks, clarify ownership and improve execution.
• Establish fit-for-purpose processes for a scaling defence and aerospace business, including management information, controls, decision records and operating procedures.
• Ensure regional business functions are aligned with Cambridge Aerospace’s global standards while remaining practical for local market conditions.

Growth & Strategy

• Support the MD, APAC on regional strategy, market entry, partnership development and priority growth initiatives.
• Pick up and drive special projects across the geography, including new market set-up, capability-building, customer support, internal transformation and regional coordination.
• Act as a senior problem-solver for urgent or complex issues requiring judgement, discretion and follow-through.
• Translate strategic priorities into executable plans, with clear owners, milestones and risks.

Governance, Risk & Stakeholder Management

• Help establish the governance and controls required to operate in regulated defence and aerospace markets.
• Coordinate with Cambridge Aerospace HQ and global functional leads to ensure APAC requirements are understood and supported.
• Maintain strong working relationships with country leads, external advisers, partners, suppliers and internal stakeholders.
• Surface risks early, resolve issues properly and ensure the MD has clear visibility of regional performance and operational health.

Requirements

• Experience in business operations, general management, strategy, chief of staff, commercial operations or another broad/ cross-functionaloperating role.
• Demonstrated ability to operate across multiple markets, functions and senior stakeholders.
• Experience in a start-up, scale-up, new market entrant or similarly ambiguous environment.
• Strong commercial judgement, excellent organisational discipline and the ability to move quickly from problem to execution.
• Meticulous attention to detail, with a strong bias for ownership and follow-through.
• Ability to build structure, process and accountability without slowing the business down.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders clearly and directly.
• Willingness to travel across APAC as required.

Preferred

• ADF veterans will be prioritised.
• Experience in defence, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, deep technology or another regulated technical sector.
• Familiarity with APAC defence markets, government customers, export controls, procurement processes or sovereign capabilityprogrammes.
• Experience working with UK-headquartered or internationally matrixed businesses.
• Existing security clearance or prior experience operating in secure environments.
• Experience building business functions from an early stage.

The mission of Cambridge Aerospace is to eliminate the risk of existential war. That risk comes from the air – low-cost drones and cruise missiles now manufactured in colossal volumes by our adversaries, ballistic missiles capable of ending the world as we know it, and a new generation of hypersonic weapons that evade every existing defence.

We’re building low-cost interceptors that defeat these threats, and the surveillance systems to detect and target them – at a cost taxpayers can afford, at the pace the threat demands, and with sovereign supply chains that assure delivery.

We have immense backing from the world’s best venture funds. We’re one of the fastest growing defence technology companies in history. And we’re hiring the best engineers to prosecute the mission.

If you are in the top 1%, willing to work harder than you ever have, build technology better than anyone else, and contribute to the defining challenge of our time, now is the time to join us.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply.