Consulting Operations Manager — Pharmaceutical Quality & Compliance Consultancy
Location: Remote / home-based, UK (Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire preferred); occasional travel
Type: Full-time, 12-month fixed term with the option to become permanent
Salary: £35,000–£40,000 depending on experience
GxPAssure is an established and trusted quality consultancy. We work with a community of ex-regulators (FDA, MHRA, EMA) and senior industry consultants, supporting pharmaceutical and biotech clients worldwide in GMP, GDP, GLP and GCP compliance. Our consultants audit, inspect, remediate and advise at manufacturing sites across the UK, Europe, the USA and Asia.
Behind every engagement there is a contract to issue, a consultant to brief and book, a flight and a visa to arrange, a timesheet to check and an invoice to raise. We are looking for someone to own all of that: the person who runs the operational engine of the consultancy so the CEO can deliver and lead, and the client team can sell. This is a new role reporting directly to the CEO, and one of two roles we are creating together: a Client Development Manager wins and keeps the work; you run everything behind it.
What you will do
- Turn agreed proposals into contracts on our templates (master service agreements, statements of work, change orders), route them for review and signature, and keep the contract register current.
- Prepare and track consultant working agreements and confidentiality agreements; onboard new consultants, including background and right-to-work checks.
- Be the day-to-day point of contact for our consultant network: availability, scheduling, briefings, kick-off and close-out.
- Arrange travel, visas, accommodation and logistics for consultants and the CEO, including overseas audits and inspections.
- Manage the general enquiries inbox and phone line, route new enquiries to the client team promptly, and look after the day-to-day service needs of live engagements.
- Run the monthly cycle: timesheets, expenses, consultant invoices, client invoicing and receivables.
- Keep our business systems clean and current, and build and maintain the operations manual.
- Support the CEO with diary and meeting preparation.
What the role is not- You will not be selling, pricing or negotiating with clients — a Client Development Manager does that. You will not sign contracts on the company’s behalf. You will run everything that makes the work happen once it is won.
Requirements
Essential
- At least three years in an operations, contracts, project-coordination or senior administration role in a professional-services, consultancy, recruitment or life-sciences environment.
- Experience preparing and administering contracts from templates and maintaining a contract register.
- Experience coordinating external contractors or consultants, including onboarding and scheduling.
- Confident with numbers: timesheets, expenses, invoicing and reconciliations; experience with an accounting or project system.
- Highly organised, accurate and self-sufficient; comfortable running processes without supervision and improving them.
- Discreet ans strict with confidential client and commercial information.
- Excellent written and spoken English and a professional telephone and email manner.
Desirable
- Experience in a GMP-regulated or life-sciences consultancy environment.
- Experience arranging international travel and visas.
- Familiarity with CRM, applicant tracking, e-signature and cloud accounting systems, and with Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.
- Experience documenting processes and writing standard operating procedures.
Benefits
- £35,000–£40,000 salary depending on experience.
- 12-month fixed-term contract with the option to convert to a permanent appointment at the 12-month review.
- Home-based working with a laptop, phone and the systems you need.
- Workplace pension and private healthcare contribution.
- 25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays.
- A genuinely broad role in a small, growing consultancy, working directly with the CEO and a consultant community of former regulators and senior industry specialists.
