VP Research Operations (consulting exit)

The organisation

Gain.pro is on a mission is to serve everyone across the globe who wants to find, understand and track sizable companies. Their state-of-the-art SaaS platform is the leading solution because they combine the best research, technology and user experience. Customers include major investors (e.g. CVC, Cinven), M&A-advisors (e.g. Lazard, Rothschild) and consultants (e.g. McKinsey, Bain). They tell them Gain.pro provides them with strong competitive advantage, proudly reflected by their industry-leading NPS. Founded in 2018 by a team coming from consulting, private equity and technology, Gain.pro is a fast-growing scale-up (nearly tripled sales in 2020) with the ambition to become the next unicorn, which they define as a global €100m revenue (ARR) business. With offices in Frankfurt and Amsterdam their remote-first team works across Europe and is rapidly expanding beyond that.

The position

An unparalleled leadership opportunity with direct P&L and line management responsibility. This role is a perfect fit for a current Engagement Manager, Project Leader or Manager at a top-tier strategy firm.

"This job is really fun!" - Frister Haveman, Co-Founder & CEO (ex-Bain).

Tasks & responsibilities

The core of Gain.pro is their tech-enabled research on private companies, the markets in which they operate and the investors that own them. Gain.pro has built a highly differentiated operating model where high-calibre local-for-local Associates and Analysts combine human research with cutting-edge automation to provide data and insight their clients can rely on. Deeply integrated with their software engineers, the research team forms the engine of the Gain.pro platform. Currently, their very international talent pool consists of circa 40 FTEs working remote-first across Europe, with office hubs in Amsterdam and Frankfurt (Paris and Warsaw are in the making). Your mandate is to scale Gain.pro's research team more than 5-fold to >250 FTEs in a 3-year timeframe (and >2x within the first 12 months) to deliver on the global roll-out strategy. This entails:

• Line management from day one – Upon joining you will become the leader of the international Research MT, taking ownership of expanding Gain.pro's operations;
• Recruit new talent – To support the required team growth, you own the process design to recruit new analysts, (senior) associates and managers for existing and new regions;
• Opening research hubs in Poland and India – Gain.pro strongly believes in a local-for-local approach, though are supplementing this by at-scale research teams in these locations;
• Support function development – You ensure lean and tech-driven recruitment, HR, payroll, on/off boarding and performance management functions that enable at-scale operations;
• Research process management – You maintain process oversight of the research pipeline (primary research on industries delivered through the platform);
• Digital process ownership – Ensuring a tech-first workflow across teams and working with Gain.pro's Product Owners (sitting between Research/Engineering) to further digitise coverage;
• P&L and KPI responsibility – Owning a multi-million budget, ensuring efficient spending, cost control, reporting and KPI-driven performance steering and quality assurance;
• Cross-functional cooperation – You are closely cooperating with the Commercial (marketing, sales, customer success) and Engineering team (Product, Data, DevOps).

Candidate profile

YER Executive is looking for someone who is passionate about the mission to build the best private market research team in the world. You are very smart but also like to get your hands dirty and move quickly. You appreciate that Gain.pro is a people business, and you are an excellent manager for your teams. To make it concrete, we are looking for the following:

• Relevant experience – You have worked at least 6-8 years in top-tier consulting, M&A, equity research or private equity and excelled at (senior) manager or equivalent tenure;
• Management skills – You are capable of taking on a line management role from day one, with the proven emotional intelligence to manage, coach and develop your direct reports;
• Leadership maturity – You demonstrate the potential to be a leader to >250 people, already showing that you have the 'intrinsics' to grow into that role as your team expands;
• Strategic thinker… – Some processes that used to work before may no longer do so when brought to scale and require operating model changes. You own that kind of thinking;
• …AND a pragmatist – Turning off the engine to build a new one is not an option - Gain.pro's clients rely on it every day. So you are able to reshape processes while still delivering on short- and mid-term term KPIs - sometimes a balancing act but never unreasonable;
• Tech-first mindset – You have a 'bias to digital' and are comfortable interacting with developers / product owners to realize sustained outcomes rather than short-term 'human push' fixes (a habit that might work in advisory but not in tech);
• Global orientation – You foster an international culture and realize that in a post-COVID world the best options for expansion are often a bit further away that your home town.

The offer

• Attractive compensation package with bonus component + equity participation
• The SaaS (vs. project/deal work) model enables a healthy work-life balance
• Work (partly or fully) remote whenever you want....
• ...or in one of Gain.pro's lovely office hubs in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris or Warsaw
• Flexible holiday wishes (paid and extra unpaid leave)
• Fun working atmosphere and company-wide events
• Flourish in a culture of trust, ownership, and standard of excellence
• Getting-things-done environment with sharp and knowledgeable colleagues

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below.