Chief Operating Officer

About HENI

HENI is an international multi-service art company operating where art meets technology. Its work spans printmaking, physical art marketplaces, NFTs, publishing, news, video production, and art research, helping leading artists and estates bring art to a global audience. The business is ambitious, moves quickly, and is willing to rethink how the art world works.

With established leadership in sales and technology, HENI is now hiring a pivotal executive leader: a Chief Operating Officer focused on production. This person will take ownership of how the business delivers and help define the operating standards for the company.

This is a foundational leadership role. The COO will shape operational strategy, raise performance across the organisation, and set the expectations for quality, delivery, and execution.

The Role

Reporting to the CEO, the COO will have end-to-end responsibility for operational performance across output, quality, people, infrastructure, and profitability. This is an executive role, not a routine management position. It requires setting the operating model, building the organisation around it, and ensuring it produces strong results.

You will be expected to establish direction across all operational areas, make commercially significant decisions, and lead the company through a planned phase of growth.

Scope of Accountability

Strategy and Performance

• Define the business’s operating strategy in line with commercial priorities and the proprietor’s long-term direction.
• Take ownership of all operating KPIs, including output, quality, cost, yield, and on-time delivery, and keep improving them over time.
• Lead the performance management approach across the organisation by setting the measures, rhythm, and expectations for accountability.

Manufacturing and Production

• Be ultimately responsible for the full production cycle, including throughput, quality control, scheduling, and cost efficiency.
• Design and govern the operating model used to manufacture and deliver work, ensuring it can scale without reducing quality or margin.
• Promote continuous improvement at every level, from process design to problem-solving on the production floor.

People and Organisation

• Recruit, lead, and strengthen a high-performing operations leadership team capable of delivering the strategy.
• Set the organisational structure for operational teams, including capability needs and resourcing plans.
• Build a culture rooted in ownership, precision, and pride in craftsmanship throughout the operation.

Commercial and Supply Chain

• Work closely with sales leadership so the business can consistently deliver what it promises commercially.
• Own supplier and vendor strategy to ensure the supply base is resilient, cost-efficient, and aligned with quality expectations.
• Provide the proprietor and leadership team with clear, data-led insight into operational performance and risk.

Governance and Compliance

• Ensure full compliance with health and safety requirements and all other relevant regulations, setting the standard across the facility.
• Oversee operational capital spending so resources are allocated where they will have the greatest impact.

About You

• You bring executive or board-level operational leadership experience in a manufacturing environment, ideally one involving high-value or high-precision production, with a track record of embedding continuous improvement.
• You have a strong history of building operational capability rather than only managing inherited systems, and you have done so in environments where you helped set the standard.
• You combine operational judgment with commercial awareness, understanding how day-to-day decisions affect margin, customer experience, and market position.
• You have a strong leadership presence and can work credibly with owners and investors, earn respect on the factory floor, and build trust with the team around you.
• You are strategic and disciplined, yet still close enough to the work to understand what is happening at production level.
• You have worked in privately owned, entrepreneurial businesses where speed matters and leadership comes with real accountability.
• You are motivated to build and improve a business, not simply maintain one.

Additional Information

This role is based in the London Area, United Kingdom, and is a full-time onsite position.