Director of Operations in Darmstadt

AI Superior is an AI services company helping organizations solve complex business challenges through Data Science, Machine Learning, Generative AI, and AI-powered software development.

We are looking for a highly entrepreneurial

Director of Operations who will take ownership of the day-to-day operations of AI Superior and play a key role in growing the company.

This is not a traditional corporate operations position.

You will work closely with the founders and take broad responsibility for business performance, client delivery, people, financial performance, and internal operations.

You should be comfortable switching between strategic and hands-on work.

In a small and growing company, this can mean setting priorities and improving processes one moment, supporting an important client opportunity the next, stepping into project management when needed, interviewing a candidate, or reviewing project economics.

Your mission is to take ownership of the business operations, ensure strong execution, and build an organization that can scale.

Responsibilities

• Business & Operational Ownership
• Take ownership of the day-to-day operations of AI Superior and ensure effective execution across the company.
• Translate company objectives into concrete priorities, actions, responsibilities, and measurable outcomes.
• Maintain an overall view of the business across sales pipeline, client projects, team capacity, financial performance, and operational priorities.
• Ensure that commercial opportunities are followed up effectively and support sales activities, client discussions, proposals, scoping, and negotiations where your involvement can make a difference.
• Identify growth opportunities within existing client relationships and ensure they are pursued systematically.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and proactively implement solutions rather than waiting for direction.
• Establish and continuously improve processes, tools, reporting, and ways of working as the company grows.
• Work directly with the founders on company priorities, growth initiatives, and strategic decisions.
• Maintain oversight of ongoing projects.
• Coordinate the people responsible for sales, project management, technical delivery, and client relationships to ensure effective execution.
• Maintain strong relationships with key clients and become involved in important client situations when necessary.
• Identify delivery risks early and ensure they are resolved.
• Ensure projects deliver strong business outcomes for clients while maintaining healthy economics for AI Superior.
• Ensure effective transition from sales and presales into project delivery and subsequent client development.
• Take responsibility for the commercial performance of projects and contribute to the overall financial performance of the company.
• Monitor project budgets, utilization, margins, costs, invoicing, and cash collection.
• Participate in pricing decisions, commercial negotiations, resource planning, and financial forecasting.
• Maintain visibility over revenue, sales pipeline, delivery capacity, and expected financial performance.
• Make decisions with a strong understanding of their impact on profitability and cash flow.
• People & Organization
• Identify hiring needs based on the company’s pipeline, projects, and growth objectives.
• Own or actively participate in recruiting, interviewing, selecting, and onboarding new team members.
• Coordinate employees, contractors, and external specialists according to project and business needs.
• Set clear expectations, responsibilities, and accountability for agreed outcomes.
• Support the professional development and performance of team members.
• Help build a high-performance culture based on ownership, transparency, pragmatism, and execution.

Your Profile

We are looking for an entrepreneurial operator rather than a corporate administrator .

You are someone who naturally takes responsibility for outcomes and is comfortable operating with significant autonomy in a small, technically sophisticated company.

You should bring

• 5+ years of professional experience in operations, management, consulting, technology services, project/program management, business development, or a comparable environment.
• Proven experience owning significant business responsibilities rather than only coordinating the work of others.
• Strong project management capabilities and experience overseeing complex technology or software projects.
• A strong commercial mindset and confidence interacting directly with customers.
• Experience with client development, sales, presales, proposal development, negotiations, or account management.
• Strong understanding of business economics, including project budgets, pricing, margins, costs, and resource utilization.
• Experience managing and developing people.
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Business fluency in English and German.
• A high degree of self-responsibility and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
• A hands-on mentality, meaning you are willing to personally solve problems when needed rather than simply delegate them.
• AI & Technology Understanding

You do not need to be a Data Scientist or Machine Learning Engineer.

However, you must have sufficient technical understanding and genuine interest in AI and software to operate effectively in an AI company.

You should be able to

• Understand the fundamental capabilities and limitations of Machine Learning, Generative AI, LLMs, Computer Vision, and modern AI systems.
• Understand the typical lifecycle of an AI project, from business problem and data assessment through prototyping, development, deployment, and maintenance.
• Communicate effectively with Data Scientists, ML Engineers, Software Engineers, and technical client stakeholders.
• Understand technical discussions sufficiently to identify dependencies, risks, unrealistic expectations, and commercial implications.
• Translate between business requirements and technical teams.
• Explain AI solutions and their business value credibly to non-technical decision-makers.

Previous experience working in AI, Data Science, software development, technology consulting, or another technically sophisticated environment is strongly preferred.

• What Success Looks Like
• Client projects are delivered successfully and customers want to work with AI Superior again.
• The sales pipeline and client opportunities are managed systematically.
• Projects have clear ownership, timelines, budgets, and accountability.
• The team knows what matters and executes without unnecessary overhead.
• Hiring and resource allocation anticipate business needs rather than reacting to them.
• Management has reliable visibility into pipeline, revenue, project profitability, capacity, and risks.
• Operational problems are identified and solved without requiring constant founder involvement.
• The company becomes progressively more scalable and less dependent on the founders for day-to-day execution.
• Conditions
• Full-time position.
• High degree of autonomy and responsibility.
• Direct collaboration with the founders.
• Opportunity to have a significant impact on how the company operates and grows.
• Exposure to AI projects across multiple industries and technologies.
• Competitive compensation.
• About AI Superior

AI Superior is a service provider specializing in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.

We help businesses apply AI and analytics to unlock the potential of their data and solve complex business challenges.

We work across multiple industries and with different types of data, building everything from rapid prototypes and AI strategies to production-ready AI solutions and end-to-end software products.

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