Chief Operating Officer
AviLabs is hiring a Chief Operating Officer to run the operating side of the company as we move into our next stage of growth. This role will serve as the CEO's close strategic partner, helping shape company priorities, lead our next funding round, and build the operational, financial and organizational foundations required to scale a category-defining aviation software company.
About AviLabs
AviLabs is the company behind Plan3, a passenger disruption management platform built for airlines. When flights are cancelled, delayed or rerouted, Plan3 automates the work that cares for passengers, turning a chaotic, manual process into something that resolves in minutes.
AviLabs was founded by a team with deep experience in the aviation industry. We’re headquartered in Reykjavík, with team members across Europe and the Americas. As we continue to grow the company, our current COO is moving into a CPO role to lead the maturing engineering department, creating an opening for this hire.
Something we often say at AviLabs is that we are building a home to live in. We’re in this for the long run, building a company we want to grow and care for, with investor partners who share that view. We assume the best intentions of one another, treat feedback as a gift, operate a no-blame culture, and hire people who fit our culture.
This is a hands-on operator role. As AviLabs scales, the COO owns how the company delivers and builds the operational machinery the company needs to grow without breaking. You’ll be comfortable moving between board-level conversations and day-to-day company decisions, energised by complex airline implementations, and motivated by helping build an enduring company.
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Own customer delivery end-to-end. You’re ultimately accountable for implementations landing well. This includes onboarding, scoping and sizing, SOWs, SLAs, and the moment-by-moment work of getting a major airline live on Plan3 without anything breaking. Customer success, support, and renewals execution all sit here too.
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Build the delivery infrastructure the company needs to scale our customer base several-fold without fracture. Repeatable onboarding playbooks, the implementation methodology, the productised-versus-services trade-offs that come with each new airline, and the team to deliver it.
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Run the company’s operating rhythm. Goal-setting, planning cadence, and cross-functional execution that turns strategy into delivered outcomes across departments.
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Design scalable processes and systems. Optimize the business processes and tooling needed to enable the company to scale without blockers.
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Partner with the CFO on strategic finance, translating operational decisions into capital allocation, cash management, cap-table strategy, and operational risk that comes with each.
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Be the CEO’s primary operational partner during the next Series A/B round. Manage the investor pipeline, materials, diligence, term-sheet trade-offs, and close. The CEO leads the investor relationship; you bring the financial and operating discipline a round requires.
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Own people and hiring operations, and the headcount scaling that comes with it, including hiring processes and campaigns, onboarding and background checks, performance frameworks, internal systems, and the team structures that need to hold up as we grow, without culture or process degrading.
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Navigate the vendor and partner operations that come with aviation. This includes airline IT environments, third-party integrations, and the customer-side procurement processes that are slow and complex by nature.
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Be the operational escalation point when things go wrong, from customer incidents to vendor failures and security events. Own the post-incident review and systemic fixes that follow.
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Partner with the General Counsel on enterprise risk, governance, and contract administration; and with the Compliance Officer on the certification roadmap (SOC 2, ISO 27001, aviation-specific regulation).
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7+ years in growth-stage technology companies, with direct leadership of operations, customer success, delivery, or implementation functions at scale, and a track record of taking a SaaS business through a step-change in stage (Seed to A, A to B, or B to C).
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Hands-on experience leading complex B2B implementations, onboarding sophisticated customers, building repeatable delivery playbooks, and navigating customer-side IT and procurement environments without losing momentum.
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Experience scaling teams through the messy middle, building the operational structures and processes that hold up as headcount grows.
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Comfortable in a flat organizational structure, influencing outcomes through collaboration rather than hierarchy.
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Hands-on experience with growth-stage fundraising and strategic finance. You have previously led or been a primary partner in at least one Series A or Series B round, with real fluency in financial modeling, scenario planning, and cap-table mechanics.
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A background that draws from operations leadership at a growth-stage company, head of operations or chief of staff roles, or a delivery / customer success leadership track. Strategic-finance or consulting experience as a complement is welcome.
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A bachelor’s degree is required.
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Experience in aviation, travel technology, or B2B SaaS would be a meaningful plus.
Please don’t be dissuaded from applying if you don’t meet every item on this list. These are the skills and experience we think would be most helpful, but what we’re ultimately looking for is someone who can run the operating side of a growth-stage company and is energised by the work of building it. Think of the list as a portrait of the candidate we have in mind, not a strict checklist.
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A competitive salary commensurate with experience.
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A meaningful equity stake, sized to the role.
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Participation in the AviLabs bonus programme.
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Generous vacation and a flexible working arrangement.
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Parental leave above the Icelandic statutory baseline.
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Subsidised lunch and access to an on-site gym with biweekly classes.
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Annual team workshops abroad.
Enska
