General Manager / COO (FR & ENG Fluent)

Wait a minute.

Are you inspired in being a key player in building a massive EdTech company that will empower millions of people?

Do you have international ambition?

Do you love scaling companies & improving Operations?

Do you desire to put that thrive of excellence at the service of selling meaningful products that really change lives?

Are you inspired by Ed Tech?

Deep inside you are looking for a new adventure with…

• Freedom: feeling free to work remotely or hybrid and being trusted to deliver.
• Ambition: growing up surrounded by smart colleagues driven to create an iconic brand like Nike big.
• Impact: contributing to transform people lives at scale and feel your own impact in the company.

That’s great because we want to empower people at scale, by leveraging cutting edge technologies and innovating on creating breakthrough learning experiences.

This is why we are looking for our new General Manager/GM or COO

Sometimes called #2, here it’s about managing all the leadership team, leading the day-to-day and forming a powerful duo with our CEO/chairman a kind of “Visionary” / “Integrator” duo.

An Integrator you have the Unique Ability to harmoniously integrate the major functions of the business, run the organization, and manage the day-to-day issues that arise. You are the glue that holds the people, processes, systems, priorities, and strategy of the company together.

Your natural perspective is oriented toward things that are internal to the company. Getting the house in order and making sure Paradox scales fast, and with fast execution.

While David we’ll be focusing on:

• Defining the Vision & keeping in-depth Industry Knowledge.
• External Communication on social media, PR, interviews with people like Richard Branson.
• Strategic Product Keynotes for major Marketing opportunities.
• Building the future of our products.
• Generating growth opportunities, big ideas.

This duo will work if you recognize yourself:

• Strongly analytical, and at ease to challenge or disagree with our CEO in his thinking with strong reasoning and Data.
• Hands-On Leadership.
• Strong leadership to inspire, lead, and make people accountable.
• Really Hard worker.
• Great at being provided with a company Vision, and then turning it into something real and then translating the Vision into something others can understand and get on board with-laying a solid foundation for execution.
• But also very inspired by our mission to empower people live their true ambition.

If you dream of a life that is more like an adventure with its twists and turns and challenges than a stable, set life…. Then, you have found the next adventure that will fulfill you!

This is a full-time position, carried out from our beautiful offices in Dubaï, Lisbon or from the comfort of your couch! French and English fluency is required.

YOUR MISSION

Your main mission is to help us scale to the next level of 50M in 3 years while generating very high level of customers and team satisfaction.

So structuring the company so that it grows without our CEO: creating an A-Players team, installing a culture of performance and execution, putting the right systems in place and overseeing all Sales, Product, HR, finance, legal, marketing, office management operations.

Our sources of inspiration are Apple, Nike, Disney for their obsession of excelling and having a worldwide impact. You will be playing a pivotal role in making Paradox play at that level and becoming an iconic brand.

To do so, here are your 7 main responsibilities:

1. Leads the execution by meeting or exceeding planned P&L targets

• Develop the business and manage the day-to-day operations.
• Yearly/Monthly/Quarterly planning and structure and lead quarterly meeting.
• Play devil's advocate with the CEO and determine when to stay focused.
• Integrate all major functions of the company.

1. Create a culture of performance, execution and continuous improvement

• Leads, manages, and holds the leadership team accountable for achieving agreed-upon commitments. (ex: performance reviews).
• Lead all internal team meetings and bring global communication.
• Set a tempo, a pace of execution and performance at all levels in the company, so that everyone:
• have clear and ambitious objectives for the quarter.
• be responsible for a numerical indicator and with an associated scoreboard.
• Develop Talents.

1. SCALE: Make the company Scalable and turn it into a growth machine

• Creation, process optimization, automation & Continuously simplify the organization.
• Be the “Glue” holding things together.
• Choose the digital tools that will allow to scale (we expect deep analysis & thinking when you do your benchmarks).
• Identify structural problems that impede the flow of information & Ensure that everyone is truly following and adhering to the company’s core processes and operating system with consistency.

1. Dependably demonstrates a relentless obsession with values alignment, focus, simplicity, and clarity

• Create new ways to make them part of everyday life.
• Resolves issues effectively—seeing real problems, being comfortable with conflict, calling out the problems, and solving the problems in a practical and healthy manner. Ensures the leadership team is healthy, functional, and cohesive.
• Find ways for the team to be able to take decisions by themselves and aligned with the vision, mission and the values and culture of Paradox.
• With the Head of HR, create an organization where our A players are fulfilled.

1. Talent Density is everything for us > Fill Paradox with A Players

• Source, Recruit, Onboard people who stand out from the crowd.
• Tracking company-wide sourcing KPIs.
• Set training standards and hiring and onboarding procedures.
• Increase the competence of each manager in their ability to find and choose stars in their field.

1. Oversee financial information and budget

• Forecast requirements and prepare annual budget.
• Oversee budgeting, reporting, planning, and auditing.
• Manage staff levels, hours, wages and contract labor.

1. Dig the Data, find patterns, and make changes happen from them

DO YOU RECOGNIZE YOURSELF?

Must Have

• Proven experience as a Founders, CEO, COO, CRO, Head of Operations, General Manager, Executive position at least 3 years in a startup or scale up of more than 100 employees, we need someone who is immediately operational and has a global knowledge of all business functions.
• You master and like modern tools and are comfortable with building processes.

Personality

• You are charismatic, have a strong ethic and a profound sense of humility.
• You are obsessed by performance, having ambitious goals and giving everything to achieve them & Excellence you must always strive to do better.
• Leadership: Catalyst for team cohesion and effective conflict management, you make others want to follow you.
• You love people deeply: You like to be interested in others and you know how to create a link very easily.
• You enjoy managing the day-to-day aspects of the business. Be responsible for the P/L balance sheet and execution.
• Great At Planning - great at taking ideas and effectively initializing plans to make them a reality.
• Driven & Getting things done: this position requires a strong commitment and perseverance & you come with solutions, not problems, you have a doer mentality.
• Love for structure and execution (An obsession with getting the house in order & You enjoy managing the day-to-day aspects of the business and to Be responsible for the and execution.)
• Comfort in conflict - you are at ease with defending your case with facts, until we find what’s right for the vision of the company - Jeff Bezos calls that “Disagree & Commit”.
• Growth over Ego: you are eager to learn, and receive hard feedback to grow. You let others speak and seek to understand their viewpoints.
• Analytical and system thinker, Problem-solver: able to quickly identify and formulate problems, bottlenecks and obstacles, facilitate decision making, you are able to simplify extremely complex and chaotic issues into efficient solutions and systems quickly.
• Tech and product savviness.
• Cool under pressure.
• You are inspired by the field of Edtech, coaching, personal development or training.

Language

• French: Native.
• English: Fluent English, you can hold a conversation on specific details with English-speaking colleagues.

Our chosen language for written communication is English. Currently, 10% of the team is English-speaking, a % which will continue to grow.

TECHNICAL:

• Our CRM: Hubspot.

IT MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU

Being at ease to be in the shadow:

Constant Friction as you are in between our CEO/Chairman, the leadership team and the rest of the team.

Discipline and Accountability. You are the one who delivers the bad news to employees. You’re in charge of the dirty work that needs to be done. You often make the tough personnel decisions and deliver the news, whether that’s firing a long-term employee, demoting someone who can’t keep up, or having a last-straw conversation with a problematic team member. All of these duties put you in a position where you are frequently disliked by someone for something.

Lack of Appreciation. The toughest one of all is that your job can be downright lonely. As an Integrator you are in a position that doesn’t allow for a lot of pats on the back, small talk, and friendships. Oftentimes, the better you are at doing your job, the less you are noticed. Because it’s done behind the scenes. That can be lonely at times.

If you don’t want to be really hands-on:

At our size (60 people, not 300), we expect to be directly involved in fixing issues YOURSELF.

Fixing could also mean to replace someone. And to be clear there is a balance to find between Delegating vs Doing, and the idea is to progressively transition to more and more delegating.

Might be not for you in terms of culture too:

• We are inspired by a culture of performance and ambition. We have a very startup-oriented culture where everything is fast-paced and there is a lot of change. You won’t always be told what to do or how to do it.
• We tell each other things, even if they are uncomfortable. We value growth over ego. At Paradox, expressing disagreement to a manager and knowing how to debate is valued! We encourage critical and strategic thinking.

Let’s be clear, we are looking for someone who is not just Great, and for whom Paradox ambition isn’t just another cool project; but a true mission.

So if those personal interests: personal development / coaching / professional growth / education / edtech / teaching / edutainment are not things you REALLY love, let’s forget it!

Let’s forget about it also if,

• You don’t like to be challenged and grow in your job.
• You don't like receiving or giving tough feedbacks.
• You don’t question the status quo: the process are there for a reason, we have always done it this way.
• You like to have very specific & fixed tasks assigned to you. Be told what to do and how to do it.
• Your only driver is joining a full-remote company: yes, our company culture is cool, but we want people to care about our mission, products, and their job!

JOIN US IF YOU CRAVE

Growth & Ambition

We hire only the best, it’s exhilarating to be surrounded by A-players who strive to perform whilst being in a good mood. You'll be working with some of the best minds. We understand that "A" people attract "A" people.

No more bosses, but ongoing conversations to support your professional development.

Being part of an ambitious company with a lot of growth opportunities.

Impact & Meaning

Playing a crucial role in the development of a company whose content and products are enjoyed by millions of people.

Waking up in the morning knowing you are making a difference: we receive messages every day from clients who have successfully lost weight, quit smoking, reach a mile stone in their business, built better relationships, and made positive changes in their lives.

But that’s not all, we believe that driven people deserve…

Freedom & Well Being

A company culture based on autonomy & accountability.

Flexible working hours.

A remote culture from day one with the freedom to work from wherever you want.

Magnificent offices in Dubai and Lisbon: you’re at home worldwide.

Standing desks paid by the company, if you live far from our offices.

Macbook: to be the most efficient in your work.

350€ per year paid by the company to take care of yourself (for your gym, or dance class or whatever make you feel great).

150€ per year paid by the company to boost your knowledge (books, education): we are passionate about learning and want to support your growth).

1:1 coachings: a Paradox coach supporting you personally or professionally to live your best life.

Team buildings: those benefits are only for full-time employees.

But maybe YOU WONDER WHAT’S OUR STORY?

At Paradox, we are convinced that people do not want “just a job” anymore.

We are all craving to have an impact through our professional journey. Some want to start their own venture, some want to become an intrapreneur in their current organization, some others just want their day-to-day tasks to have more meaning.

PARADOX HAS ONE GOAL: TO EMPOWER PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS TO LIVE THEIR TRUE AMBITIONS.

But where do we start?

If you have an interest in personal development, you probably already know that:

• Making things happen is a real struggle when you don’t know what truly inspires you and how to get there.
• Available resources are either boring or full of crazy unsubstantiated theories.

It needs to change, and we’re here to make it happen!

️OUR AMBITION IS TO MAKE SUCCESS THE ONLY POSSIBLE OUTCOME FOR OUR CLIENTS (WHATEVER SUCCESS MEANS FOR THEM), BY CRAFTING INNOVATIVE & CAPTIVATING BREAKTHROUGH EXPERIENCES.

In other words, we want to make personal growth as entertaining as watching Netflix.

How, you might be wondering?

• We travel the world and surround ourselves with top entrepreneurs (Richard Branson - Founder of Virgin, Marc Simoncini - Founder of Meeting, Fred Mazzella - Founder of BlablaCar), world athletes (Tony Parker - Hall of fame NBA Player, Frederick Bousquet - World record in 50m free swimming, Frank Leboeuf - WorldCup Footballer), and artists (Gad Elmaleh - Comedian, Franck Dubosc, Barry Osborne - Producer of Lord of the Rings and Matrix);
• We reverse engineer their strategies for achieving success and fulfillment and lean on the latest researches about neurosciences;
• We deliver trainings & educational contents around Power Skills (critical thinking, productivity, leadership, public speaking, coaching, stress management, etc.), self-growth and performance, through a balanced set of e-learning programs, events and edutainment videos.

From one well-known Founder to a team of +60 people today (and counting!), this approach has paid off and enabled us to exceed 2 million followers on social networks, and to have thousands of people attending our online events and training courses.

TOGETHER, WE ARE DRIVEN BY ONE DREAM:

• Helping 100 000 people achieve their dream and display their pictures on what we call the “100 000 dreams wall”;
• Giving our clients access to constant personal growth by reinventing their learning experience;
• Leverage AI and other technology to provide an outstanding customized experience to millions of people for them to transform their lives.

And that’s where you come in. Join the Paradox Revolution!

How To Apply

That job description resonated with you?

Click on "Apply for this position" and fill out a short questionnaire (7 to 8 minutes) to tell us more about yourself and send us your CV!

Hiring process

A 6 to 8 minutes application survey.

A 15-30 What’s app call with Chloé, our HR Talent Manager, to assess the fit between the position, the company, and your own career path.

A 1 hour video-call focused on your career with Chloé to do a deep dive into your career path and your ambition.

A couple of video-calls with the Executive Team.

A culture-fit video call with Timy, our Culture and Engagement coach to check in depth the alignment between you and our values and culture.

A Case study you will present to David, our founder & CEO so we can learn more about your vision and understand if we can write the success story together.

Reference calls to get in-depth insights about how you work in different environments, make your onboarding easier, and give everybody on the team the insurance to be surrounded by A-Players.

Welcome aboard!

About Our Hiring Process

Our recruitment process is tailored to do our best to avoid that you or us realize that we’re not a perfect fit. Every step serves a purpose and will allow us to get to know you better as much as it’ll help you understand more where you’ll be stepping in.

We also want you to have time to ask all of your questions regarding the mission, the long-term vision of your team and the company, our values, with the relevant interlocutor in front of you.