Chief Operating Officer

About Us

Uncommon is a purpose-driven company, creating breakthrough technologies to
develop delicious products that will help solve some of the world’s biggest health,
sustainability and animal welfare challenges.

At the heart of our work is the goal of enabling nature’s ability to build a healthier
world, and our primary focus is to bring superior cultivated pork products to market.
At a time of growing inflation and shrinking natural resources, we believe that creative problem-solving is the most effective and sustainable way to address the global growth in protein consumption.

Core to our approach are our patented pioneering RNA-powered strategies to
cultivate meat without genetic modification. It’s this approach and numerous other
technological breakthroughs which position us to uniquely deliver cost-effective,
nutritional and abundant protein products the market will crave. Our brilliant team of over 60 exceptional scientists, product developers, marketers, engineers, and operators are experts in their respective fields, drawn from around the world. We’re passionate, curious, innovative and at the forefront of the ground-breaking work being done in this exciting and rapidly growing sector.

Uncommon is a well-funded biotech company, backed by some of the world’s most
admired investors - we've secured over $37M in funding from Balderton, Lowercarbon Capital, RedAlpine, Sam Altman (Open AI founder) and Max Altman (through Apollo Projects), Planthesis (Miray Zaki and Sebastiano Castiglioni) as well as other incredible investors. We’ve experienced spectacular growth over the last few years, reaching exciting milestones, and we continue to grow every quarter, so this is a great time to join us and solve one of the most important challenges we face today!

The role

As our COO you will be responsible for developing, implementing and managing all
operational aspects of Uncommon. As the central point between R&D, manufacturing
and commercialisation, operations is at the core of Uncommon, and your role will be
crucial in ensuring that we continue to transition at pace from a research and
development focus to become a robust, scalable manufacturing and commercial
operation. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of food and contribute to
a more sustainable world, all while working as part of a team of industry pioneers.
Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Operations Leadership: You will orchestrate the development and
   execution of holistic operational strategy that encompasses the entire
   organisation. You will bring a visionary approach that integrates technologicaladvancements, optimises organisational structures, and fosters a culture
   of innovation and efficiency. Working closely with the CSO and CTO, you will
   scale our infrastructure and capabilities to meet growing production demands,
   ensuring the alignment of departments and resources with Uncommon's
   strategic objectives. Central to this will be the cultivation of a high-
   performance culture, where operational excellence, continuous improvement,
   and strategic resource allocation drive us towards achieving our mission of
   revolutionising the food industry, all while maintaining a steadfast
   commitment to sustainability and quality.

2. Throughput and Efficiency Optimisation: You’ll work closely with the R&D and
   engineering teams to increase the throughput of our experiments to make
   sure we deliver exceptional results at pace. This entails close collaboration
   with our CSO and CTO to understand the current and future potential blockers
   to progress and designing innovative solutions to push the boundaries of what
   can be delivered (potentially 10x-plus on what we think we can do.)

3. Team Leadership and Development: As a leader of a diverse and talented
   team including responsibility for the People/HR team, you will nurture a
   culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence and ensure we always
   have a lean, highly productive, world-class team to deliver on our milestones.
   You will be able to analyse and identify gaps in the organisation and will bring
   the right capabilities and tools to speed up production and bring about the
   most efficient process. As we grow and evolve towards our aim of becoming
   one of the largest cultivated meat companies in the world, you will mentor
   and develop the team, ensuring that we continue to attract and retain top
   talent.

4. Financial Oversight and Fundraising Support: You will have a strong focus on
   financial planning, budget management, and cost control to optimise our
   financial performance. You will have an understanding of different types of
   finance resources and play a key role in fundraising activities, engaging with
   existing and potential investors to secure the financial resources needed for
   expansion and operational scaling.

5. Data Visibility & Information Flow: You will evaluate and implement data
   management and analytics tools to enhance data visibility across the
   organisation to ensure the seamless flow of high-quality information between
   departments, facilitating real-time access to critical data for all stakeholders.

6. Market Expansion and Commercial Strategy: You will act as the operational
   architect behind Uncommon's geographic expansion, working closely with the
   leadership team to strategically enter new markets. This includes
   collaborating with the commercial team to assess and implement the launch
   in targeted countries, and partnering with our scientific team on operational
   needs e.g. establishing mini labs to address specific R&D objectives in new
   geographies.As we expand, you will also oversee the broader company
   expansion, planning and setting up additional R&D hubs and production
   facilities to support Uncommon's growth. Ideally, you will bring anunderstanding of operational logistics, international market dynamics,
   and the ability to scale operations efficiently and effectively across different
   regions, ensuring Uncommon's global footprint expands in alignment with its
   strategic vision.

Profile Attributes

● Strong operator who brings relevant industry knowledge and / or start-up experience:
You will bring proven experience in a COO or similar leadership role,
preferably within the biotech, advanced materials, food technology, or
complex manufacturing sectors. You will have a strong background in
operations management, and a track record of successfully scaling up high
growth companies with complex science at their heart. You will have a deep
understanding of financial management, budgeting, and cost control, and
experience supporting fundraising efforts.

● Leadership, communication & team-building capability:
You will be an outstanding leader with qualities that inspire teamwork,
innovation, and a high-performance culture. You will be an excellent
communicator with strong interpersonal skills, capable of building and
maintaining strong relationships with team members, partners, and investors.

● Speed of Research & Development organisation:
You will have demonstrated the ability to lead and collaborate with R&D
organisations, with a specific focus on increasing the speed and efficiency of
R&D processes. You will have a proven track record of implementing
strategies and methodologies that significantly reduce time-to-market for new
products while maintaining high standards of innovation and scientific
integrity. This includes experience in optimising project management
practices, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and leveraging cutting-
edge technologies and methodologies to streamline R&D operations. Ideally,
you will bring a sensitivity to, and understanding of how to balance the rapid
progression of projects with the meticulous nature of scientific research,
ensuring that throughput is maximised without compromising on quality or
safety.

● Strategic, structured and data-driven decision-making:
You will have excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to think
strategically and adapt to changing market dynamics. Using your strong
analytical and data interpretation skills, you will share best-practice in setting
up KPIs and performance dashboards and will base your decisions on data and
metrics, instilling these behaviours across the business.

● Highly mission-driven and culturally aligned to Uncommon: You will be inspired by, and committed to, our vision, mission and values
(restlessly creative, deeply caring, consciously resilient and urgently daring).
You will be ambitious, motivated, high energy, curious, and will bring strong
intellectual horsepower as well as empathy. You’ll be a highly collaborative
and high integrity team player, passionate about sustainability, science -
energised by the challenge of transforming the food industry.

***

At Uncommon, we're not just creating a new kind of food product; we're building a
movement towards a more sustainable and ethical way of meeting the world's
growing protein needs. If you're a visionary leader who shares our passion and has
the skills to drive our operations to new heights, we would love to hear from you.
Together, we can make a real difference in the world, one plate at a time.

Reward

Alongside a competitive base salary, all our people get these benefits:

• Share options
• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• Enhanced parental leave pay
• Cycle-to-work scheme and wellbeing allowance
• Flexible hours
• "Make your work life easier" annual stipend
• Regular team dinners and social activities
• Snacks, fruits, tea, coffee and more!

Uncommon recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, disability, age, and other protected status as required by applicable law. The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by incumbents assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the functions, responsibilities, duties and skills required for the position, and Uncommon Limited retains the discretion to modify.