Serious Delivery Manager

Location: Hybrid - 1 day per month in London

Salary: £40,000

Start date: January 2026

Type: Full-time, permanent

The Honest Truth Up Front

“We're a small business, not a corporate machine with unlimited resources. We can't compete on starting salary with Big 4 firms. But if you want to do good work with interesting customers and actually have autonomy, we're probably a better bet than most.

This role will grow with the business - and so will the salary. We're profitable, have a solid pipeline, and we're growing fast. You'd be joining early enough to shape how we scale and benefit as we do. If you're looking for a settled corporate role with a defined career ladder, this isn’t it. If you want to help build something, this could be it.

You'll be our first Serious Delivery Manager. You'll work with our existing delivery consultants, and as we grow, you'll build out the team properly - hiring, developing people, creating the processes that enable us to scale.

This role is critical to our success, and I’m really excited about finding the right person for it!”

• Tom Gell , CEO & Co-Founder

What We Do

We're ISO Serious - a small compliance consultancy that helps fast-growing tech companies get ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certified without the usual corporate bullshit.

Our thing is making compliance actually human: fixed prices, plain English, money-back guarantees if you don't pass your audit. We're profitable, growing fast, and completely bootstrapped (no VC nonsense).

We've got a strong pipeline and we're getting close to maxing out our delivery capacity. That's where you come in.

What You'll Actually Do

Run compliance projects end-to-end:

• You're the main point of contact for customers throughout their ISO 27001 or SOC 2 journey
• Run kick-off workshops, management meetings, and audit preparation sessions
• Manage project timelines, deliverables, and customer expectations
• Get customers through certification with no drama

Manage the delivery team:

• Line manage technical specialists who support project delivery
• Allocate work, manage capacity, develop their skills
• Coordinate with distributed team members

Own the customer relationship:

• You'll have several concurrent customers at any time
• Handle the commercial and strategic side - scoping, change requests, extensions
• Be the person who understands what the customer actually needs
• Navigate the politics and personalities to get things done

Build and oversee the ISMS:

• Set up and coordinate customers' Information Security Management Systems
• Run process workshops and gap analyses
• Coordinate with auditors and help manage the certification process

Work with the leadership team:

• You'll work closely with our Co-Founders and Ops Lead, reporting directly to the CEO
• You'll have real input on how we structure delivery as we grow
• Help figure out pricing, scoping, capacity planning - the strategic stuff, not just execution
• You'll be in the room for business decisions that affect delivery

What We Actually Need

Essential (if you don't have these, don't apply):

• Most important: You're good with customers - can explain complex stuff in normal English
• Real ISO 27001 experience - you've led implementations and got companies through audits
• Real SOC 2 experience - Type 1 and Type 2, you know the difference between the Trust Services Criteria
• You can run projects independently without constant hand-holding
• At least 3 years doing compliance or similar customer-facing delivery work
• UK-based and happy to attend monthly team days in London

Nice to have:

• You've built or scaled a delivery function before (even in a small team)
• You've managed or mentored people before - even if informally; you know how to develop people
• Worked with tech startups or scaleups before
• Actually understand information security, not just frameworks and paperwork
• Can handle difficult conversations (with customers and team members when things aren't working)
• CISSP, CISA, or similar (but honestly we care more about real experience than certs)

Deal-breakers:

• You want to work remotely full-time
• You need a massive corporate structure to do your job
• You think compliance is about box-ticking and covering your arse
• You can't work without detailed processes for everything
• You've never managed or developed anyone and don't want to start

What You'll Get

Salary & basics:

• £40,000 base
• 3% pension contribution (statutory minimum - we're not pretending it's amazing)
• 28 days holiday + bank holidays (this is actually above the minimum!)
• Laptop and whatever software you need
• Private Healthcare coverage that includes your family (Yippee!)

The actual good bits:

• You'll build and lead a delivery team as we grow - real opportunity to shape how we scale
• Work with fast-growing tech companies doing interesting things
• Real autonomy - we trust people to do their jobs
• No corporate bullshit, no pointless meetings, no performance reviews with made-up metrics
• You'll be part of the leadership team, not just executing someone else's strategy
• Salary and role will grow with the business (we're profitable and scaling)

What we don't have:

• Fancy benefits packages
• Free beer Fridays or ping pong tables
• Unlimited training budgets or random conference trips
• A ready-made team with well established processes (you'll build that)

We pay fairly, treat people like adults, and focus on doing good work. If you want to build something rather than join something that's already built, this is the right place.

What Working Here Is Actually Like

The good:

• You'll have real leadership responsibility - managing, hiring, building processes
• You'll run your own projects independently
• customers are mainly tech startups - smart, ambitious people, not bureaucratic nightmares
• We're profitable and growing, so there's stability and genuine opportunity to advance
• You'll be in the room for strategic decisions, not just implementing them
• No timesheets, no utilisation targets, no bullshit KPIs

The challenging:

• You'll be building a lot from scratch - processes, standards, team structure
• We're small - sometimes that means you'll do things outside a traditional "role"
• customers are fast-moving and sometimes chaotic
• You won’t have infinite resource to throw at problems
• You won't have layers of support - you need to figure things out

The culture:

• Anti-corporate but still professional
• We swear occasionally but not gratuitously
• Honest, direct communication - no corporate speak
• We care about doing good work more than looking impressive
• "Making Compliance Human" isn't just marketing - it's actually how we work
• Small team means everyone's opinion matters, but also everyone needs to pull their weight

To Apply

Send us two things to tom@isoserious.com:

1. Your CV
2. The answer to these 2 questions

• What’s a small, unglamorous process you’ve fixed that made a big difference?
• Which ISO/SOC 2 hill are you weirdly willing to die on, and why?

Optional extra: Record a short video (max 60 seconds ) introducing yourself and telling us anything you want.

What happens next:

1. Screening call - A quick chat to get the basics and swap questions.
2. Interview + task with the co‑founders - A practical exercise and conversation about how you think and deliver.
3. Meet the team - An informal chat with the people you’ll work with.

Tips that help:

• Keep it human. Plain English beats corporate fluff.
• Be specific. Real examples over buzzwords.
• If you’re on the fence about the video, do it anyway. We won’t judge production quality, just clarity and substance.