Chief Operating Officer

An opportunity to co-lead one of the UK’s fastest growing and most pioneering mission organisations. Apply if you are all in for Jesus.

Description

About 500k

Our vision is a church in every village in India: an India where every person has a chance to hear the good news of Jesus.

We do this through sending Indian people to plant churches in unreached Indian villages, in partnership with local Indian leaders and Bible Colleges. Our culture is radical, sacrificial and Jesus-centric. We value effectiveness and working smart as well as hard to reach as many villages as possible. Loving God and loving each other remains our first priority. 

Being founded in 2014, in our first 10 years we started churches in 4500 villages. In 2025 alone, that number was 2000. Our goal for 2026 is 3000 villages. The global 2026 budget is £2.3M, up from £1.6M in 2025 and £1.1M in 2024.

We are in a period of rapid expansion and the Founder CEO is looking to hand over many of his responsibilities to a COO who will partner with him in leading the mission.

About the role

As the Chief Operating Officer (COO) you will be forming a partnership with the CEO to lead 500k.

You will be unlocking the growth of this ministry as well as sharpening our impact and making it sustainable. You will be a key part of enabling us to achieve our goal of growing 5x over the next 5-10 years.

As COO you will have a prominent role in creating and achieving our annual growth plan. You will be responsible for the organisation’s day-to-day operations, people management, systems efficiency, financial stewardship, safeguarding and compliance requirements. You will anticipate and plan for our growing needs with the development of new people and systems.

Key details

• Reports to the CEO
• 37.5 hours per week
• Remote working. Proximity to London where the CEO resides is preferable. 
• Salary: £50,000–£55,000 per annum (FTE)
• Opportunities for travel to India and the USA

The current set-up of our team is that all our 17 paid staff are in India. Our 3 UK staff, (including the CEO) work for 500k bivocationally and are not paid. They work at FTEs of 70%, 20% and 15%. This arrangement has been reached through the outworking of our values of radical generosity, radical dependence on the Lord, and seeking to maximally empower our Indian team. 

For the last 18 months we have been discerning whether to scale our current arrangement (with more bivocational or support-raising staff in the West) or whether to switch to a salaried model for our UK team.

We desire the new COO to be a part of this discernment process. You should be open to the options of fully or partially support-raising your own salary, or working bivocationally, alongside the option of being salaried by 500k. Having said that, we are committed to landing on a clear plan with you prior to your commencement in the role. A full time role is preferable, but we are open for your commitment to 500k being FTE 70% or more, particularly if the bivocational option is being pursued.

Key responsibilities

You will line-manage the following roles: our India Team Lead, Head of Operations, Head of Admin and Finance Officer.

You will be responsible for:

• Management of our Indian team and our on-the-ground church planting work
• Operational execution across the four branches of 500k (UK, US, Canada and Switzerland).
• Policies, systems, and organisational discipline
• Financial processes, controls, and reporting
• Safeguarding implementation and reporting

You will be empowered to:

• Form annual growth plans in conjunction with the CEO
• Make operational decisions within the agreed strategy
• Challenge inefficiencies and legacy practices
• Build systems that outlast individuals

What we’re looking for:

• Alignment with our vision and values and a passion for our mission. An openness to joining us in discerning the Lord’s plan for our future.

• High personal integrity, emotional maturity, and the confidence to lead change alongside a Founder CEO
• Experience of operational leadership and delivering strategy through people and systems
• Strong cross-cultural leadership capability
• Financial oversight skills

Bonus skills

• Impact measurement and evaluation skills
• Understanding of UK charity governance, compliance, and risk management
• Safeguarding oversight

To apply

Submit your CV and a short cover letter (max 300 words) to monica@the500k.org

Closing date: 03/02/2026

First-round interviews will take place week commencing 15th February.