Manager delle operazioni

About Ancora

Ancora is building AI-native accounting software that replaces traditional management systems. We combine a technology platform that automates operational accounting work with a roll-up strategy: acquiring and consolidating accounting firms across Italy.

We’re venture-backed, Milan-based, with first studio acquisitions underway. The product is greenfield, zero legacy code, modern stack, built from scratch. We own the problem end-to-end: we build the technology, acquire the firms, and operate the service.

About the Role

You’ll own the integration of newly acquired accounting studios into Ancora. From the day each deal closes, you’re the person on the ground making sure the studio keeps running smoothly, clients stay, key people stay, and operations converge toward the Ancora standard.

This is not a desk job. You’ll spend significant time on-site at studios across Northern Italy. You enter environments where people are anxious about change - your first weeks are 80% listening, 20% mapping. The deliverable is not a consulting report - it’s a studio fully integrated into Ancora, operating at our standard, and measurably better than before.

What You'll Do

• Own post-acquisition integration end-to-end. Be the single point of accountability for each studio integration, from deal close to steady state. Define the integration plan, drive execution, track milestones, escalate blockers.
• Understand the studio as it is. Map operations, people, client base, workflows, tech stack and financial posture. Identify fragile dependencies, single points of failure, and retention risks (both staff and clients).
• Standardize operations. Converge the studio toward Ancora’s operating model: SOPs, roles, task allocation, billing cycles, client communication, reporting and KPIs. Phase out legacy practices that don’t scale.
• Manage people and change. Work alongside the acquired partner and their team. Earn trust, manage anxiety, retain key people, onboard staff to Ancora’s ways of working. Flag underperformers and structural gaps to the founding team.
• Protect client continuity. Zero service disruption during integration. Coordinate client communication, handoffs and any migration of tools or processes so that clients feel stability, not turbulence.
• Deploy Ancora’s tech and tools. Roll out the Ancora platform, internal tooling and existing automations inside each studio. Feed product and engineering with the gaps and priorities that emerge from real studio operations.
• Build the integration playbook. Every integration should be better than the last. Codify lessons, SOPs, timelines, success metrics. Leave behind a playbook that future integration managers can execute.

What We're Looking For

Must Have

• 3–7 years of experience in operations, post-merger integration, consulting with hands-on implementation, or COO/ops lead roles in multi-site or service businesses.
• Proven ability to enter unfamiliar environments and drive operational change without formal authority.
• Strong process and operations mindset: map workflows, identify bottlenecks, standardize, measure.
• Change management and people skills: you handle anxious teams, difficult conversations and retention risks with care and directness.
• Project management discipline: you can run multiple integration workstreams in parallel without dropping balls.
• Comfort with ambiguity and autonomous decision-making in unfamiliar environments.

Nice to Have

• Experience in post-merger integration at a PE firm, search fund, or roll-up platform.
• Background in accounting, tax, consulting or regulated professional services.
• Familiarity with the Italian accounting software landscape (TeamSystem, Zucchetti, Profis, Fatture in Cloud, etc.).
• Basic familiarity with no-code/low-code tools (n8n, Make, Zapier): useful, not core.

Mindset

• Empathetic. You earn trust from people who didn’t ask you to be there. You listen before you propose.
• Pragmatic. You care about results, not documentation. If a conversation fixes it, you don’t build a process.
• Operator, not advisor. You don’t produce reports, you ship operational outcomes.
• Autonomous. You work alone in ambiguous contexts and deliver without constant supervision.
• High trust. You become the face of Ancora inside each studio. Partners and staff will judge Ancora by how you behave.

What We Offer

• Office First. Milan HQ with up to 30% remote. Three core days in the office, plus regular travel to studios.
• Compensation. €50,000–€65,000 gross annual salary, based on experience. (willing to raise for exceptional profiles)
• Equity. Meaningful stock options with 0 strike price and strong upside given the stage.
• Benefits. Meal vouchers and fringe benefits.
• Team. Direct collaboration with the founding team. Strong voice in operational decisions.

How to Apply

Send your CV to with a brief note on why this role interests you. Tell us how you’ve led a hard operational change or integration, what you actually owned, and how you measured success.

We're an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.