Jess Allison - Head of Operations and Delivery
About
Jess Allison is Head of Operations and Delivery at Beacon Strategies. She has spent twenty years building the operational side of consultancies and agencies: how work is resourced, priced, governed and staffed so teams can do careful work sustainably.
Much of that has been in health and social purpose work. As People and Operations Director at Paper Giant, she led the people and operations functions through growth from 5 to 40 staff across Melbourne, Canberra and Wellington, supporting projects for Beyond Blue, Family Safety Victoria's MARAM framework, the Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre and WorkSafe. She introduced trauma-informed and Mental Health First Aid training for teams working in sensitive contexts, and led the firm's first Reconciliation Action Plan.
Most recently, as Head of Operations at Right Angle, she built a commercial operating model that tied utilisation, role costs and sales targets to hiring and pricing decisions. She brings the same approach to Beacon: operations light enough that the team uses them, and structured enough that leaders can act on data rather than instinct.
Capabilities
With an integrated background in operations, people leadership and systems design, Jess excels at building the operational engine of a growing consultancy. Capabilities include:
Commercial Operating Models and Delivery Margin
Resourcing, Utilisation and Capacity Planning
Project Delivery Systems and Governance
People Operations and Organisational Scaling
Quality Management and Compliance (ISO 20252:2019)
AI-Enabled Operations and Tooling
Achievements at Beacon Strategies
Continuous improvement of Beacon's operations and delivery function, creating the systems, governance and reporting needed to support growth.
Developed an integrated commercial reporting model that provides leadership with visibility of pipeline, capacity, utilisation, profitability and workforce needs.
Established practical delivery, quality and risk management frameworks that strengthen project outcomes while avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy.
Leading the adoption of automation and AI-enabled operational tools to improve efficiency, reporting and decision-making across the practice.
Professional experience
Head of Operations and Delivery – Beacon Strategies
Head of Operations – Right Angle
People & Operations Director – Paper Giant
Co-founder – Producing Paradise
Digital Producer – SuperEd
Digital Producer – Icelab
Director & Project Manager – That Mob
Academic qualifications
Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications), Swinburne University of Technology
Career highlights
Led Paper Giant's people and operational systems through growth from 5 to 40 staff across three cities, spanning the full People function, project operations and business development support.
Secured ISO 20252:2019 certification (Market and Social Research), embedding quality management and data security standards into research and design delivery.
Initiated and led Paper Giant's first Reconciliation Action Plan, in collaboration with leadership, staff and external advisors, alongside rolling out trauma-informed, grief and loss, and Mental Health First Aid training to support teams working in sensitive contexts.
Built Right Angle's commercial operating model, and led development of the agency's first AI use policy, informed by a team competence survey and grounded in data security.
Published The Most Organised Person I Know, a practical guide to organisation built around her SPACE framework, and named an official Notion Ambassador after being identified as a leading practitioner.
Personal interests
Jess is passionate about thoughtful systems that free people to be more present and more effective, a philosophy she writes about through Producing Paradise, the productivity brand she co-founded. Outside of work she enjoys street photography, mending and sewing, and time with her partner and young daughter in Melbourne.
