Hexcam – Business Administrator / Junior Drone Pilot

Press

HexCam provides professional drone services to a broad range of sectors. We offer inspection, mapping and surveying services using a range of drones and sensors and also provide creative imagery (video and stills) as well as construction progress monitoring.

HexCam is a small, open and friendly business with a relatively flat structure where all those involved share information and enjoy a high level of trust in each other. Customers value the expertise of HexCam’s team of people, their friendly and helpful attitude and their commitment to providing a highly professional and reliable service backed by real experience. We never claim to have skills that we don’t have and are extremely open with our clients about working collaboratively with carefully selected and highly trusted partners who are experts in their fields. We are very good at assembling the best team appropriate for the challenge in hand.

Underlying all of this is more than 10 years experience of understanding our clients’ needs and proposing the most appropriate tools (drones and sensors), workflows and delivery methods for the challenge faced. We use predominantly DJI drones at the moment.

HexCam has very good growth potential. We’ve worked hard over the past few years to establish a great reputation and to establish good contacts in the offshore wind (OW) industry. We’ve now worked directly with OW developers like Vattenfall, ScottishPower Renewables and Equinor as well as through Tier 1 contractors such as J Murphy & Sons, Roadbridge and Volker Stevin.

We are proud of our shared values that include sustainability, honesty, professionalism, and openness. We have clear red lines and will not work for example on projects that support the ongoing extraction of fossil fuels (decommissioning is OK).

Role Overview

Ideally suited to a new or recent graduate who is keen to learn and progress, this is a full-time role based at our Felthorpe Airfield office just outside Norwich. However, we fully support hybrid working and flexible hours and expect a certain level of flexibility in return. The Business Administrator’s primary responsibility is, with support from the Directors and the rest of the team, to ensure that the administrative side of the business runs smoothly and efficiently. As a small company, we don’t (yet) have the luxury of having separate teams covering HR, finance and accounts but we do have support from our accountants.

As you get settled in, you would be expected to take responsibility for quote and tender preparation, to identify business development opportunities and to take on the management of commercial projects.

You would not be expected to ‘get under the bonnet’ of our business automation systems but you would be expected to become a competent and consistent user of our systems and processes.

Everyone at HexCam needs to be fully qualified to CAA-recognised standards and capable of planning, managing and flying a range of missions. Everyone in the team needs to be able to work as Remote Pilots, Visual Observers, Payload Operators and Airspace Observers. We all empty the bins and keep the office tidy too.

Don’t worry if you’ve never flown a drone before, our sister company is Global Drone Training and our offices are co-located. We will train you up to fly confidently and safely. All you need is the desire to learn.

You would be expected to work occasional nights and (very rarely) weekends and we do travel all over the UK. We have very busy periods and occasional calmer periods where we encourage Time-Off in Lieu to be taken.

Key Responsibilities

As part of a small team of 3 full time employees with 1 part time, you would be given a significant amount of training and mentoring before fully developing into your role.

The role is quite broad but, once you have got up to speed, key responsibilities would include:

Project managing jobs from start to finish with full support of the wider team.
Once trained, keeping fully ‘current’ on different drone types, ensuring that time is reserved for practice and training to avoid ‘skill fade’. We need a full contingent of flight-ready Remote Pilots at all times.
Ensure that company book-keeping is kept up to date including (with support from other team members) reconciling accounts against financial transactions. This will involve use of ‘Dext’ and ‘Xero’ accounting systems.
Act as the primary point of contact with our accountants to ensure that they have all information needed to complete their quarterly VAT returns and full year accounts.
Carefully monitor all supplier and subcontractor invoices (bills) to ensure that we pay them on time or advise reasons for any unavoidable delay in payments. You would be responsible for scheduling payments from HexCam’s bank accounts and monitoring cash flow carefully.
Issue invoices to our clients as soon as we have completed our work, monitor funds received and chase any late payments. On larger or long-duration projects, this may involve preparing Applications For Payment based on works progress.
Ensure that our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (currently ‘Copper’) is used at all times to ensure transparency of communications without the need to remember who to CC on emails. This system is also the key to managing and maintaining the consistency and quality of our pre-sale and project pipelines and delivery workflows.
Ensure that our status as “approved contractors” is maintained with our clients and that our presence on various procurement platforms (such as Achilles) is kept regularly updated.

Essential Skills, Experience and Qualities

A professional and helpful customer-focussed business approach at all times.
Commercially aware and capable of understanding the financial needs of the company (the importance of maintaining margins and predicting cash flow) as well as the technical challenges.
Capable of working closely with a small team where you will need to be flexible, agile and adaptable.
Not afraid to put your own constructive ideas and thoughts forward on everything from our processes and workflows to our approach to Health & Safety.
Able at times to work independently and be a ‘self-starter’ but not afraid to ask questions or seek advice if you find yourself stuck or uncertain.
Full UK driving licence.
Adept at using Google Suite applications (Google Earth Pro, GoogleDocs, GoogleSheets etc) as well as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel etc)

Desirable Skills, Experience and Qualities

Experience of tender / bid preparation in a commercial environment.
Previous use of accounting software such as Xero.
Good experience of flying a range of (preferably DJI) drones in a professional capacity.

Salary and Benefits