Head of Operations

Hapana; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Summer Fridays

Birthday leave

Wellness days

Work from anywhere

Home office stipend

Parental leave

Sonder mental health support

Monthly team events

Office perks

Novated leasing

Job summary

Hapana is expanding its Operations function and seeks a proven leader to scale processes, systems and governance as the company grows globally from its Sydney base.

You'll own day-to-day operations, convert strategic priorities into actionable plans, and build rhythms that give leadership clear visibility into progress, risks and performance across the business.

Qualifications

• 4–7+ years of experience in Operations, including leadership in a startup/scaleup environment.
• Experience in SaaS/tech companies with growth from ~100–250 employees.
• Proven ability to scale ops, improve processes, and reduce bureaucracy.
• Strong business judgement, decision-making under ambiguity, and ownership mindset.
• Data-driven problem solving with analytical capability highly regarded.
• Experience with workflow automation and system integrations (Zapier, APIs).
• Familiarity with Notion, HubSpot, PandaDoc, Atlassian, QuickBooks, Fathom or similar.

Responsibilities

• Own the day-to-day operations function and ensure priorities are clear.
• Turn company strategy and OKRs into executable plans with clear ownership and timelines.
• Establish operating rhythms, governance, and reporting for leadership visibility.
• Drive initiatives to improve processes, automation, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Lead the Operations team and develop talent with clear performance expectations.
• Identify risks and bottlenecks early and drive them to resolution.

Job description

You've found us at a good time. Hapana is opening new markets, shipping new products, and welcoming new brands onto the platform we're looking for the people who'll grow with us. This could be one of those right-place, right-time moments. Here's everything you need to know.

WHO WE ARE

Hapana powers the world's best fitness brands. Walk into a Fitstop, KX, Gold's Gym or J.I.M and there's a good chance our platform is running the whole show: memberships, bookings, marketing, payments, growth.

The fitness industry is booming, and we're the technology underneath it. We're 117 people across Sydney, the US, UK, Brazil, Singapore and India, and the work we ship reaches studios and members all over the world. Build something here, and you'll see it land in the product, in our clients' businesses, and in the team around you.

WHERE YOU COME IN

You'll be the person making sure the way Hapana operates keeps pace with the way we're growing.

Reporting to the COO and working closely with our Senior Leadership Team, you'll own the day-to-day effectiveness of our Operations function and turn company priorities into clear plans, accountable owners and measurable outcomes.

This isn't an Operations role that's about maintaining what's already there. You'll look across the business, find the friction, gaps and bottlenecks slowing us down, and work with teams to solve them. When we introduce a new process, system or way of working, you'll make sure it doesn't just launch, it sticks.

You'll build the operating rhythms, systems and processes that give teams clarity and keep work moving. When something significant goes wrong, you'll bring the right people together, establish ownership and drive it through to resolution.

It's a role for someone who can zoom out to understand where the business is heading and then zoom straight back in to make sure the details actually get delivered.

WHAT YOU'D BE DOING

• Own the effective day-to-day running of Hapana's Operations function, making sure priorities are clear, work is moving and teams have what they need to deliver
• Turn company strategy, priorities and OKRs into executable operational plans with clear ownership, timelines and measurable outcomes
• Establish the operating rhythms, reporting and governance that give leadership clear visibility of progress, risks, dependencies and performance
• Hold operational initiatives accountable to agreed timelines, service levels and quality standards, stepping in early when something starts to move off track
• Act as the first point of escalation for significant operational issues, bringing the right teams together and driving clear ownership through to resolution
• Identify operational risks, bottlenecks and dependencies before they become bigger problems and make sure they're surfaced and addressed early
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that simplify how we work, remove unnecessary friction and improve collaboration between teams
• Take new initiatives, processes and capabilities from idea through implementation and into repeatable, scalable business-as-usual ways of working
• Continuously review how Hapana operates and find opportunities to automate, simplify and improve workflows as the business scales
• Use data to understand what's working, what isn't and where we should focus our operational effort
• Own the operational systems, tools and platforms that sit within the Operations function, including their ongoing effectiveness once they're embedded into the business
• Partner with teams to improve system integrations and automation, reducing manual work and creating better visibility across the business
• Own key operational vendor relationships alongside the COO and relevant functional leaders, making sure we're getting the right service, value and outcomes
• Build strong relationships across every level of Hapana and create a culture of ownership, accountability and follow-through
• Lead and develop the Operations team, creating clarity around priorities, expectations and what great performance looks like

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• 4–7+ years of experience in Operations, including leadership experience within a startup, scaleup or similarly fast-moving environment
• Experience operating within a SaaS or technology company, ideally during a stage of growth from roughly 100–250 employees
• A track record of scaling operations, improving processes and building structure without creating unnecessary bureaucracy
• Strong commercial and operational judgement — you're comfortable making decisions, challenging assumptions and working through ambiguity
• The ability to turn strategy into execution. You don't stop at identifying what needs to change; you work out who owns it, what happens next and how we'll measure whether it worked
• A data-driven approach to problem-solving and decision-making, with an analytical background or strong analytical capability highly regarded
• Strong experience with workflow automation, systems integrations and tools such as Zapier and APIs
• Confidence working across operational platforms such as Notion, HubSpot, PandaDoc, Atlassian, QuickBooks, Fathom or similar
• Experience leading cross-functional projects where success depends on getting multiple teams moving in the same direction
• Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to work closely with senior leaders while staying connected to what's happening day to day
• Experience working across global operations and distributed teams
• Familiarity with the compliance and governance requirements that come with operating a growing SaaS business
• A bias toward action. You're comfortable getting into the detail, solving the problem and then building the process so it doesn't need solving twice

If this list has you nodding along, that's the strongest signal there is. We hire for trajectory — bring us your momentum, and we'll match it.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

We're clear about what great looks like from day one, so you can aim at it from day one. In your first year:

• The business has clear operational rhythms, ownership and accountability, and leaders have better visibility of what's moving, what's blocked and where attention is needed
• Company priorities and OKRs translate into operational plans that actually get delivered, with owners, timelines and measurable outcomes attached
• You've identified and removed some of the biggest operational bottlenecks slowing our teams down
• Cross-functional initiatives have clearer ownership and move faster because teams understand who's responsible for what and what happens next
• We've reduced unnecessary manual work through better processes, automation and system integrations
• New processes don't disappear after launch — they're documented, adopted, measured and embedded into how Hapana works
• Operational issues and risks are surfaced earlier, escalations are handled with clear ownership, and problems move to resolution faster
• Our systems, processes and operating model feel ready for the next stage of Hapana's growth, not the stage we've just come from
• You've built trust across the business as the person who can take a complicated operational problem, create clarity and get it moving

LIFE AT HAPANA

• Summer Fridays — Fridays wrap at 3pm through summer, so your weekend gets a head start.
• Birthday leave — take the day off on your Birthday.
• Wellness days — two extra days a year, separate from your annual leave, for whenever you need to reset.
• Work from anywhere — two weeks a year to work from wherever you want. Visit family, chase the sun, change your view.
• Home office stipend — money toward a setup you actually enjoy working from.
• Parental leave — for primary and secondary carers, because every family looks different.
• Sonder — round‑clock mental health and wellbeing support, whenever you need it.
• Monthly team events — regular time set aside to actually enjoy the people you work with.
• Office perks — fresh fruit, well‑stocked snacks, and an open invite for our global team to come work from Sydney HQ.
• Novated leasing — available for our Australian team.

Hapana is an equal opportunity employer. People of all backgrounds, identities, abilities and experiences are welcome here, different perspectives are how we got this far, and how we'll go further.