Special Operations Manager UK

Hive; Stoke-on-Trent; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 89,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 vacation days per year

Sabbatical every 3 years

Equity incentive plan

MacBook or laptop of your choice

€46/month productivity budget

Health benefits and pension

Team events budget

Job summary

Hive is seeking a Special Operations Manager UK for our Stoke-on-Trent fulfilment centre. You own site performance for merchants, bridging our 3PL partner's floor teams with Hive's commercial, product and merchant-facing teams. The role focuses on improving delivery to merchants, not on warehouse execution.

You will oversee KPIs, partner relationship, on-floor presence, and lead continuous improvement initiatives while aligning with Hive's UK network growth and strategic goals.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years experience in fulfilment, warehousing, logistics, or fast-growing startup operations.
• Owned operational relationship with a 3PL, carrier or external partner from start to finish.
• Strong analytical skills with data-driven performance discussions.

Responsibilities

• Own health of the UK fulfilment operation from goods receipt to carrier handover.
• Be accountable for site performance against KPIs with merchant satisfaction.
• Independently manage daily relationship with the fulfilment partner on site.
• Maintain floor presence with Gemba walks and peak-time presence.
• Drive productivity and cost efficiency with the partner and design changes.
• Lead root-cause analysis and handle SEV1 escalations end-to-end.
• Own training and enablement of partner teams for site independence.
• Lead onboarding and ramp-up of new merchants and CI initiatives.
• Define OKRs and 3–6 month plan; propose broader improvement projects.
• Collaborate with Merchant Care, Account Management, Growth and Product to translate merchant needs.

Skills

Analytical

Data-driven

Communication skills

3PL relationship management

English fluency

Job description

Compensation range: £50,497 - £88,955 (depending on the level)

The position

The UK is one of Hive's most important and fastest-growing markets, and our Stoke-on-Trent fulfilment centre is the operational heart of it.

As Special Operations Manager UK, you will be Hive's person on the ground at MAN1. You own how the site performs for our merchants, and you are the bridge between our 3PL partner's floor teams and Hive's commercial, product and merchant-facing teams. Your job is not to run the warehouse, our partner does that. Your job is to make sure the operation delivers for merchants, and to keep raising the ceiling on what the site can do. This is a role with real ownership and real visibility, and you are the face of Hive Operations for the UK. You do it on the floor, rather than from a desk.

As part of this role, you will:

• Own the health of the UK fulfilment operation from goods receipt through picking, packing and handover to the carrier. The job is done when the parcel is properly handed over, not when the label is printed
• Be accountable for site performance against Hive's operational KPIs, with a health score consistently at or above 85% and no dips in merchant satisfaction
• Independently own the daily relationship with our fulfilment partner on site, covering operational reviews, audits, performance meetings and escalations, and be the first point of contact for the site
• Be visible on the floor, with regular Gemba walks, presence at shift start during peaks, and time genuinely spent close to the work and the merchants you serve
• Drive productivity and cost efficiency with the partner (layout and slotting, packaging and process design, staffing and shift planning input), quantify the impact of what you change, and supply the operational evidence our Partner Managers need to challenge invoices and costs
• Run systematic root-cause and corrective-action analysis when things go wrong, and own critical (SEV1) escalations from start to finish. Step into daily operations when a merchant would otherwise be hurt, then fix the cause so it does not happen again
• Own continuous training and enablement of the partner's teams, from pickers and packers to supervisors and site leadership, so that the site becomes more independent over time
• Lead the onboarding and ramp-up of new merchants at the site, and support new capabilities, tooling and WMS rollouts on the floor, bringing at least one measurable improvement initiative per quarter
• Set the operational vision for the site by defining the OKRs and the plan for the next three to six months, proposing broader improvement projects, and looking beyond the individual FC as the UK network grows
• Work closely with Merchant Care, Account Management, Growth and Product to translate merchant needs into operational reality, and keep every stakeholder informed before they have to ask

Your profile

We know, sometimes you can't tick every box. We would still love to hear from you if you think you're a good fit!

• You have 3 to 5 years of experience in fulfilment, warehousing, logistics, supply chain or a fast growing startup, including time spent in a live operation. You are comfortable on a warehouse floor
• You have owned an operational relationship with a 3PL, carrier or other external partner from start to finish, and you know how to hold a partner accountable without damaging the relationship. You get things done through influence rather than through a reporting line
• You are analytically strong: you pull your own data, build the model, and use numbers to drive performance conversations and to quantify the return on the changes you make
• You understand contracts, SLAs and cost drivers well enough to derive action points from them, and you can tell an operational problem from a commercial one
• You communicate with anyone, coaching a picker in the morning and presenting to a partner's regional director in the afternoon. You flag problems the moment they appear rather than when they land
• You work with an entrepreneurial mentality: nothing too small, nothing too big, and you go the extra mile to solve problems sustainably rather than patching them
• You have experience working with a diverse, multicultural workforce and with teams working across shifts
• You manage conflicting priorities and switch context quickly between floor operations and strategic work, without needing to be told what to prioritise
• You have excellent communication skills and fluency in English; additional languages are a plus
• You are based in or willing to relocate to the Stoke-on-Trent area, and you are happy to work onsite

Our offering

• Build something that matters: Hive is redefining commerce operations in a €200B+ market. We already reach tens of millions of consumers a year and power 600+ independent brands, and we're just getting started.
• Work with exceptional people: a high-performing, ambitious team, many from McKinsey, Amazon, Shopify, Google, TikTok, and Trade Republic.
• Grow with Hive: own impactful projects from day one and grow as we scale. We're a meritocracy: your impact drives your progression, not your past titles.
• Time to recharge: 30 vacation days a year, plus a paid 20-day sabbatical every three years.
• Competitive compensation: market-competitive salary and an equity incentive plan (EIP) for all full-time team members.
• Your setup, your choice: a MacBook (or laptop of your choice) plus accessories like an extra monitor or headphones, and a €46/month productivity budget to spend how you work best.
• Health Benefits and pension coverage: Allianz Standard 2023 (Medical), and 4% pension coverage.
• Flexibility and connection: flexible working hours, internal training led by Hive experts, regular team events (€30/person/month budget), and company-wide multi-day offsites that bring all of Hive together

About us
We're revolutionizing e-commerce operations.

At Hive, we empower brands to excel in the digital commerce era through our innovative operations platform. By combining cutting-edge technology with a curated network of top-tier operations partners, we deliver measurable results.

Our comprehensive platform streamlines the entire operational chain through a single, intuitive interface. Since our founding in 2020, we've rapidly grown to become one of Europe's leading operations platform, partnering with hundreds of innovative brands. With strategic locations in Berlin, Paris, Milan, Madrid, London, and Amsterdam. Backed by prestigious investors including Tiger Global, Earlybird, and Picus Capital, we're scaling our impact across Europe.

Diversity and inclusion are core to our success. We actively cultivate an environment where every team member, regardless of background, can thrive. We welcome talent from all walks of life, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability. At Hive, authenticity and professional growth go hand in hand.