Operational Specialist

Zen Educate; Wes-Kaap; On-site; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Full time

Job summary

A tech startup in education is looking for an Operations Specialist to join their dynamic team in Century City, Cape Town. This role involves ensuring candidates meet compliance requirements, organizing workloads, and ensuring fast turnaround times. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, resilient under pressure, and possesses strong stakeholder management skills. The position offers a competitive salary and a supportive team culture focused on diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Competitive salary

25 days of holiday

Fun-loving team environment

Qualifications

• Experience in compliance management and candidate onboarding is preferred.
• Ability to handle high volumes of work with quick turnaround times.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills are necessary.

Responsibilities

• Ensure candidates meet all compliance requirements to be ready to work.
• Organize workload effectively to manage multiple candidates and tasks.
• Collaborate with teams to identify and focus on high-priority candidates.
• Process compliance documentation efficiently for quick bookings.

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Attention to Detail

Speed & Efficiency

Resilience

Ownership & Accountability

Job description

Operations Specialist

Location: Office based in Century City, Cape Town

Type: Full-time

Working hours are expected to be:

9AM - 6PM UK time. (11AM - 8PM SA time in Winter, 10AM - 7PM SA time in Summer)

Shorter days during some of August.

Salary:

Base: 20,000 - 35,000 Rand per month based on experience and performance.

Different sales incentives run throughout the year to allow you to earn up 50,000 Rand extra per annum.

We're hiring across Operations, Compliance, HR and Sales!

About Zen Educate

Zen is revolutionising education. Schools spend over £2bn a year on agency staff, and £600m of that goes straight into the pockets of recruitment agencies. That’s why we’ve built an alternative.

Our online platform gives schools instant access to hundreds of profiles of fully vetted teachers and support staff. Since launching in 2017, we’ve saved schools over £30m – money that goes straight back into school budgets and increases teachers’ pay.

The opportunity

This is your chance to join a tech startup in hypergrowth. We’re passionate about professional development, and we’ll work to maximise your personal and career growth. We're looking for enthusiastic, mission-driven people who fit our values and are passionate about what we do.

We have recently raised our Series B funding of $37mil, the largest round in European EdTech this year. This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference and be part of a high growth start-up that is expanding rapidly in the UK and US markets!

About the Role 🙋

• Candidate Onboarding Progress: Ensures candidates move smoothly through their onboarding journey.
• Readiness for Work: Supports candidates in becoming compliant and ready for work as quickly as possible.
• Compliance Documentation Processing: Processes and reviews compliance documentation accurately and efficiently.
• Speed & Quality Assurance: Maintains high standards of accuracy while delivering fast turnaround times.
• Platform Usage & Engagement: Encourages and supports candidates to complete all compliance tasks through the Zen platform.

Our future vision is that:

• All compliance documentation is completed through our app
• All candidates have a seamless experience with automated, quick and effective compliance checks

Skill Sets and Mindsets 💥

• Stakeholder Management: Confident in communicating with Resourcers and Account Managers about compliance matters.
• Attention to Detail: Reviews compliance documentation accurately and thoroughly.
• Speed & Efficiency: Works with urgency to meet quick turnaround times without compromising quality.
• Resilience: Able to handle high volumes, quick turnarounds, and complex queries.
• Ownership & Accountability: Takes responsibility for candidate progress and ensures tasks are completed end-to-end.

Key Responsibilities 🤔

• Compliance Management: Ensure candidates meet all Zen Educate compliance requirements so they are ready to work.
• Daily Planning & Coordination: Organise workload effectively to manage multiple candidates and tasks each day.
• Prioritisation: Collaborate with the Candidate Onboarding and Schools teams to identify and focus on the highest-priority candidates.
• Speed & Turnaround: Process compliance documentation efficiently to allow schools to book candidates quickly.

What's in it for you?

• Work that you want to talk about
• Competitive salary
• 25 days of holiday in line with UK education term dates, plus UK bank holidays.
• Fun-loving, tight-knit team solving a problem that makes a difference

Diversity and Inclusion

At Zen, we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion, where everyone is respected, valued and appreciated for their unique traits, experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio‑economic status, disability, religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer, more compassionate environment for all.

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives — just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where people’s voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work.

We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all. We seek out diverse opinions, beliefs, and experiences because they collectively make us stronger; we’ve had former teachers, pilots, fundraisers, engineers, lawyers, marketers, social media experts and more join our team.

We can’t wait to hear from you!