Operations Manager - Build & Own

We Love AI Jobs; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

AI Acquisition seeks an Operations Manager to lead the Customer Success organization, own the P&L, and drive scale across a distributed client base. This fully remote role in South Africa supports 30+ team members with a hands-on, systems-driven approach.

You will build accountability infrastructure, manage department heads and account managers, and partner with Sales, Delivery and People teams to ensure retention, expansion, and cost-to-serve improvements.

Qualifications

• Own the number and accountability for CS outcomes.
• Build operating systems for account risk, escalations, quality, scorecards, and team cadence.
• Direct management of account management leaders and senior operators.
• Partner with Sales, Delivery, and People teams for handoffs and capacity planning.
• Hire and develop People Ops to build management depth.

Responsibilities

• Own Customer Success targets, retention, expansion, and cost-to-serve.
• Build operating systems for account risk, escalations, quality, scorecards, and team cadence.
• Direct management of account management leaders and senior operators.
• Cross-functional partnership with Sales and Delivery on handoffs, capacity planning, and onboarding flow.
• Hiring & People Ops to develop management depth and capabilities.

Job description

# Operations Manager - Build & OwnAI AcquisitionRemote (South Africa)Full-timeUpload your resume once and Scout applies for youApply with ScoutShare this job:LinkedInXSave imageThe Operations Manager will run AI Acquisition’s Customer Success organization, with direct ownership of its P&L, team performance, and operating systems. The role focuses on improving retention and cost-to-serve while building processes and management structures that support a large, distributed client operation.* Permanent* Fully Remote* 30+ team members; large-scale operations experience### Skills and expertiseP&L managementCustomer Success operationsAccount managementRetention and churn managementOperating systems and process designKPI scorecards and dashboardsCapacity planningPeople management### Key responsibilities* Own Customer Success targets, retention, expansion, and cost-to-serve.* Build operating systems for account risk, escalations, quality, scorecards, and team cadence.* Manage account management leaders and partner with Sales, Delivery, and People teams.## How this job comparesCompared with 474 open manager operations jobs on October 10, 2026.Similar open jobs: We Love AI Jobs lists 474 open manager operations jobs at 153 companies.Remote work: This job is remote. 80 of the 474 manager operations jobs (17%) are remote.AI in this role: Low. The company works with AI, but AI is a small part of this role's daily work. This is an operations leadership role at an AI-focused company, but the posting centers on Customer Success performance, P&L ownership, and team systems rather than AI products or tools.## Full descriptionAbout AI AcquisitionAI Acquisition is a bootstrapped, multi-entity business running high-velocity acquisition, coaching, SaaS, and performance marketing operations. We are founder-led, fast, and commercially driven. We build it, test it, and scale it before others are still planning.The OpportunityOur Customer Success organization has grown fast thousands of active clients, a high monthly intake of new accounts, and a large distributed team of account managers. Growth has outpaced the operating system underneath it.We need a hands-on operator to run this organization day-to-day: own the P&L, build the accountability infrastructure from scratch, manage department heads and account managers directly, and make the hard calls when performance or capacity issues show up. This is not an advisory or strategy seat. You will be in the org, running it.RequirementsHow We OperateThis role is built around how we actually work. If these don't sound like you, this isn't the right seat:Own the number, not the narrative you're accountable for the outcome, not for explaining why it slipped.Bias for action diagnose fast, act faster. We don't reward analysis without output.Build the system once if you're solving the same problem twice, you haven't actually solved it.Dive deep go to the root cause and the real data. Don't manage from summaries.Make the hard call exits, resets, restructures. You decide; you don't escalate what's yours to own.Insist on the highest standard inconsistency is a system failure, not an individual one. Fix the system.What You'll OwnP&L Ownership — full ownership of the function: targets, retention, expansion, cost-to-serve. You own the number.Operating System — build the accountability infrastructure from scratch: account segmentation by risk, escalation paths, quality guardrails, scorecards, and operating cadence. Real systems with named outputs, not templates.Direct Management — direct management of account management leads and senior operators. Radical clarity on expectations, consequences, and growth. You make the hard calls without deferring upward.Cross-Functional Partnership — partner with sales and delivery leadership on handoffs, capacity planning, and pipeline-to-onboarding flow. Fix root cause upstream, not just symptoms.Hiring & People Ops — partner with People & Talent to build management depth. Define the profiles, set the standard, hold the bar.Founder Leverage — free the founders from day-to-day operational firefighting so they can focus on vision, growth, and external relationships.What We Need From YouYou've run a large, metrics-driven operation and turned recurring problems into documented systems the sector matters less than the operating rigor. Agency, high-growth SaaS with a large CS/AM function, marketplace or high-volume service operations all fit.Direct ownership of an account management, client services, or customer success function at scale a large team and a high account volume.Verifiable P&L, retention, or margin ownership improved during your specific tenure, with real numbers you can walk us through.Built operating infrastructure from scratch not inherited, not fractional.Made hard people decisions: exits, restructures, real performance management.In-house operating experience not exclusively consulting or fractional work.Managed teams of 30+ with direct reports at manager/lead level.High agency and urgency you move before you're asked, and you push back when needed.Nice to HaveBackground in a rigorous, systems-driven operations environment (e.g. Amazon-style operations).