Location: Remote - candidates can apply from any location

Employment Type: Part-Time

Hours per Week: 10–15 hours

Level: Senior Management

Expected Salary: ₦5,000 per hour

Full-Time Equivalent Salary: ₦800,000 per month

Salary explanation: At ₦5,000 per hour, working 40 hours per week for 4 weeks gives a full-time equivalent of ₦800,000 per month. Based on 4 weeks per month, 10 hours per week is approximately ₦200,000 per month, while 15 hours per week is approximately ₦300,000 per month.

This role requires 10–15 hours per week and can be undertaken alongside an existing full-time role, provided there is no conflict with your existing employment.

About the Client

We are a small, growing start-up with a lean team and a strong focus on technology, systems, productivity and continuous improvement.

We currently have a team of 10 staff working across different functions, supported by apprentices who use AI and modern digital tools as part of their development and work.

Because we operate with a lean structure, we need an operations professional who can understand how the business actually works, examine the detail behind reported performance, identify issues that management may not have noticed, and turn findings into practical action.

About the Role

This is not a generic operations management role. We already have people who can execute. We need someone who can think deeply about the operation, investigate what is happening and independently determine what needs to happen next.

The Senior Operations Manager will work closely with the client to review staff activity, time tracking, task records, operational data, processes and systems. You will be expected to identify discrepancies, inefficiencies, unusual patterns and potential performance issues, investigate them using the available evidence, and make clear recommendations.

You will not simply be given a problem and asked to solve it. In many cases, you will be expected to identify the problem yourself.

Our operating approach is: Think → Analyse → Identify Problem → Investigate → Solution → Action → KPI → Target → Monitor → Repeat.

Key Responsibilities

1. Review detailed time-tracking records for each staff member on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and identify issues, discrepancies, unusual patterns, errors or potential time theft.
2. Compare recorded working time against assigned tasks, task completion, approved working hours and available supporting evidence.
3. Review video recordings related to task entries that appear incorrect, unusual, inefficient or inconsistent with the recorded time or task activity.
4. Investigate discrepancies between time records, task entries, video evidence and reported work before reaching a conclusion.
5. Identify tasks with excessive time allocations, inefficient execution, unusual delays or other productivity concerns.
6. Review whether task estimates are realistic in relation to the actual scope and work required, and challenge estimates that appear unreasonable.
7. Analyse staff productivity and operational performance across daily, weekly and monthly periods and identify trends, anomalies and performance gaps.
8. Identify problems that have not already been raised by management and determine what additional information is required to investigate them.
9. Investigate root causes rather than reporting symptoms.
10. Develop and compare multiple possible solutions and recommend the option with the strongest evidence, practicality and expected business impact.
11. Track agreed actions through to completion and verify whether the action produced the intended result.
12. Define appropriate KPIs and targets for operational improvements and monitor performance against them.
13. Review recruitment and other operational data to identify conversion issues, bottlenecks, inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement.
14. Review existing workflows, project-management systems, task-management systems and time-tracking tools to identify process or system inefficiencies.
15. Work with technical team members when an operational issue requires system investigation, automation or software changes.
16. Use AI intelligently for research, analysis, investigation and solution development, while applying independent judgement to validate the output.
17. Identify opportunities to reduce wasted time, improve productivity and achieve better results with less effort or resource.
18. Repeat the analysis and monitoring cycle after changes are implemented to determine whether performance has actually improved.

What We Are Looking For

Critical Thinking- Essential

1. Can identify a problem without being told exactly what to look for.
2. Thinks deeply before reaching a conclusion.
3. Can distinguish between a genuine problem, a data error and an issue that requires further investigation.
4. Asks precise questions when information is missing.
5. Challenges assumptions and checks evidence.
6. Looks for root causes rather than symptoms.
7. Can develop and compare several possible solutions.
8. Returns with a recommendation, not just a description of the problem.
9. Can explain the reasoning behind a recommendation and defend it when challenged.

Operational Data & Investigation

1. Strong ability to work with detailed operational records.
2. Comfortable reviewing time-tracking data at daily, weekly and monthly levels.
3. Can identify discrepancies, anomalies, missing information and unusual patterns.
4. Comfortable reviewing task records and supporting evidence such as video recordings.
5. Can compare multiple sources of information before reaching a conclusion.
6. Comfortable working with KPIs, targets and performance reports.
7. Can translate operational evidence into a clear decision or recommended action.

Productivity & Process Improvement

1. Strong understanding of productivity, resource utilisation and process efficiency.
2. Can evaluate task estimates against actual work and available evidence.
3. Can identify bottlenecks, wasted time and inefficient processes.
4. Has experience improving operational performance.
5. Can define measurable improvements and monitor whether they are sustained.

Technology & Systems

1. Strong digital and systems knowledge.
2. Experience with project management, task management or time-tracking systems.
3. Experience working with IT or software development teams is highly desirable.
4. Comfortable investigating unfamiliar systems and understanding how information flows through them.
5. Comfortable using AI for research, analysis and problem-solving, while knowing when its output needs to be questioned or verified.

Communication & Working Style

The client has specific communication preferences. The successful candidate must be able to communicate in a way that is direct, precise and efficient.

1. Gets to the point and avoids unnecessary detail.
2. Asks precise questions rather than sending vague or broad requests.
3. Communicates key findings, evidence, options and recommendations clearly.
4. Can provide a concise update while retaining the important facts.
5. Is comfortable communicating primarily through WhatsApp and the company’s internal communication tools.
6. Knows when a matter requires a short message, a structured written analysis or a deeper discussion.
7. Can professionally challenge assumptions, processes or decisions when the evidence supports doing so.

Experience & Qualifications

1. Experience in Operations Management, Project Management, Business Operations, Process Improvement or a related field.
2. Experience working with operational data, staff performance data or performance reporting.
3. Experience managing or improving business processes.
4. Experience with time-tracking, task-management or project-management systems.
5. Experience working with technology or IT teams is an advantage.
6. Experience with Agile/Scrum is an advantage.
7. Relevant degree or professional qualification is desirable.
8. Strong practical capability and evidence of results will be valued alongside formal qualifications.

Recruitment Process

Because this is a senior role, we will assess how you think, investigate and make decisions, not simply your previous job titles.

Stage 1 - Initial Competency Interview

This stage assesses your practical experience across operations management, project management, Agile/Scrum, time and task tracking, productivity management, data and reporting, process improvement, technology and business systems, and managing operational challenges.

Stage 2 - Practical Assessment

Candidates will receive operational information, data, screenshots, scenarios or examples based on the actual type of work involved in this role. You may not be told what the problem is. You will be expected to identify it.

Examples may include detailed staff time records, task estimates, productivity information, recruitment data, task entries or operational process information. Where evidence is incomplete, you are expected to identify what is missing and ask the right questions.

The assessment will test your ability to:

1. Identify what appears unusual, incorrect, inefficient or potentially problematic.
2. Separate data errors from genuine operational problems.
3. Ask precise questions and identify missing evidence.
4. Investigate possible causes.
5. Use multiple sources of evidence to reach a conclusion.
6. Develop and compare possible solutions.
7. Recommend the strongest approach and explain why.
8. Define KPIs and targets.
9. Explain how the change should be implemented and monitored.
10. Determine how to establish whether the solution worked.

Assessment areas include Critical Thinking & Problem Solving, Data Analysis & Decision-Making, Task Estimation & Resource Evaluation, and Productivity & Process Improvement.

Candidates should expect follow-up questions that test the depth of their reasoning and whether they can defend their conclusions.

Stage 3 - Client Interview

Candidates who pass Stage 2 will meet directly with the client/business owner. The client may expand on the practical assessment and ask deeper follow-up questions.

This stage assesses depth of thinking, quality of judgement, ability to defend recommendations, understanding of business impact, independence of thought and ability to work effectively with the client.

Application

Please complete the application form and provide your CV.

We are particularly interested in evidence of:

1. Problems you identified independently
2. Operational or productivity issues you investigated.
3. Processes you improved.
4. Decisions you made using data and evidence.
5. Examples where you challenged an assumption or identified a discrepancy.
6. Productivity or efficiency improvements you delivered.
7. Systems or technology you helped improve.
8. Measurable results you achieved.