Operations Manager

Devoli

At Devoli, our mission is to simplify telco & connectivity. We've built the leading platform to orchestrate and manage data, mobile, and voice services, taking the hassle out of connectivity for our customers.

Founded in 2008, we have a few more grey hairs than your typical start-up! We move with energy and ambition, and we've got the track record to back it up: a #1 Deloitte-awarded business, featured in their Master of Growth Index for five years running, working with a long list of amazing customers — from local managed service providers (MSPs) to household names like Contact Energy. Our SaaS platform's portal and APIs simplify access to a wide range of products for our customers, managing 250,000+ connections.

We're a small but diverse team of ~50 people headquartered in an old heritage building in Victoria Park on Auckland's city fringe, where we share our neighbourhood with some of NZ's leading and most innovative tech businesses.

The role

We're looking for an experienced Operations Manager to own and transform how Devoli operationally serves its biggest retail partners.

This isn't a "keep the lights on" operations role. While you'll make sure day-to-day delivery runs reliably, the primary focus of this role is to drive down cost-to-serve and build operational frameworks. This will include building the cost-to-serve reduction roadmap, lead major operational programmes like migrations and product rollouts, and set self-serve targets that reduce how much our partners need to lean on us. If something is manual and high-volume, you'll be the person who identifies it and drives the fix - working with our internal teams to automate it or redesign how it works.

You'll partner closely with our Strategic Partnerships Manager - they own the commercial relationship, contract strategy and renewals while you own the operational model underneath it. Together, you'll make sure our partners get a joined-up experience where the commercial promises Devoli makes are backed by operational delivery that's efficient, reliable, and always improving. You'll also be the retail operational voice across our Product, Software and Network teams - translating retail operational needs into a prioritised improvement backlog and influencing how those needs are represented in the broader platform roadmap . This is a role where cross-functional influence matters as much as operational discipline.

We love a good challenge and empower our people to solve hard problems - whether they're commercial, technical, or operational. It's a great time to step in: the platform is expanding, our retail partnerships are central to our growth, and there's genuine scope to build something from the ground up.

What you'll do

Operational design & delivery

Own the operational model for Devoli's retail partners — accountable for how operations are structured, how they perform, and how they improve over time
Design and own the SLA framework covering uptime, provisioning lead times, and fault resolution — setting targets, tracking performance, and driving the structural changes needed when things fall short
Lead major operational programmes that impact our retail partners including migrations, mass moves and new product rollouts — building and owning the delivery plan and managing dependencies across internal teams
Own all operational escalations end-to-end — diagnose root cause, drive resolution, and implement fixes that prevent recurrence

Cost-to-serve & automation

Own the cost-to-serve reduction roadmap and execution, including automation, self-service capability and ticket deflection initiatives
Identify high-volume manual workflows and partner with Product, Software and Network teams to remove them
Track and report cost-to-serve metrics quarterly, giving the Strategic Partnerships Manager the evidence base for QBRs, renewal discussions and contract negotiations
Own delivery against specific cost-to-serve reduction commitments — build the programme plan, report progress, and be accountable for whether the numbers are hit
Stay across emerging AI and automation opportunities — identifying where AI-led approaches can drive step-change reductions in cost-to-serve across both Devoli and our retail partners

Cross-functional influence

Build and maintain a prioritised backlog of operational improvements — converting partner pain points into specific, scoped requests for internal teams, and tracking delivery against them
Represent the retail operational voice in roadmap, release planning and platform investment discussions
Prepare the operational performance pack ahead of quarterly business reviews and support the Strategic Partnerships Manager with operational detail and context

Supplier management

Own day-to-day supplier performance across LFCs and mobile carriers
Hold suppliers to their SLAs on behalf of retail partners and feed any commercial breaches back to the Strategic Partnerships Manager

Partner enablement

Lead operational onboarding for retail partner staff on the Devoli platform
Set and track a self-serve rate target for each partner — building the tools, documentation and capability required to hit it, and treating inbound support as a signal of a gap to be fixed

Requirements

5+ years in operations management, operational improvement or partner operations - with a focus on building and changing how things work rather than maintaining existing models
Demonstrated experience designing and improving operational models for enterprise partners
A track record of delivering measurable cost-to-serve or process automation improvements
Proven ability to design operational processes, implement them across partner and internal teams, and iterate based on data
Experience holding suppliers or vendors accountable against performance obligations
Analytical capability to build reporting frameworks and translate operational data into insight that drives decisions
Already using AI tools in your day-to-day work — we don't need you to be an expert, but we need someone who's in actively engaging with this space and looking for more ways to apply it
The ability to influence cross-functional teams — particularly technical teams
Strong communication skills

Nice to have

Experience within telecommunications, SaaS or a related technology sector
Experience embedding within partner operational teams to identify where manual work can be automated or processes redesigned
Experience building partner enablement or self-serve capability programmes that measurably reduced inbound support volume

We're a great fit for you if you are:

Wired to improve things — you see a manual process and immediately think about how to automate it
Comfortable balancing day-to-day operational demands with longer-term transformation work — keeping the lights on while building something better
Pragmatic and solutions-focused when navigating ambiguity and competing priorities
Calm and credible under pressure, particularly when leading incident resolution or major programmes
Curious and improvement-oriented — always looking for ways to remove friction and add value
Collaborative by nature, with a strong sense of accountability and ownership

Benefits

We're a fun team and no two days are ever the same at Devoli, but there are a few things that are consistent:

We'll make sure you've got the equipment you need to be successful — a laptop, standing desk and screens while you're in the office
Because we power NZ's best ISPs, we'll provide you with a broadband connection at home and a Devoli Mobile connection
We love a shared lunch! Weekly grocery shops mean we keep our team fed, watered and caffeinated in the office. Expect regular lunches/BBQs and events too, where you can relax, enjoy some good food and banter with the team
Our team culture is welcoming and diverse, and there's a strong sense of being One Team
We believe in continuous learning and invest in our people's growth — we support team members to participate in courses, conferences/events, coaching or other programs, and have an individual training budget to make it happen
Oh.. and you get your birthday off, too ;)