Strategy and Operations Manager in London

About Shuffle

We’re on a mission to help great independent hospitality businesses grow. Shuffle is a two-sided marketplace that provides upfront capital for the best hospitality businesses in the UK, and random cashback rewards for the customers of those businesses through the Shuffle app. After a careful selection process, Shuffle invests directly into restaurants, bars, and cafes. It is the return on these investments that allows us to offer rewards to our customers, and our relationship with our restaurant partners ensures no one is left short by any transaction. Shuffle was founded in 2023 and we’re live in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Our partners include well-known local names such as Lina Stores, Salon Madre, Onda, Amber’s, and Maray to name but a few. We've raised £9m in funding so far from top-tier VCs in both Europe and Canada, including JamJar, Portage, Episode1, Antler, and True Ventures.

What is it like working at Shuffle?

• We don’t just work at Shuffle – we own it
• We work smarter, otherwise we work harder
• Winning is the goal, and we play to win
• Understanding others makes us stronger, sharper and better together

We believe in building a small team of A-players: high-performing individuals who drive impact. We foster an in-person culture, with four office days each week. Wednesdays are optional for remote work, giving you flexibility while maintaining the collaboration that drives our success.

About the role

We're hiring a Strategy & Business Operations Manager — the person we throw new problems at when the answer isn't obvious and the stakes are high. Reporting directly to both founders, you'll own a rotating portfolio of strategic and operational projects: one month you're building the commission model from scratch, the next you're putting together the London launch playbook. The work is varied by design. What stays constant is the expectation: structured thinking and clean output. This isn't a support role. You'll own projects end-to-end, work directly with the founding team, and leave fingerprints on decisions that shape how Shuffle scales. It suits someone who came up through consulting or a fast-moving startup and is ready to apply that toolkit in a place where the problems are real and the feedback loop is fast.

What you'll be doing

• Project ownership: Take on high-priority, open-ended strategic projects and own them from problem definition through to recommendation and execution. Early examples: redesigning our commission model, building the go-to-market plan for our London launch, and stress-testing our city expansion sequencing. Scope projects properly, identify what we don't know, and structure the path to an answer.
• Commercial and financial analysis: Build the models and frameworks needed to make good decisions — unit economics, pricing scenarios, market sizing, sensitivity analysis. Translate numbers into clear narratives for internal and, where relevant, investor audiences. Work with the COO to track performance against plan and flag where course corrections are needed.
• Operations and process: Identify where Shuffle is operating on improvisation rather than process, and build the infrastructure to fix it. Design and implement scalable ops systems as we grow headcount and expand into new cities. Act as connective tissue across teams — making sure the right people have the right information at the right time.
• Thought partnership: Be a sounding board for the COO and founders on strategic decisions — bring a point of view, challenge assumptions, and help sharpen thinking before it goes anywhere. Prepare materials for board and investor conversations where needed. Represent Shuffle credibly with external stakeholders — partners, advisors, potential hires.

Who you are

• 5+ years of experience, with a strong foundation in consulting (MBB or equivalent) and/or a strategy or ops role inside a high-growth startup.
• You've owned projects, not just contributed to them — you're used to being accountable for the output.
• Strong analytical skills: comfortable building models, structuring a problem, and presenting a clear recommendation without being told how to get there.
• Low ego, high output. You don't need a big team or a fancy title to do good work.
• Equally comfortable in a spreadsheet and in a room with founders — you move between rigour and pragmatism without losing either.
• Excellent written and verbal communication — your documents and decks are clean, your thinking is clear.
• Drawn to early-stage companies: you understand what it means to build something, and that appeals to you.

What we offer

• Competitive pay (70‑95th percentile) + meaningful equity
• 33 paid days off each year: 20 days of personal holiday, 8 UK bank holidays, plus a 5-day company-wide Christmas shutdown to recharge
• Extra reward boosts at Shuffle partner venues
• Private healthcare through AXA
• A front-row seat in the journey from early-stage to unicorn

Compensation range

£80,000 base salary + meaningful equity. Uncapped commission, monthly bonuses for exceeding targets, quarterly accelerators for consistent performance. Final compensation will be determined based on the candidate's qualifications, skills, and previous experience.