Director of Operations

Position : Director of Operations

Work Hours (Client) : Mon to Fri; 9 AM to 5 PM, San Francisco Time

Pay Range : 2,500-5,000 USD/month (varies based on skill set and experience level)

Location of Search :  Latin America and Philippines

Work Location : REMOTE

Type of Contract : Independent Contractor

Company/Client Overview:

We are a fast-growing startup reinventing one of the world’s oldest industries — book publishing. Today, authors face extreme gatekeeping, low discoverability, and minimal profit from traditional publishers or Amazon’s self-publishing ecosystem. We are building a direct-to-consumer publishing engine, treating books the way modern brands treat cosmetics or ecommerce products — with data-driven marketing, affiliate-driven distribution, and real-time performance insights.

The mission: Help great ideas reach the world, and give authors the visibility and commercial success they cannot achieve through traditional channels. This role sits at the center of that mission.

Role Overview

We are hiring a Director of Operations / Chief of Staff–Light to own day-to-day operations, creator performance, and analytical decision-making, while building and managing a small ops and affiliate team over time.

This is a high-ownership leadership role, not a task-level operations or VA position. The right candidate will grow into the operational backbone of the company.

Core Responsibilities

Customer & Order Operations
* Oversee customer support across TikTok Shop, Shopify, and SMS
* Manage returns, refunds, defects, delays, and escalations
* Communicate with distributors and suppliers
* Approve/reject TikTok returns according to policy
* Track inbound return shipments
* Request and reconcile supplier credits (damages, mis-shipments, shipping errors)
* Audit unshipped or delayed orders
* Ensure accurate order-level profitability tracking

Affiliate / Creator Operations
* Own and manage the company's existing universe of creators
* Personally manage high-GMV creators ($10k+ GMV potential)
* Approve inbound sample requests and onboard high-performing creators
* Coordinate and track sample shipments
* Recommend books to creators based on historical performance
* Track creator performance and maintain CRM
* Troubleshoot tagging and commission issues
* Analyze affiliate performance and campaign profitability

Analytics & Strategic Decision Support
* Generate weekly profitability snapshots (GMV, margins, returns, credits)
* Track SKU-level margins and return trends
* Identify books worth sourcing directly from publishers
* Analyze unit economics to determine sampling campaign viability
* Define success benchmarks for sampling campaigns and track performance
* Review daily TikTok creative performance and determine which creatives to boost with paid spend
* Support executive-level decision-making with clear analysis and recommendations

Team Building & Leadership (Critical)

As the business scales, in the short-term this person will:
* Hire, onboard, and manage:3–4 Affiliate / Creator Managers2–3 Customer Support / Returns Specialists
* 3–4 Affiliate / Creator Managers2–3 Customer Support / Returns Specialists
* Build KPIs, workflows, and accountability systems
* Delegate execution while retaining ownership of outcomes
* Act as the primary people manager for ops and affiliate support

Founder & Executive Support
* Act as execution partner to the CEO
* Coordinate vendors, publishers, distributors, and partners=
* Run special projects and operational initiatives
* Design and improve internal systems and processes
* Serve as connective tissue across operations, affiliates, and leadership

Why This Role Is Different

This is a career-accelerator leadership role with a clear trajectory toward Head of Operations / COO-track responsibility. You will have real ownership, influence, and growth opportunity in a company scaling quickly through creator-led commerce.

Minimum Requirements:

Language requirement: Exceptional written English and communication skills.

Education: Bachelor's Degree (ideally)

Experience: 5+ years of related experience

Tools: CRM experience (HubSpot, Airtable, Notion, or similar).
* 5+ years across:Customer Success / Customer SupportOperations / Order Management / Logistics / Supply ChainAffiliate Marketing or Creator Operations
* Customer Success / Customer Support
* Operations / Order Management / Logistics / Supply Chain
* Affiliate Marketing or Creator Operations
* Strong project management skills; able to juggle multiple operational pipelines.
* Experience with reporting, analysis, reconciliation, and data-driven decision making.
* Has worked in growing companies (10–30+ employees) or fast-moving startups.
* CRM experience (HubSpot, Airtable, Notion, or similar).
* Excellent written and verbal English communication.
* Comfortable working with PST-aligned hours and fast-changing priorities.
* Experience improving operational systems or implementing tools.
* Strong problem-solvi