Business Operations Manager

Looking for a new adventure? You’ve come to the right place.

We're an Amsterdam-based team of 90+ (and counting) with 25+ nationalities amongst us! A varied bunch of “Citizens of The World” with a wide range of skills and hundreds of thousands of kilometers under our travel belts. And we have something important in common (other than our very well-worn passports): We want to change the way people travel.

And that's exactly what we're doing, with the travel app to plan, track, and relive trips in a smart and beautiful way.

Polarsteps has over 20 million users already, but, for us, this is just the beginning. We have big plans for the future, and so we need even more talented and enthusiastic people to help us on our journey.

Want to know more about us? Here you go.

Your itinerary

You're an early-career talent, ready to help us in our scaling phase, reporting directly to the CEO. This role has a lot in common with a chief-of-staff or founder’s associate role, but is fully focused on execution and business operations, not on strategy.

This role will change as we grow, but it could include things like:

- Managing relationships with our suppliers (e.g. working with the third-party we use to help us manage our Travel Book printing)
- Researching new suppliers (e.g. for software we need)
- Negotiating contracts (with training and support from legal/finance)
- Organising a strategy offsite for the management team
- Working on upskilling our non-technical teams on AI use/tooling
- Supporting with a marketing campaign or GTM efforts via events on the ground
- Helping other members of the management team with short-term projects as they arise

The equipment in your backpack

We’d love to see 2 (or more) years of professional experience. We don’t mind what this looks like, other than it needs to be in some sort of tech company or scaleup/startup.

Some examples of previous experience that could work:

- Entrepreneurs/founders who set up a business that failed (we love entrepreneurial spirit and learning from mistakes!)
- Sales, commercial or ops/business roles in a fast-paced tech startup or scaleup (NGOs too if they’re tech-based and fast-paced)
- Chief of Staff or Founder’s Associate (at a startup/scaleup)
- Entry-level role at a VC firm or accelerator programme
- Production manager - filming or event management
- Operations or city launch role at a startup
- A travel adventure guide who loves tech and has built things on the side using AI
- Something else we haven’t thought of

If you’ve only worked in a corporate environment or as a consultant, this is probably not for you unless you’ve done something extraordinary outside of work (feel free to tell us what that is, if you have!).

Skills and personality attributes:

- Amazing communicator - in writing and in person (in English)
- Strong user of AI when relevant; a better writer than AI writing, however, and is happy to not use AI to communicate in writing
- Extremely organised
- Seriously high paced (are you excited by moving fast? can you get a lot done in a short amount of time?) and can absorb a lot of information well and quickly
- Real relationship builder (do people love working with you? can you connect with all kinds of different people?)
- Confidence and charisma paired with kindness and empathy (you’ll work with many different stakeholders - you need to bring them along with you)
- Insane problem-solving skills and a skew-positive mindset
- Ability to learn new things constantly and quickly
- Bright and creative: you’ve got heaps of intelligence and the creative muscles so can get things done even in the face of obstacles
- Hugely self-motivated and accountable. This role will report directly into our CEO for now - you’ll need to be a self-starter who proactively communicates and doesn’t need chasing
- Ambition and excitement about tech scaleups
- Flexibility and willingness to work hard to make things happen for the business
- Adventurous spirit and love for travel (bonus points if you’re a Polarsteps user)
- Low-ego - happy to just do what’s needed, without worrying about the status or challenge of the tasks/work needed

We want you to be really excited to come to work every day and to learn heaps early in your career. You're in the office 2 days a week minimum, and regularly beyond that when needed, so you might enjoy this role more if you're based in Amsterdam or don't mind regular, sometimes last-minute commutes.

This role gives you a thorough grounding in business operations and close exposure to the CEO of a scaleup. We expect it to last 2–3 years, after which you'll move on (at Polarsteps or elsewhere) with heaps of experience and learnings to take with you.

First class extra's

Some cool things to make the journey extra sweet.

- Salary range: Between EUR 42.00 0 - 49.000 (junior level; 1 - 3 years of relevant experience) and EUR 54.000 - 63.000 (medior level; 3+ years of relevant experience) gross per year incl 8% holiday allowance (based on 40 hours/week). Where you land in the range depends on your experience and skills, assessed during the interview process.
- Equity: You'll be able to participate in our Polarsteps SAR Plan.
- A yearly free flight or train ride to a random location! Give our Teleporter a spin here .
- A shiny new MacBook to work your magic on.
- Hybrid working, our way. Work from home and the office, we ask everyone to be in the office 2 days a week. It’s how we stay flexible, focused, and meaningfully connected in person.
- An extensive home office set-up, everything from noise-canceling headphones to a standing desk.
- 30 days of vacation (for adventures or sitting on the couch, it's up to you)
- Two paid Culture Days for days that are important to you but not recognized by the official Dutch calendar.-
- The option to switch up your zoom background by working from another country for up to 8 weeks a year.
- A personal development budget for that curious mind of yours!
- A pension plan to help you save for those around-the-world retirement trips.
- Delicious daily team lunches.
- Awesome monthly parties, as well as team trips away.
- A lively office in downtown Amsterdam, with travel costs reimbursed.
- Free Polarsteps Travel Books to contain all your far-flung adventures.