Operations Manager - Third Party Supplier and Procurement

About ZAVA

We're on a mission to provide our patients with accessible and dependable healthcare at a fraction of today's cost. Our team of Doctors, Engineers, Customer Support Advisors, Marketers, Product Managers, UX Designers, Pharmacists, and Commercial and Operations Specialists works collaboratively to develop and maintain a digital healthcare platform that suits our patients' needs and schedules.

The pandemic changed our lives, requiring us to find flexible, remote and innovative healthcare solutions to meet our needs during challenging and changeable periods. Many of our patients turned to telemedicine as a convenient solution to getting their healthcare online from the comfort of their homes. By delivering a safe and efficient digital healthcare service, we've provided over 13 million consultations across the UK, Germany, France, and Ireland, enabling millions of people to have essential access to healthcare when they need it most.

It's our motivation to continue fulfilling their needs and to expand further to meet the needs of others, ensuring we're always there with the latest tech, treatments and advice. We're doing more than providing healthcare, we're enabling and empowering people by making healthcare work for them. We’re here because we care about healthcare, and we plan to be the largest digital primary healthcare platform for people across Europe.

About the role

We’re looking for a commercially minded and operationally astute Operations Manager to take ownership of ZAVA’s most critical third-party service relationships.

This is a cross-functional, high-impact role where you'll manage both digital providers, such as our online payment partner (Adyen) and ID verification services, as well as physical service providers, including logistics and delivery partners such as the Royal Mail. These partnerships directly affect how patients access and pay for our services, hence your work will directly impact patient experience, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

You’ll be responsible for end-to-end third-party performance, encompassing service quality and SLAs, procurement strategy, pricing negotiations, and compliance alignment.

Who You Are

• You understand the complexity and pace of direct-to-consumer businesses.

• You’re comfortable with both the digital (e.g. online payments, API-integrated services) and the physical (e.g. national couriers, logistics chains).

• You know how to bring order, accountability, and performance to external relationships, and you’re always looking for ways to reduce cost, increase quality, and improve reliability.

Key Accountabilities

Own Third-Party Relationships

• Act as the operational lead for key third-party providers across:

• Digital services: eCommerce payment processing (Adyen), ID verification, regulatory tools

• Physical services: Prescription delivery and logistics (Royal Mail, etc.)

Drive Performance & Accountability

• Define, monitor, and enforce SLAs, KPIs, and incident response protocols

• Lead regular performance reviews and governance sessions with each provider

• Resolve Issues at Pace

• Triage and resolve real-time issues (e.g. failed payments, identity verification delays, missed deliveries)

• Work cross-functionally with Tech, Product, Legal, and Finance to escalate and resolve problems fast

Optimise for Scale

• Identify opportunities to automate, integrate, or enhance services for cost and performance gains

• Champion tools and processes that allow us to scale while maintaining service excellence

Ensure Compliance

• Ensure third-party services meet ZAVA’s regulatory obligations in all markets (especially around identity verification and patient privacy)

Control Costs

• Lead contract negotiations, review pricing regularly, and find opportunities to reduce spend without compromising service

• Continuously review ROI from third-party relationships, and make recommendations

Skills & experience

Experience

• 5+ years in Operations, Vendor Management, or Service Delivery roles

• Proven success managing both physical and digital service providers

• Experience in healthtech, e-commerce, fintech, or other regulated sectors preferred

Skills

• Strong commercial acumen and contract management experience

• Able to manage complex vendor negotiations and performance escalations

• Data-driven with the ability to analyse operational performance and generate actionable insights

• Excellent communication skills – comfortable aligning stakeholders across tech, legal, product, and leadership

• Proactive, delivery-minded, and thrives in fast-paced and ambiguous environments

Nice to have, but not at all essential

• Experience with Lean / Six Sigma / Process Improvement methodologies

• Familiarity with HIPAA & healthcare compliance

Personal qualities 

• Humble; you listen and take on feedback, you are kind and caring to those around you.

• Inquisitive; you question the status quo, dare to do things differently and explore the possibilities.

• Resilient; you embrace change and face challenges.

• Macher; you are innovative and rise above the rest to use your initiative to improve, develop and deliver.

• Collaborative; you actively share ideas, work together to drive goals as a team.

• People-focused mentality, you lead the way in incorporating user feedback, behaviours and data to hone your designs.

• You are compassionate, empathetic and have a passion for your craft. You love what you do and always look to improve and bring that enthusiasm to the team.

Benefits from the day you join:

🏖 33 days per annum pro-rata (inclusive of public and bank holidays) + birthday off

🧑‍⚕️ Free access to Wellness Cloud, advice, counselling, and corporate discounts

💙 20% off all ZAVA products & services for you and your friends and family

🩺 Healthcare cash back plan through SimplyHealth

🏡 Remote, hybrid, and flexible working (role dependent)

💻 MacBook Pro (role dependent)

🌍 Flexible bank holidays - take the ones that matter the most to you.

Additional benefits following the probation period:

💰 £500 training budget per year

🧑‍⚕️Vitality Private Health Insurance + Vitality discounts inc headspace membership

🚼 Workplace Nursery Salary Sacrifice Scheme

✈️ Company sabbatical after 2 years

🗺 Opportunity to work from overseas for 2 months each year (role dependent)

🤑 Cash vouchers after 3, 5, and 10 years of service

We are working hard to try and level the playing field wherever we can. We know from research that men are happy to apply for positions where they fit just 60% of the requirements, whereas women and underrepresented groups often will not apply unless they feel they are a super close match. If you don't think you meet all the requirements that you see above, we encourage you to apply and tell us what we can do to give you your best shot - if you want. Please note: certain positions will be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.