Operations Manager / Operations Head

1. Workforce & People Management (150–250 employees) • End-to-end ownership of the field workforce — Data Collection Executives, Data Collectors, and Data Annotators — across all active locations. • Drive recruitment, onboarding, and deployment of field staff in coordination with HR, ensuring each site/region is adequately staffed. • Set daily/weekly/monthly targets for individuals and teams; track productivity, quality, and attendance. • Build a supervisory layer (team leads / regional supervisors) to manage span of control across 150–250 people, rather than managing every individual directly. • Handle performance management — reviews, coaching, escalations, disciplinary action, and attrition control. • Ensure statutory compliance, safety, and welfare of field staff while on assignment, working closely with HR/payroll. 2. Business Development • Act as the organisation's on-ground Business Development Manager — identify, pitch, and close new business opportunities in each region. • Build and manage a pipeline of prospective clients/partners for data collection and annotation projects. • Negotiate commercial terms, project scope, and delivery timelines with clients. • Identify new geographies/locations for expansion and evaluate their business potential before committing resources. • Represent the company at client meetings, site visits, and local business/industry engagements. 3. Operations & Execution • Plan and execute field operations across multiple sites simultaneously, ensuring delivery volumes and quality standards are met. • Own the operational P&L for assigned regions — cost per site, cost per employee, and revenue per project. • Set up new locations/sites end-to-end: hiring, workspace, equipment, workflows, and reporting lines. • Standardise SOPs for data collection and annotation work so quality is consistent across teams and locations. • Monitor data/output quality and put in place checks to catch and correct errors before client delivery. 4. Travel & Field Presence • Travel extensively and frequently between project locations for site setup, team management, client meetings, and business development. • Spend significant time on-ground (not desk-based) to directly assess team performance and market opportunities. • Be available to relocate temporarily or travel on short notice to open new sites or resolve on-ground issues. 5. Reporting & Coordination • Provide regular performance, headcount, and business development reports to Directors/CMD. • Coordinate closely with HR (hiring, payroll, compliance), Finance (budgets, expenses), and central leadership on strategy. • Flag risks — attrition spikes, client dissatisfaction, quality issues, compliance gaps — early and proactively.

Required Qualifications & Experience • Graduate/Postgraduate in Business Administration, Operations Management, or a related field. • 5–10+ years of experience in operations management, of which a significant part includes managing large field/bluecollar or semi-skilled workforces (150+ headcount). • Demonstrated experience in business development / client acquisition — not purely an operations background. • Prior experience in data collection, market research, BPO/ITES field operations, or similarly people-heavy, distributed-operations businesses is strongly preferred. • Willingness and ability to travel extensively (frequently, multi-city/multi-region) as a core part of the role. Key Skills & Competencies • Large-team people management — hiring, training, motivating, and retaining a large, distributed, often high-attrition workforce. • Business development and client relationship management. • Strong ownership mindset — comfortable running a business unit with P&L accountability. • Ability to build and operate through a supervisory hierarchy (team leads/regional heads) to manage span of control. • Strong communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills. • Data-driven decision-making — comfortable working with productivity/quality dashboards and targets. • Resilience and adaptability — comfortable operating in new, sometimes under-developed markets/locations. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) • Headcount growth and retention across the 150–250-strong field workforce. • New business/revenue generated (new clients, new locations, new contracts). • Field productivity and data quality metrics per site. • Cost per employee / cost per site vs. budget. • Number of new locations successfully opened and stabilised. • Client satisfaction and contract renewal rate.