Business Operations Manager

About This Role

We are growing the team at Dubai Founders HQ, Dubai's newly launched phygital platform supporting startups and scaleups. DFHQ - A joint initiative by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) and the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy.

Job objective:

The role requires a hands-on, execution-focused operator who is comfortable being on the ground, managing multiple stakeholders, coordinating vendors and partners, and ensuring smooth delivery across all operational touchpoints.

The ideal candidate will not be a pure strategy or consulting profile, but someone with strong operational discipline, attention to detail, and the ability to translate business priorities into practical execution. The role also requires strong commercial acumen to manage bookings, utilization, revenue streams, contracts, pricing discussions, and monetization opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the daily operations of a physical space, ensuring smooth functioning across facilities, services, events, vendors, and user experience.
• Oversee on-ground execution and ensure the space is operationally ready, well-maintained, and aligned with required service standards.
• Coordinate with internal teams, external partners, vendors, service providers, and other stakeholders to ensure seamless delivery.
• Manage vendor relationships, service-level agreements, performance standards, and issue resolution.
• Oversee event logistics, space readiness, visitor experience, and on-ground delivery for programs, activations, and events.
• Identify opportunities to improve space utilization, service quality, revenue generation, and operational efficiency.
• Track and report key operational and commercial KPIs, including occupancy, utilization, revenue, costs, vendor performance, and service levels.
• Manage multiple parallel workstreams while ensuring strong follow-through, timely execution, and clear communication.
• Troubleshoot operational issues on the ground and coordinate quick resolution with the relevant teams or vendors.
• Establish and improve operational processes, workflows, checklists, reporting mechanisms, and governance routines.
• Ensure all operational activities are delivered within agreed timelines, budgets, quality standards, and stakeholder expectations.

Key Skills and Experience

• 7–10 years of experience in operations, facilities management, startup operations, hospitality operations, coworking operations, campus management, or venue management.
• Proven experience managing physical spaces such as coworking spaces, campuses, venues, hospitality environments, or multi-use facilities.
• Strong hands-on operational experience with the ability to manage day-to-day activities on the ground.
• Experience managing vendors, service providers, SLAs, contracts, and operational delivery standards.
• Strong commercial understanding, including managing bookings, occupancy, utilization, pricing, revenue streams, and monetization opportunities.
• Ability to support partner discussions, vendor negotiations, contract reviews, and pricing negotiations.
• Strong execution discipline with excellent attention to detail and follow-through.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and parallel workstreams in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to resolve operational issues quickly and practically.
• Excellent communication, coordination, stakeholder management, and negotiation skills.