Operations Manager

About Vintage ThreadsVintage Threads is a curated vintage clothing retailer on a mission to transform the preloved industry. We run stores in Soho, Covent Garden, Selfridges and Amsterdam, an online channel, and a rework studio in Islington where we give damaged vintage garments a second life through VT Rework.

We have grown from a founder led idea into a multi site business with a team that keeps expanding. We have run the business on instinct and personal involvement for years, and to reach the next stage we need to run it on systems. We are looking for someone who wants to build that layer with us, in an exciting scale up phase for the business.

The role

This is a role for someone who has scaled a business before and wants to do it again. You will own how the business actually runs day to day, from how product moves through the operation to how we measure what is working. You will not inherit a finished machine. You will help design it.

The honest truth is that too much still depends on the founders. Your job is to change that: to build the processes, reporting and structure that let the business grow without everything routing back through two people.

We want someone ready to question how things are done rather than inherit it. We need to bring new technology processes into the business as we look to streamline everything we do.

What you will do

• Grow and manage our consignment offering.
• Take ownership of consignment within Vintage Threads, improve how it is managed, and grow it into a stronger part of the business.
• This is a brand new offering within the Vintage Threads stores and an area we will be developing.
• Optimise our supply chain and buying.
• Analyse how product flows into and through the business, find where it jams or duplicates effort, and improve our buying processes so we are faster, leaner and smarter about what we bring in. You will work closely with our buying & product manager.
• Lead a full process review.
• Get close to everything happening across the business and be genuinely keen for change.
• We are trying to do things differently, so we need someone ready to push boundaries, use technology, and not simply conform to how retail "should" be done.
• This is a journey and we want someone who wants to come on it.
• Build our reporting.
• Develop the reporting side of the business so we can see clearly what is working.
• Give us the numbers that let us focus our energy on the fastest growing areas rather than guessing.
• Reduce reliance on the founders.
• Build the processes, documentation and ownership that mean the business runs well when any one person, including the founders, steps back.
• Grow and streamline VT Rework custom orders.
• Help scale our custom rework offering, drive efficiency in how pieces are made, and review the process that is seamless for the customer from order to delivery.
• This has huge potential for the business with new requests coming in every day.
• Support the retail teams.
• Work closely with our store teams so every location can operate smoothly, to a consistent standard, without the founders acting as the quality control across sites.

What we are looking for

Real operations experience in a business that has scaled, not just the title. You can point to processes you personally redesigned and the numbers before and after.

Someone who instruments before they change. You want the data first, and if it does not exist you build it.A systems builder who documents, tools up, and defines clear ownership so decisions stop bottlenecking on a few people.

Comfort with constraint. You prioritise ruthlessly, respect cash, and sequence change rather than trying to fix everything at once.A genuine appetite to challenge convention. You see technology as a lever and you are energised, not threatened, by doing things a new way.

Someone happy in a hands on, fast moving environment who can also build the structure a larger business will need.

Why join us

You will be given real ownership of how a growing, ambitious business runs, working closely with the founders to help drive forward the pre-loved industry.

The detailsLocation: London based, with travel across our sites including Amsterdam.

Hours: Full time or part time. We are open to the right person on either basis.