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 are seeking a commercially aware and operationally astute Senior Operations Manager (Third Party Supplier and Procurement) to own and optimise the performance of our critical third-party service providers, including:

• Payment processing and transaction management
• Identity verification and regulatory compliance
• Delivery and courier management for prescription medications

You will be responsible for ensuring these partnerships are operationally efficient, contractually effective, and aligned with ZAVA’s growth, compliance, and patient experience goals.

The role involves ongoing procurement oversight, continuous pricing negotiation, and regular cost review across the business.

This role requires continuous oversight of all third-party procurement, including ongoing contract management and price negotiation with vendors for cost-effectiveness and regular cost reviews to identify optimisation opportunities ensuring budget adherence. It demands proactive vendor management, alongside strong negotiation and analytical skills to improve financial performance from external partnerships.

Key Accountabilities

• Own provider relationships : Act as the operational lead for key suppliers.
• Performance & SLA management : Define and track SLAs, KPIs, and incident response processes to ensure consistently high performance.
• Issue resolution : Coordinate with internal teams (Product, Tech, Finance, Legal) to quickly resolve provider-related disruptions (e.g. payment failures, ID verification delays, delivery backlogs).
• Continuous improvement : Identify opportunities to optimise provider performance through automation, contract enhancements, or tech integrations.
• Compliance alignment : Ensure provider processes meet ZAVA’s regulatory obligations.
• Reporting & governance : Deliver regular performance reviews, risk assessments, and recommendations to the leadership team.
• Cost containment : Identify and implement cost-saving opportunities by reviewing, renegotiating, and optimising terms of pre-existing contracts with suppliers and service providers.

Technical skills & experience

• 5+ years in operations management, vendor management, contract management, and service delivery.
• Proven track record in managing SLAs, incidents, and operational escalations.
• Familiarity with healthtech , e-commerce , or regulated industries (e.g. fintech, medtech).
• Strong commercial awareness and contract management insight.
• Excellent analytical skills – able to translate data into actionable insight.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally with tech, finance, legal, and product.
• Clear, concise communicator – comfortable briefing execs and external partners.
• Calm under pressure, solution-focused, and delivery-minded.

Nice to have, but not at all essential

• Ability to speak Spanish, Italian, French or German
  
• 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

✈️ 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.