Service Partner Operations Manager

About us
Founded in 2015 in Athens, Greece, Welcome redefines the way people travel by going above and beyond the commoditized transfer service and being the first company to deliver a complete, personalised, in-destination travel experience. From the moment a traveler arrives at a new destination, until their return journey home, Welcome accommodates all their travel needs, including transfers, sightseeing trips, and local information, in the easiest, friendliest, and most personalised way possible. Welcome's drivers are experts in the area and share their local know-how to make travellers feel at home wherever they are. The company has also introduced contactless rides, thorough cleaning protocols, and protective equipment to make every journey safe. Being a travel tech startup, Welcome continues to grow and scale its operations and is quickly becoming a global category leader for in-destination travel services.
• One of the highest-rated global transportation companies with a rating of 4.9/5 stars.
• Expanded from 200 destinations last year to 350, achieving our ambitious 2024 growth target.
• Over 4,000 travel partners including 2,500 hotels, numerous vacation rentals, and travel agents, adding 50+ new ones every month.
• Over 2.5 million happy travellers every year. ⭐️ If you want to dive deeper into the awesomeness of Welcome's culture, click on this link to check our TikTok account.⭐️ The Team We are a group of vibrant, diverse people who love travelling and never settle on quality. Each one of us didn’t join Welcome by chance and believes deeply in what Welcome is trying to achieve, so we work relentlessly to make that happen. We challenge common logic, focus on design, put simplicity and usability first, and create memorable experiences. We keep learning and exploring better ways to serve our community and grow personally and professionally in our respective fields. We stay humble along the way, with a “pay it forward” mentality, but with big and bold goals. As a Service Partner Operations Manager at Welcome Pickups, you will play a pivotal role in designing and running the operating model for these partnerships. You’ll own the strategy for selecting, onboarding, and managing partners, while nurturing long-term relationships that secure capacity, protect unit economics, and maintain quality. This is a highly cross-functional role, working with Operations, Quality, Recruiting, Pricing, Product, and Support teams to make service partners a seamless extension of Welcome’s supply network. Responsibilities
• Build and own the end-to-end partner operating model
- from selection and contracting to performance management and offboarding.
• Negotiate and nurture agreements with fleet and dispatcher partners to secure capacity and competitiveness.
• Define and track partner SLAs and scorecards (acceptance, on-time pickup, cancellations, Great Rides %, capacity readiness, disputes).
• Work cross-functionally with Quality, Recruiting, Pricing, and Support to integrate partners into core operations and maintain high standards.
• Coordinate with Supply and Destination Operations to deploy partners strategically for peak hours, events, and capability gaps.
• Collaborate with Product and Ops Excellence to drive adoption of partner tools and integrations, reducing manual processes and errors.
• Ensure legal and compliance frameworks are followed, partnering with Legal and Finance on contracting and documentation.
• Provide leadership with clear performance reporting and recommendations on when and where to scale up or down partner usage.
• Lead, coach and develop the Service Partner Operations team, including the Service Partner Operations Specialist(s): set clear goals and priorities, run regular 1:1s and performance reviews, and build the team’s capability as the partner network scales.
• 6+ years of experience in operations, supply, partner management or a similar role, ideally in a marketplace, mobility, travel-tech or other fast-paced tech environment.
• Proven experience building and running a partner or vendor operating model end to end, from selection and contracting to performance management and offboarding.
• Strong negotiation skills, with a track record of closing and managing commercial agreements that balance capacity, cost and quality.
• A data-driven approach: comfortable defining SLAs and scorecards, tracking performance KPIs, and turning data into clear recommendations for leadership.
• Solid understanding of unit economics, and the ability to judge when and where to scale partner usage up or down.
• Experience working cross-functionally with Ops, Product, Pricing, Legal and Finance, and aligning different priorities toward one outcome.
• People leadership experience, or a clear readiness for it: setting goals, coaching, running 1:1s and performance reviews, and growing a team as the scope scales.
• An ownership mindset: you take full responsibility for results, act without waiting for direction, and follow through.
• A drive for efficiency: you look for ways to automate, simplify and reduce manual work through tools and integrations.
• Eagerness to improve: you challenge the status quo, learn fast and adapt in a high-change environment.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build trust with external partners and present clearly to senior stakeholders. Any extra language will be considered a plus.
• Vibrant and fresh work environment
• Flexible work-from-home policy
• The tools you need to perform your daily tasks successfully
• L&D personal budget
• Private Insurance Plan
• +4 extra PTO days annually
• The unique opportunity to join “the next big thing” at ground level