About PAAQ
PAAQ is a platform that connects people with vetted experts across categories for paid one-on-one video consultations. We are building a marketplace where knowledge has value and expertise is accessible. Bootstrapped, early-stage, moving fast. Ireland-headquartered with South African operations.
About the role
This is a founding-team hybrid role: half operations, half client-facing. As our Operations Associate you will own the operational engine that keeps PAAQ running AND you will run live product demos with prospective clients. Both halves matter equally. The person we hire is comfortable moving from a vendor negotiation to a live client demo to a workflow design session in the same day, without dropping the ball on any of them.
You will report directly to the founder, work from our Sandton office five days a week, and become the operational anchor of our team.
We are hiring specifically from the tech ecosystem because PAAQ moves at product pace. You will sit next to engineers, designers and growth people every day. Operations at a tech startup is not the same job as operations at a bank or a retailer. You need to understand release cycles, feature launches, product-led growth, remote and async collaboration, and how to demo software to a decision-maker without a script.
If you have been doing ops or business operations at a startup, scale-up, SaaS company, marketplace, mobile app company or a tech agency, and you have already been the person who demos your company's product to customers or partners, this is that role.
What you will do
- Own end-to-end business operations: vendor management, tools stack, procurement, contracts, and workflow design.
- Run live product demos of PAAQ to prospective clients across categories, from small businesses to institutional partners.
- Coordinate cross-functional workflows across our product, engineering, design, marketing and business development teams (some in Sandton, most remote).
- Support our people operations: onboarding, offboarding, contracts, and adherence to POPIA and other data protection standards.
- Coordinate with our external finance partners in Ireland and South Africa on operational touchpoints.
- Anchor our Sandton office: welcome guests, keep the space functional, coordinate visitor logistics.
- Build and document the SOPs and internal playbooks that let a small tech team scale without breaking.
- Own event operations for PAAQ and PAAQ's presence at external events (Startup Fair Vilnius, Africa Tech Festival, industry expos).
What we are looking for
- 3 to 5 years of operations or business operations experience inside a technology company: SaaS, marketplace, mobile app, fintech, edtech, healthtech, dev tools, tech agency, or venture-backed startup.
- Real experience running live product demos of a software product to prospective customers. Not attended demos, ran them. Comfortable adapting the demo based on who is in the room.
- Comfortable in a tech culture: sprint cycles, feature releases, async collaboration, Slack-first communication, product-led growth vocabulary.
- Fluency in the modern productivity stack: Slack, Notion, Google Workspace, spreadsheets. Bonus if you have experience with Supabase, Zapier, Segment, Mixpanel, or similar tools.
- Strong client-facing polish. You can walk into a demo room and hold your own with senior stakeholders.
- Systems and process discipline. You will design a workflow before someone asks you to.
- Excellent written and verbal English.
- POPIA-aware. Understands data protection basics.
- Comfortable with startup ambiguity. You do not need a job description to know what to do next.
- South African citizen or holder of appropriate work authorization.
What would be a bonus
- Prior experience at an early-stage or Seed-stage startup (Series A or earlier).
- Product or customer success-adjacent experience.
- HR and people operations exposure in a tech setting.
- Financial literacy (reading a P&L, coordinating with accountants).
- Event operations experience in the tech ecosystem.
- Prior exposure to Ireland or UK entity administration.
- Fluency in a second African language.
Who this role is not for
- Traditional corporate operations professionals (bank, insurance, retail, manufacturing).
- Pure PA or administrative assistant candidates.
- Anyone whose primary demo experience is with non-software products.
We say this up front so we do not waste your time or ours.
What we offer
- Competitive base salary reflective of our stage as a bootstrapped early-stage startup.
- Performance bonus tied to clear operational KPIs.
- Demo-based commission on deals closed through your work.
- Stock options through our forthcoming employee equity program, backdated to your start date.
- Milestone-triggered base salary adjustments as PAAQ grows.
- 3-month probation, permanent thereafter.
- A defined growth path from Associate to Manager to Head of Operations within 18 to 24 months on performance.
- Direct exposure to the founder and every function of an early-stage tech company.
- A front-row seat to building the platform that will change how the world accesses expertise.
How to apply
Send your CV to [email protected] with the subject line: Operations Associate Application - [Your Full Name].
In your email, include a short paragraph (max 200 words) telling us:
- Why you want to work in a tech startup at this stage of your career.
- The most interesting operational problem you have solved at a tech company.
We are moving quickly and would like the successful candidate to start this month.
We look forward to hearing from you.