---
title: 'Product Operations Manager at Zen Educate'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/product-operations-manager-zen-educate-london-010xx7fb6zzn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Product Operations Manager at Zen Educate

- **Company:** Zen Educate
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/zeneducate/7f3db517-24dc-45bf-b5e4-dea4ccb90e82

## Job description

London HQ (Oval)Hybrid (3 days in office)Full-time 🌍 Our Vision Every child deserves a better start toward the best possible future. The right educator in the right classroom at the right time can change a child’s chances and, at scale, a nation’s trajectory. Yet too much of our education system’s time, money, and talent are lost to inefficiency. At Zen Educate, we’re changing that through technology: helping schools save millions in tight times, helping educators find work that rewards their skills and fits their lives, and building a better-educated society that invests its best in every child. 👋 Hi, I’m Dan Cohen I’m the Chief Product Officer here at Zen Educate. We’ve already helped schools save over £30 million so far. That feels great, but it just shows what’s possible when the system works better, and we have a long way to go. Now we’re scaling fast in the UK and US, and the next chapter is about building the machine that keeps delivering that outcome at scale. With our Product & Technology team growing very rapidly around the world, we are squarely in the "messy middle." We are moving away from heavy, sprint-based processes toward a high-velocity, Mission-based operating model. We need a Product Operations Manager to be the architect of this system. 🧭 What “Product Ops” Means Here At Zen, “product ops” doesn’t mean creating bureaucracy or being a Jira administrator (especially as we don’t use Jira). It means building the system behind the system. You won't be managing the product itself; you'll be product-managing how we build products. We focus on Missions over Sprints and Outcomes over Outputs. You’ll care more about reducing friction and driving commercial and human impact than about what shape the solution takes. 💡 What You’ll Be Doing Guardian of our Ways of Working: Own and refine our Mission-based deployment model. You'll ensure teams move from "Pitch" to "Launch" with maximum autonomy and minimum bloat. Manage the "Single Front Door": Run our weekly Triage sessions. You’ll be the gatekeeper for the business, ensuring all requests are framed as clear Missions with a business case before they reach our Investment Committee. Own the "Single Pane of Glass": Maintain our central dashboard of core metrics (our HUD). You’ll ensure Product Managers have self-serve access to the data they need to prove their Mission’s impact. Standardize Rituals: Refine our "Mission Control" and "Waypoints" so the team has a clear rhythm of progress without a calendar full of empty meetings. Operational Glue: Work closely with Design, Engineering, and Growth to ensure smooth product launches and total cross-functional alignment. You’ll deliver the "Weekly Pulse" to keep the wider company informed. Fix the "Papercuts": Coordinate with Customer Service to triage bugs and small improvements, ensuring our rotating "Bugs & Papercuts" engineering teams are focused on the highest-value fixes. 🧩 The kind of person we’re looking for The Systems Thinker: You get itchy when there’s too much inefficiency. When you see a problem solved twice, you build a repeatable habit so it never happens a third time. The Pragmatic Mediator: You can hold multiple perspectives, keep your head when things are moving fast, and help a team find alignment without fuss. The Outcome-Obsessed: You believe in "buying our commodities and building our differentiators." You want to spend time on what actually moves the needle for schools and teachers. 🎓 The Experience We Think Helps 4+ years in Product Operations, Product Management, or Business Operations scaling systems with measurable impact. Scale-up Experience: You’ve navigated the "messy middle" of a fast-growing company (Series B/C/D). Data Literacy: You are comfortable working with BI systems and product analytics to turn raw data into a strategic narrative. Change Management: You have a track record of optimizing development lifecycles and managing a modern product tech stack. Communication: Evidence of making complex systems simple and usable for diverse teams. 🎁 What You’ll Get Work that directly improves children’s futures. Competitive salary and stock options. 25 days holiday plus bank holidays. A culture that values clarity, pace, and sustainability alongside human kindness. 🤝 How We Hire We keep it simple: Intro chat – a real conversation about your journey. Product Ops deep dive – how you think and the systems you’ve built. Task & Meet the Team – a practical look at how we’ll work together. If you’re excited by the idea of building the operational machine that gets the right educator into the right classroom at the right time, let’s talk.

## About Zen Educate

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Zen Educate is a digital platform that connects schools directly with qualified educators, replacing traditional staffing agencies to save money and improve classroom stability.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Education technology / education staffing
- Target customers: Schools (B2B) and educators (B2C); serves K-12 schools, academies, and trusts in the UK, US, and Canada
- Mission/purpose: "To reinvest in education through innovative technology" – the company aims to redirect funds from agency fees back into classrooms and provide stable, inspiring learning environments.

## Products & Services
- **Zen Educate Platform**: A digital marketplace that matches schools with supply/substitute teachers, teaching assistants, special education staff, early years educators, and other school support staff. The platform handles compliance checks, payroll, and scheduling. Educators sign up online, set preferences, and get matched to daily, long-term, or permanent roles. Schools benefit from faster fill rates (97% of short-term requests) and lower fees (roughly half of traditional agency fees).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – Series B led by Round2 Capital (amount undisclosed); over £50 million redirected into classrooms in the UK; $15 million saved in the US since 2022 launch.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Round2 Capital; government-approved education staffing supplier; accredited social enterprise and certified B Corp.
- **Growth Signals**: 1,000,000+ hours of classroom instruction delivered; 5,000+ educators empowered weekly; 13,000+ educators on platform; 2,000+ schools actively booking monthly; headcount of 1,196 employees (+52.6% YoY, +740 people); launched in the US in 2022 and expanding rapidly in cities like Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles; also operating in Canada; acquisitions of Opus Education, Aquinas Education, and AK Education.

## Competitive Advantages
- Technology-driven marketplace that bypasses costly traditional agencies, cutting fees by roughly 50% – saving schools money while allowing educators to earn more.
- Certified B Corp and accredited social enterprise, reinforcing a commitment to social impact over profit.
- High fill rate (97% for short-term requests) and integrated compliance/payroll, reducing administrative burden on schools.
- UK government-approved supplier, adding credibility in the public education sector.

## Strategic Focus
- Continued geographic expansion across the UK, US, and Canada.
- Deepening platform capabilities to attract more schools and educators, with a focus on stability and quality of placements.
- Reinvesting savings into classrooms and educator support to drive systemic change in education staffing.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven, ambitious, and collaborative team that "genuinely enjoys working together." Emphasis on ownership, transparency, and impact.
- **Work policy**: Mix of remote, hybrid, and office-based roles depending on location and function (e.g., Account Coordinator roles are remote in Canada; Sales roles are hybrid in Vancouver). Offices across the UK and US.
- **Perks**: Mac laptop, stock options for all employees, yearly pay reviews, comprehensive health insurance (Vitality in UK; Medical/Dental/Vision with 75% coverage in US), life insurance, 401k (US), Cycle to Work scheme (UK), generous vacation, twice-yearly Ship-It Day, clear career frameworks with training and mentoring.
- **Engineering/development**: Dedicated learning time, career progression frameworks, and structured onboarding.

## Sources
1. [zeneducate.com/about](https://www.zeneducate.com/about)
2. [jobs.lever.co/zeneducate](https://jobs.lever.co/zeneducate)
3. [zeneducate.com/careers](https://www.zeneducate.com/careers)
4. [uk.linkedin.com/company/zen-educate](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/zen-educate)
5. [zeneducate.com/us/careers](https://www.zeneducate.com/us/careers)

## Other roles at Zen Educate

- [Workers' Compensation Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/workers-compensation-coordinator-zen-educate-united-states-m6bmffmftc5y) — United States
- [FP&A Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/fp-a-analyst-zen-educate-vancouver-2ar6wy1vp67v) — Vancouver, Canada
- [Financial Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/financial-analyst-zen-educate-vancouver-xxp57qv261e9) — Vancouver, Canada
- [Resourcer - Newport](https://feeny.ai/job/resourcer-newport-zen-educate-newport-c5yea78wvh74) — Newport, United Kingdom
- [Account Manager - Manchester](https://feeny.ai/job/account-manager-manchester-zen-educate-manchester-aj2wkef5q2cw) — Manchester, United Kingdom
- [Compliance Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/compliance-specialist-zen-educate-los-angeles-5bdvjth8qp2p) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Compliance Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/compliance-specialist-zen-educate-chicago-c9rb57jghwcj) — Chicago, IL
- [FP&A Analyst](https://feeny.ai/job/fp-a-analyst-zen-educate-london-wz890ga94ptm) — London, United Kingdom
- [Talent Acquisition Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-acquisition-specialist-zen-educate-minneapolis-jg58g5gqxmw1) — Minneapolis, MN
- [Talent Acquisition Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-acquisition-specialist-zen-educate-chicago-4m122j7r980c) — Chicago, IL