STARR LUXURY CARS
We're hiring one person to run the whole machine.
Head of Operations
Luxury travel · Asset-light · Global · London-based
Read this carefully. Most people should not apply. This is the operational heart of a fast-moving luxury travel company, and I'm only interested in the small number of people who can actually run it.
Starr Luxury Cars connects the world's most discerning clients to the finest chauffeurs and self-drive supercars on the planet, without owning a single vehicle. We're asset-light by design: we scale on systems, relationships, and taste, not on capital. We operate across the UK, USA, Europe, and the UAE, in two business lines, and we are growing.
Right now, I am the machine. Every booking, every supplier, every fire routes through me. That is the single biggest constraint on how fast this company grows. I want to hand the entire operation to someone better at running it than I am, so I can do the two things only I can do: win clients and build partnerships. That someone is who this ad is for.
This is not a seat-warming, spreadsheet-forwarding ops role. This is simple to say and hard to do: take the whole operation, make it excellent, and make it scale.
You will inherit a business that works but runs on heroics: brilliant people holding it together in their heads, tools that don't talk to each other, and no single source of truth. Your job is to turn that into a precise, measurable, self-running operation that delivers flawless luxury experiences at 10x the volume, and to build the team that runs it.
If that sounds like pressure, it is. It's also the most fun you can have building something. You will have real ownership, real budget, and a founder who gets out of your way once you've earned the keys.
- The operation, end to end. Every booking across both lines, UK and international, from enquiry to flawless completion.
- The systems. Stand up a CRM as the single source of truth, kill manual admin with automation, and write the playbook so nothing lives in one person's head.
- The numbers. Design and run the KPI framework. Set the targets. Hold the team to them. If it isn't measured, you'll measure it.
- The people. Hire, onboard, and lead the ops team. Build a talent-dense bench, not a headcount.
- The suppliers. Own operator and fleet-partner relationships, drive reliability and margin, and build the playbooks for our US, Europe, and UAE hubs.
- The money that ops touches. Margin discipline, invoicing accuracy, reconciliation, cash, and refunds that go out on time, every time.
- I'm spending less than 10% of my time on operations, because you took it.
- Every lead, booking, client, and operator lives in one system, feeding a dashboard I can read in 60 seconds.
- 100% of trips are confirmed complete. No more assuming, no more blind spots.
- The team hits targets they helped set, and the business runs the week I'm on a plane.
- You've done this before. You've run operations that depend on suppliers you don't control: a marketplace, a logistics business, premium travel, mobility. You know how to deliver excellence through other people's hands.
- You build, you don't just manage. You've turned chaos into a documented, repeatable system. You've stood up CRMs, written SOPs, and automated things people said couldn't be automated.
- You run on metrics. You've designed KPI frameworks and moved teams to hit them, with numbers to prove it.
- You get the luxury standard. You understand HNW clients, discretion, and that at this level 'good enough' is a failure.
- You have extreme ownership. Problems stop with you. You don't escalate them back up; you solve them and tell me it's handled.
- You move fast and sweat the detail. In a company this size, the Head of Ops still does, not just directs. You're in the detail and above it at the same time.
I'd rather be blunt now than waste your time and mine:
- You talk strategy beautifully but have never personally built an SOP or a rota. (I need a builder.)
- You need a big team and a big process before you can produce anything.
- You've tracked metrics but never set a target or held anyone to one.
- You want a predictable 9-to-5 where nothing surprises you. This isn't that.
- You think luxury is about a logo, not about relentless, invisible attention to detail.
- Base: £65,000 to £110,000 depending on experience and the breadth you can carry. We pay for outcomes, not attendance.
- Upside: performance bonus tied directly to the numbers you own, plus equity/options on the table for the right person.
- Location: London, office-based, flexible on hybrid once you've earned it. Global remit; occasional travel to our hubs.
- The real perk: you will build something. Real ownership of a growing luxury brand, a founder who backs you, and the mandate to do it your way once you've earned it.
Do not send me a generic CV and a template cover letter. It goes in the bin. If you want this, show me you're the person I described above.
Send an email to cars@starrluxurycars.com with the subject line 'I'll run the machine', and answer three things, short and specific along with your CV:
- The last operation you personally fixed, and the number that proves it worked.
- The KPI you'd watch first at Starr Luxury Cars, and why.
- One thing about how we operate today that you'd change in your first week.
That's the filter. If you can't answer those in a way that makes me lean forward, this isn't your role. If you can, you might be exactly who I've been waiting for. I read every one of these myself.
Ike, Founder, Starr Luxury Cars