Strategy and Operations Associate

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), led by deep-tech investors Plural (whose portfolio spans fusion energy and space exploration), Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen

Relay’s Mission is to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

THE TEAM
• ~90 people, more than half in engineering, product and data
• 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research
• Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle
• An intellectually vibrant culture of first‑principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation

The Opportunity

Relay’s network spans sortation centres, pitstops, middle mile couriers, and last mile delivery partners. We grew 10x last year. For us to continue to grow and scale, these teams must operate smoothly, with enough supply to cover demand, create processes that can scale another 10x and beyond, and a consistently great experience for every person on the ground.

We are scaling our pitstops network this year: a growth that will break our operations unless we build systems that scale. This role owns the design and implementation of those systems. You'll build the onboarding, retention, and performance frameworks that enable us to activate many new Pitstops per week, maintain industry leading churn across thousands of locations, and scale operations without scaling headcount linearly.

This role will sit within the Middle Mile and Pitstops Squad and you'll work directly with product, engineering, and design to design how partners move through their entire lifecycle: exciting opportunity to work on everything from contract signature to their first parcel, daily operations, performance management, and off-boarding. You'll identify where automation, better tooling, or smarter workflows can reduce manual work and help us scale efficiently.

Why This Role Matters:

• Direct P&L impact: The systems you build unlock our ability to handle 10x parcels/day at a high gross margin

• Ownership from day one: You'll own entire systems, not tasks. Ship changes that touch thousands of partners within weeks.

• Learn how logistics networks actually scale: Most people optimise existing processes. You'll design the operating system for a multi-sided logistics network.

What You'll Do:

• Design and implement lifecycle systems across onboarding, retention, and performance management

• Identify the bottlenecks, feedback loops, and leverage points in how we scale our network

• Use qualitative and quantitative data to understand where systems break and architect solutions

• Work embedded with product and engineering to ship in-app features, automation, and operational tooling

  • Own outcomes: activation speed, churn rate, support efficiency, and network quality metrics

• Move fast between strategy (designing the system) and operations (testing it on the ground with real partners)

Projects You'll Work On:

• Compress pitstop activation to ≤3 days: Design and launch the digital onboarding flow, staff readiness verification, and physical supply logistics that enable us to scale 6x new pitstops launches per week without adding HQ headcount

• Build self-service partner support: Help build in-app parcel search, troubleshooting wizards, and automated workflows that enable Pitstop partners to resolve 80%+ of issues without calling us

• Design the performance evaluation and off-boarding framework: Define evaluation criteria, intervention protocols, and graceful wind-down processes that maintain network quality as we scale. Make the decision between improvement and off-boarding data-driven and repeatable, not ad-hoc.

Who Will Thrive in this role?

• Systems thinker: You naturally see how parts connect to the whole. You understand feedback loops, unintended consequences, and leverage points. When someone describes a problem, you instinctively map out the system causing it. Familiarity with systems thinking (e.g., Donella Meadows' Thinking in Systems) is a strong signal.

• Builder, not just optimiser: You've designed and implemented something from scratch with limited guidance; whether that's a process, product, side project, or operational system. You know the difference between improving what exists and architecting what should exist.

• Strategic to operational range: You are equally comfortable designing a lifecycle framework in a strategy session and jumping on the ground to shadow partners and understand why it's breaking.

• Strong analytical foundation: You are comfortable working with data to identify patterns, test hypotheses, and make decisions. Experience with SQL, BigQuery, or similar tools is valuable but not required if you can learn fast.

• Ownership mindset: You are proactive and self-starting. You spot problems, architect solutions, and drive them to completion. You're motivated by outcomes (churn rate, activation speed, network quality) not tasks.

• Clear communicator: You can explain complex systems simply. You can influence stakeholders across operations, product, and engineering without formal authority.

• 1–3 years of experience in operations, growth, strategy, consulting, or a similarly fast-paced environment. But we care more about how you think than your resume.

Fast and Focused Hiring Process

1. Talent Acquisition Interview - Remote- 30 min

2. Hiring Manager Interview - 60 min

3. Case Study - Onsite - 75 min

4. Final Interview - 1 hour

5. Decision and offer within 48 hours; Our process mirrors our pace of work.

Compensation, Benefits & Workplace

• Generous equity, richer than 99% of European startups, with annual top-ups to share Relay’s success.

• Private health & dental coverage, so comprehensive you’d need to be a partner at a Magic Circle law firm to match it.

• 25 days of holidays

• Enhanced parental leave.

• Located in Shoreditch, our office set-up enables the kind of in-person interactions that drive impact. We work 4 days on-site, with 1 day remote.

• Hardware of your choice.

• Extensive perks (gym subsidies, cycle-to-work, Friday office lunch, covered Uber home and dinner for late nights, and more).

Who Thrives at Relay?

• Aim with Precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.

• Play to Win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.

• 1% Better Every Day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.

• All In, All the Time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.

• People-Powered Greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candour. You build trust through high standards and shared success.

• Grow the Whole Pie: You seek out win-win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.
  
  If these resonate, and you combine strong technical fundamentals with entrepreneurial drive, let’s connect.

Relay is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.