Operations & Systems Lead Founders' Right-Hand

Operations & Systems Lead — Founders' Right-Hand

Goa, India · VIE 12–24 months → CDI (or direct CDI for senior profiles) · June / July 2026 start

Why this role exists

We are Mi&Gei Hardware Design Studio— a premium hardware product design studio based in Goa, India. www.miandgei.com. We design and manufacture our decorative and architectural hardware: we operate a surface-treatment plant (powder coating, patina, lacquering) and are currently commissioning our own sand-casting plant. We sell internationally on a Shopify storefront in USD, and we just opened a Delaware C-corp branch in the United States.

We are a team of 12 people on the ground, plus a network of freelancers and partners in France, the US and India. The full Zoho One suite is live, SOPs exist, and our FR + US marketing agencies, Indian CA partner and Zoho integration partner are already in place.

We are creators. We are not operators. We have hit the natural ceiling of what we can run ourselves — and we are inviting someone in whose craft is the opposite of ours: process, clarity, order, rigour.

You are not starting from zero. You are taking ownership of an operating system that is already partially built.

The mission

Architect and operate our operating system. Within nine months, free the founders from recurring daily operations so we can focus on what only we can do.

What you will own (phased)

Phase 1 · Months 1–4 — Systems, Data & Cadence

• Zoho One administration & automation (Flow + Deluge, wiring Inventory ↔ Books ↔ CRM ↔ Shopify).
• SOP library — own, version, enforce.
• Reporting cadence — weekly one-pager, monthly P&L, quarterly ops deck.
• Reconciliation discipline across Shopify, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Books.
• Vendor & partner orchestration (FR + US agencies, Indian CA, Zoho partner).

Phase 2 · Months 5+ — Physical Operations & Supply

• Inventory & warehousing (multi-location, QC, receiving).
• Production cadence with our factories and our own plants (casting, surface treatment).
• Export documentation (FOB, customs, Indian export-incentive compliance).
• Payments & gateway reconciliation (Stripe, PayPal, CashFree, Payoneer).

Decision rights

• You own: operational cadence, SOPs, reporting, system hygiene, vendor coordination, reconciliation discipline, automation architecture.
• You do not own: brand, product design, final supplier selection, commercial/pricing strategy.
• You have authority to: define and enforce SOPs, brief external partners, approve operational spend up to a ceiling agreed at offer stage, push back on founders when a workflow breaks the SOP. The founders commit to being managed on process once the rhythm is agreed.

What this role is not

• Not a pure strategy role — you will write SOPs, chase data, close loops.
• Not a creative or design role — adjacent to the creative work, not responsible for it.
• Not an engineering role — technical fluency, not software-engineer depth.
• Not a founder's assistant — you build the system that reduces ad-hoc requests.

First 90 days - Horizon - What success looks like

Day 30

SOP library mapped. Zoho admin handover started. Weekly ops report shipped 4 weeks in a row. 2 SOPs drafted.

Day 60

3 Zoho Flow automations live (or in implementation with our Zoho partner). Shopify ↔ Inventory ↔ Books reconciliation cadence established.

Day 90

5 SOPs in production. Operating-model blueprint v1 published. KPI dashboard live. Founder daily-ops time on transferred domains materially reduced and on a trackable downward trajectory (target <10 h/week by Month 9).

Who we are looking for

• Passionate about process, clarity, order. Reorganises messy folders for fun.
• Rigorous, with a taste for adventure. India is not a soft posting; Goa softens it.
• Complementary to founders — proud to be the operational counterweight.
• Comfortable saying "we don't do it that way" to a busy founder when the SOP says so.

Skills

• Master's (Bac+5) — business, engineering, supply chain, management or equivalent — completed within the last 24 months (VIE track), or 4–7 years of relevant operations experience (direct CDI track).
• Fully bilingual French / English. Operational language on site is English with our Indian team and US partners.
• Hands-on SaaS administration — Zoho One ideal; Salesforce+NetSuite, HubSpot+Xero, Notion+Airtable acceptable.
• Comfortable reading/writing small scripts (Deluge, Zapier/Make, Apps Script, basic Python or JS).
• Daily user of AI assistants (Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT).

Strong plus: hardware/industrial ops (BOM, SKU, MOQ), Shopify e-commerce ops, FR↔IN or FR↔US cross-border ops, light accounting literacy.

Practical information

Location: Goa, India — full-time on site · 40 min from Goa International Airport

Host & paying entity: La French Studio Pvt Ltd (incorporated in India)

Team: 12 on site + freelance & partner network (FR, US, IN)

Reports to: The founders, directly

Vehicle: VIE 12–24 months → CDI pathway, or direct CDI for senior profiles

Housing: Company-provided apartment included

Cost of living: ≈ ₹1 lakh/month allows a very comfortable lifestyle in Goa (rent ≈ ₹20k, scooter rental ≈ ₹5k)

Transport: Company vehicle for airport pick-up/drop; scooter rental easy and cheap = international airport 35mn from the Warehouse.

Meals: Lunch provided every day at the studio

Healthcare: Excellent private healthcare access — Manipal Hospital, Panjim

Benefits: EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) for all employees

Compensation: VIE indemnité — India zone (Business France grid) with company housing and lunch on top, or competitive CDI package for senior profiles. Exact financial frame shared before the first full interview

Turnover context: Established studio with turnover above US$1M (details shared later in the process)

Start date: June / July 2026

How to apply

1. Refresh your profile on civiweb.com (mandatory for VIE).
2. Apply JobTeaser — ref. LFS-OPS-2026.
3. Email < email deleted for security reasons > — subject « LFS Goa — [Your Name] » — with:

• your CV;
• a 1-page note answering "Pick one operational SOP you would write in your first 30 days at LFS, and sketch its outline";
• one example of an automation or process improvement you have personally shipped.

Process (≤ 4 weeks per candidate): 30-min screen → 90-min live case study on a real LFS ops problem (designed for assessment, not unpaid consulting; expect deliberate mid-case ambiguity) → 1-hour founder conversation → reference checks.

La French Studio Pvt Ltd is an equal-opportunity employer. We hire on craft, judgement, and the willingness to install rhythm where there is currently improvisation.

— The Founders · Goa · April 2026