Community & Operations Manager

Job description

ABOUT US Life as a founder is lonely. And the places founders go for connection are mostly stiff and formal. PLUGGED is London's community for ambitious founders. Serious ambition, serious fun. Since launching in early 2024, we've been connecting founders through events and shared experiences. We're a tightly curated, fast-growing community of builders who are done with networking for networking's sake and want something real. We run events, sprints, residentials, and programmes that solve the actual problems founders face. We're small, we move fast, and everything we build reflects the community we're building it for. Our mission is to make it easier for great founders to change the world. OUR CULTURE We blend serious ambition with serious fun. No bullshit, no ego. Just people who understand the journey and want to help. We do the unscalable. The personal touch, the follow-up nobody asked for, the detail that makes someone feel genuinely seen. That's what makes a community feel like a community. We're honest, direct, and high-trust. We move fast but we care about quality: in our events, our membership, and how we show up for people. We'd rather have a smaller room of the right people than a packed one of the wrong ones. WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR You've been in and around startups. You have a founders associate kind of energy: close to building, fluent in the pace of startups, hungry to learn by doing. You're community-minded not because it's on your CV, but because it's who you are. BAD NEWS - This role touches a lot: sales, ops, events, member experience. There'll be context switching - The team is small. You'll be running whole functions on your own - If you need a detailed brief to get started, this isn't the role - You'll be on the ground at events. Early mornings, late evenings, full presence. That's part of it GOOD NEWS - You'll be working side by side with some of London's most ambitious founders from day one, hosting events for an ecosystem that has collectively raised $153m+ - You'll work directly with the co-founders and the decisions you make will shape the business - Real ownership. You're not supporting someone else's vision, you're helping shape ours - The membership is already growing. You're coming in with momentum, not starting from zero - This role grows with you. There's no ceiling on where it goes THE ROLE You'll own the membership funnel at PLUGGED, from the moment someone applies to the moment they become one of our most engaged members. This isn't an admin role with an exciting job title. It's a commercial, operational, and community-building role that directly determines the quality of our membership and the health of our growth. YOUR MISSION Keep the membership pipeline full and converting. Keep members happy and engaged. Run a sales process that's fast, high-quality, and human. Build an experience so good that members stay and refer their founder friends. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING Sales - Vet, score, and review membership applications. Accept, reject, and follow up with care - Run member interviews and make the call on who belongs - Own the pipeline: nurture sequences, follow-ups, and CRM hygiene - Run member trial days and manage the handoff into membership - Report on pipeline numbers and conversion rates Membership Experience - Own onboarding. Make every new member feel like joining was the best decision they made this month - Run monthly member feedback meetings and act on feedback - Plan and run regular members-only events and sprints - Regular check-ins with members at key milestones: 1 month, 3 months, and beyond - Handle payments, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, and invoices - Keep members informed with timely, well-crafted comms Events - Show up hands-on at community events: Open Houses, Residentials, Retreats, Workshops - Be the person members see when they walk in. Welcoming, energetic, present - Handle on-the-day logistics WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE By month 1: You know every current member by name. The CRM is clean. The application process is running smoothly. You've been to every event and you're already part of the fabric of the community. By month 3: Conversion rates are up. Member feedback meetings are running. You've run at least one members-only event end-to-end. By month 6: Retention is strong, churn is low, and the pipeline is healthy. Members are referring friends. You've got a clear view of what's working and what to do next. You've made yourself indispensable. SKILLS & EXPERTISE - You're a people person. You get energy from interacting with people in person - Operationally sharp. You can run a CRM, manage a pipeline, track metrics, and keep multiple things moving without dropping them - A clear, confident communicator. You can send a rejection email that leaves someone with a good impression of PLUGGED - You pick things up quickly and figure things out without being told - You understand the startup world well enough to be credible with founders EXPERIENCE - You've been in or around startups: as a founder, a founder's associate, or an early hire - You've contributed meaningfully to a community. Built one, or been the person who made an existing one actually work - You've run some form of events, even small ones. You know what goes into making them work - You've done sales, account management, or customer success in some form - You're comfortable with CRM and ops tools. You don't need to be an expert, but you're not starting from zero - You're comfortable being the only person owning a function WHAT SETS YOU APART - Genuine bias towards action. You don't wait to be told. You spot the gap and fill it - You're community-minded because it's who you are, not because it's a job requirement - You want to work closely with founders because you're either building something yourself one day, or you find their world genuinely fascinating - You know what a good event feels like, what a good email reads like, what a good community feels like - You've built things. Whether it's vibe-coding with Claude, community-building, or something else entirely. You're a serial builder DEAL BREAKERS - You think community is a nice-to-have, not a growth engine - You treat community management as content scheduling and comment replies - You're not comfortable showing up in person - You don't care about relationship-building - You need to be managed closely to stay productive - You're not genuinely curious about founders and what they're building WHY JOIN NOW PLUGGED is at a genuinely exciting moment. The community is growing, the model is working, and the next phase is about scaling. This is the kind of role where you'll learn faster than almost anywhere else, own work that actually matters, and be working side by side with some of London's most ambitious founders. Become part of an ecosystem that has collectively raised $153m+. Come in now and you're shaping what PLUGGED becomes. COMPENSATION - Salary: £40-45k base, plus performance-related bonus - Commitment: Full time - Location: London-based. In-person presence required, especially for events HOW TO APPLY Hit apply. Tell us why this makes sense for you and show us a community you've been part of or helped build. We want to see what you've actually done, not just what you say you can do. Our process: 1. Apply - tell us your story and show us your proof of work 2. Interview - a conversation about you, the role, and how you think about community 3. Task - a short, practical exercise. Real work, completable in 48 hours 4. Paid trial - if the task lands, we work together properly before making it official 5. Hired - if the trial works, you're in