China Project & Operations Manager

Location: Shanghai, China About the company: Our client is a fast-growing tech start-up founded in 2018 that is revolutionizing the way travelers stay connected to the internet abroad. With a diverse team of over 500 professionals globally, they are helping millions of travelers stay connected across more than 180 destinations worldwide. About the team: Our client is a global eSIM provider structured with functional teams that drives growth across all countries. The International Growth team sets and drives the strategy behind our client's expansion into new and current geographies, ensuring cross-functional alignment and local market success. About the role: Lead and coordinate the end-to-end launch of our client's product in China by driving the execution roadmap, ensuring compliant operations, and mobilizing global functional teams (Product, Tech, Legal, Marketing, Finance, Support) alongside local external partners to deliver a high-quality, scalable market entry. This is a high-impact, hands-on orchestration role where you act as the central point of coordination for China initiatives, accountable for execution discipline, launch readiness, risk and dependency management, compliance alignment, and clear KPI-driven reporting to ensure the program stays on scope, on time, and scalable. This role is ideal for a strategic thinker and hands-on entrepreneurial operator who thrives in ambiguity, builds from scratch, and drives outcomes through influence in a fast-paced, cross-functional global environment. China is a priority growth market, and this role puts you at the center of building the launch and scaling engine from day one, high visibility, real ownership, and a steep learning curve that will accelerate your growth as a cross-functional leader while helping shape our market leadership position in China. Key Responsibilities: China Launch Program Management & Execution Own the China launch master plan, including milestones, dependencies, risks, and delivery timelines across functions. Coordinate cross-functional execution with Global teams (Product, Tech, Legal, Marketing, Finance, Ops) to ensure on-time, high-quality delivery. Establish a clear execution cadence: weekly progress reviews, risk tracking, decision logs, and escalation paths. Ensure clear, consistent communication with global stakeholders through structured reporting, dashboards, and executive updates. Coordinate cross-functional dependencies with HQ Marketing, Strategy team, and the local Marketing Manager to ensure launch readiness. Product & Tech Localization: Ensure the product and tech localization workstream remains aligned with the overall launch roadmap by monitoring key milestones, identifying cross-functional dependencies, and escalating risks that may impact launch readiness, in close partnership with the Product Manager Finance & Compliance Coordination Financial operations: Coordinate with our ¨External Operations and Finance Firm ¨ to manage finance and accounting (bookkeeping, tax filings, statutory reporting, payroll, accounts receivable/payable, credit control, expense processing), ensuring alignment with Global Finance processes, timely closes, accurate data flows, and compliant local execution. Compliance: Manage external China counsel in close collaboration with Global Legal to: track regulatory requirements impacting operations and product, and maintain a compliance roadmap and execution timeline Operations & Customer Support Working with management to define effective operational set-up and processes Coordinate the setup and ongoing management of China local operations, acting as the central point of orchestration across global and local external partners. Coordinate and manage external partners (e.g. agencies, service providers), managing contracts, ensuring clear scopes, timelines, and deliverables, performance tracking and issue resolution. Define and implement the China customer support operating model in partnership with the global support team, ensuring it is fully operational at launch and scalable as volume grows. Monitor and improve local customer reputation and service quality, driving strong ratings and responsiveness across key review platforms and social channels. Managing general office operations – access, furniture, facilities and equipment Cross-Functional Alignment & Reporting Act as the single point of coordination for China-related initiatives across global teams. Manage and communicate the P&L account. Prepare structured updates for senior stakeholders covering: Progress vs plan, Risks, dependencies, and mitigation actions, Trade-offs and resourcing needs Ensure alignment on priorities, timelines, and responsibilities across functions. Drive clarity and accountability in a multi-time-zone, matrixed environment. Requirements Must-Haves: 5–8+ years in high-growth tech / consumer internet in roles such as Project/Program Manager, Operations Manager, Expansion Lead, or Strategy & Operations, with direct China experience. Proven track record leading market launch / market entry programs end-to-end and scaling operations (master plan, milestones, dependencies, risks, delivery timelines). Strong ability to coordinate global teams across Product, Tech, Legal, Finance, Ops/Support, and Marketing driving execution through influence across time zones. Hands-on experience managing external partners (e.g., legal counsel, accounting/finance firms, operations vendors, service providers), including scope, timelines, and issue resolution. Ability to translate compliance/regulatory requirements into actionable roadmaps and execution tracking, aligned with Global Legal. Experience coordinating finance operations with external providers and HQ Finance (tax, payroll coordination, reporting accuracy). Experience setting up or coordinating customer support operations for a consumer digital product (process design, launch readiness, scaling, service quality). Strong KPI/analytics fluency to manage execution and performance reporting (dashboards, operational KPIs, customer experience metrics). Strategic mindset with a hands-on entrepreneurial approach; comfortable building from scratch, operating in ambiguity, and driving outcomes with lean resources. Fluent Mandarin andEnglish; strong stakeholder management and cross-cultural communication. Nice-to-Haves: Experience in travel, e-commerce, telco, SaaS, or consumer tech industries. Familiarity with China-specific tech constraints (local hosting, analytics, platform integrations, Great Firewall considerations). Experience supporting reputation management and review/rating performance across local platforms and social channels (in coordination with Marketing/Support). Consulting, PMO, or Strategy & Operations background. MBA or formal project/program management training (eg. Agile) is a plus.