Operations Specialist (Test)

Operations Manager / ??

Viatu is a travel tech company designing bespoke African wildlife journeys. We're a young, dynamic, and ambitious international team, with a strong base in Cape Town for regular meetups. We don't sell trips; we craft experiences that people carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Alongside Viatu, we're building Marvelled, our B2B platform where travel agents and tour operators can quote and book tailor-made Africa trips directly. You'll work across both businesses, our tour operator and our software platform, making sure supply and demand connect the way they should.

About the Role

You are the person who connects supply with demand. You make sure our lodges, camps, activity providers, and other partners are correctly onboarded, featured, and priced on the platform, so that properties can sell their beds and agents can sell with ease and confidence.

You'll build relationships with partners, online and in person, to understand what they offer, and turn that into itineraries our sales consultants can put in front of a Viatu traveller, and offers our travel agents can put in front of their own clients through the platform. You know what a strong, sellable offer looks like, and you take charge of shaping it, property by property, detail by detail. You're also the one who brings that knowledge back to the team, through training and destination sessions that help everyone sell Africa with more confidence. Along the way, you'll work closely with sales, marketing, customer experience, and tech, strengthening how Viatu presents and operates its travel products and keeping the link between our partners, our systems, and the traveller experience as tight as it should be.

You'll thrive here if you enjoy turning operational detail into something that runs itself, on a platform that's still growing.

What You'll Do

Own supplier content on the platform: Keep descriptions, images, and destination information accurate and compelling, so agents always get correct, well-presented offers.

Lead supplier onboarding: Get new partners set up on the platform, correctly and completely, from a content and technical standpoint alike.

Manage rates and terms: Make sure the right rates are loaded and kept current for our partners, with a hand in negotiating terms and conditions along the way.

Continuously improve the negotiated and achieved rate through strong relationships with our partners 

Support, CX?, Reservation, Invoices, Payments 

Collaborate closely with our Tech, Marketing, and Sales team to continuously improve our platform and develop new features our users love.

Build and deliver training: Understand what the team needs to know, on destinations, suppliers, or internal tools, and turn that into training across both sides of the business.

Work across the team: Collaborate with the Head of Product, the Ops Hub, and other teams as needed, taking on more as the role and the platform grow.

Support invoice management: Help manage invoicing for the services we book on behalf of our agents, as this part of the operation takes shape.

What We're Looking For

• You notice what others miss. A rate that doesn't add up, a listing that's gone stale, a detail buried three clicks deep. You catch it before it becomes someone else's problem.

• A confident communicator, with colleagues and partners alike. People trust you to represent Viatu well, without being handed a script.

• You can take something you understand well and teach it clearly. Training the sales team on a new destination, or walking a partner through the platform for the first time, comes naturally to you.

• You stay organized under a heavy, shifting workload. Things not being fully mapped out doesn't throw you off your game.

• A self-starter who takes on work that isn't clearly defined.

• Genuinely curious about African travel, startup culture, and technology.

A Big Plus

• Previous experience in the travel industry, ideally in product, content, or operations.

• Previous experience in a fast-paced startup.

• Additional languages, particularly German or other European languages relevant to our B2B markets.

• Deep product and destination knowledge of Africa, or extensive travel experience there.

• AI-native with a good understanding of the current app landscape (Google Suite, Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, etc)

Our ideal candidate is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Viatu curates tailor-made trips across Africa, primarily to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Tanzania. Travelers select from pre-designed trip templates or build custom itineraries, then book their accommodations and experiences through the platform. The company handpicks sustainable lodges and local partners to ensure trips generate positive impact for communities and environments. Viatu's team provides personal support throughout the planning process and remains available during travel. The company is a certified B Corporation committed to making ethical travel accessible, with a focus on reducing over-tourism and preserving wild places.