The Bike Club
Lean Operations Manager
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Lean Operations Manager
Growth Opportunity: Lean Operations Manager
Early-career talent ready to step into a mature Operations role is strongly encouraged to apply.
Welcome to The Bike Club Pioneering sustainable, high-quality cycling access for all families. Through our subscription model, children consistently ride the right-sized bike—we grow, refurbish, and redistribute them. With 80,000+ bikes on the road, $50M+ in funding, and rapid expansion across Europe, we're in the early stages.
About the Role
We're seeking a Lean Operations Manager to drive operational excellence across our warehouse, refurbishment, and fulfilment operations in Rainham, London. This is a hands-on, gemba-focused role, ideal for those who thrive in the warehouse, are passionate about problem-solving, and use observation and data to deliver measurable improvement.
We've designed this as a single, broad role with substantial autonomy—whether you're early-career but ambitious or experienced, you'll find opportunity to grow or take ownership from day one. You’ll collaborate closely with warehouse leads, mechanics, customer service, and last-mile partners to eliminate waste, accelerate throughput, and ensure every refurbished bike flows seamlessly from intake to customer.
Your insights and decisions will shape the scalable growth of a circular system across Europe.
Key Tasks
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Lead Continuous Improvement Program: Define a roadmap for operational excellence across intake, refurbishment, dispatch, and returns, prioritise initiatives, and report results to leadership.
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Value Stream Mapping & Bottleneck Analysis: Map end-to-end processes (bike intake → refurbishment → quality control → outbound dispatch → courier → customer → returns), identifying waste, rework, and bottlenecks.
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Kaizen & Problem-Solving Workshops: Facilitate kaizen, A3 problem-solving sessions, and root-cause analysis with cross-functional teams (mechanics, warehouse operators, and leads).
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Operational KPIs & Metrics: Define and improve key performance indicators—cycle time, refurbishment throughput, first-time-right rates, on-time dispatch, returns turnaround, and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness).
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Standardisation & Process Reliability: Implement standard work, 5S, visual management, and pull-based flow in the warehouse and refurbishment workshops.
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On-the-Floor Leadership: Spend substantial time observing and coaching teams, ensuring improvements become sustainable.
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Capacity & Layout Planning: Optimise workstation design, station balancing, tool placement, and bike workflow for scaling.
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Last-Mile & Courier Partnerships: Reduce failed deliveries, returns leakage, and customer waiting times through collaboration with delivery providers.
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Data-Driven Decision Making: Build reporting systems and dashboards using (Excel, WMS, Salesforce, BI tools) to track operational performance.
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Lean & Continuous Improvement Coaching: Train warehouse leads and operators in lean methodologies, nurturing a culture of continuous improvement.
Requirements
- Gemba mindset: Prefer the warehouse floor to a desktop.
- Analytical & structured problem-solving: Skilled in breaking down messy operations, using Excel (or equivalent) to drive actionable insights.
- Collaboration: Comfortable engaging naturally at both team and senior leadership levels.
- Pragmatic & action-oriented: Thrive in a fast-growing, rapidly evolving scale-up environment.
- Degree preference: Industrial Engineering, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Business Engineering, or equivalent.
- Operations experience: Internships, working student roles, full-time positions, or ongoing projects in operational settings.
- Lean/Continuous Improvement Interest: Bonus points for experience with Lean Six Sigma (Yellow/Green/Black Belt certifications) or proven kaizen value-stream projects.
- Technical comfort: Familiarity with WMS, ERP, Salesforce, ticketing tools; SQL or BI tools are a plus.
- Language: Fluent English (primary working language); German is a strong asset.
- Bonus: Passion for circular economy, refurbished goods, subscription models, or sustainable mobility.
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Note: We encourage applications from early-career professionals—structure, drive, and enthusiasm matter more than years of experience.
Benefits
- Holidays: 25 days per year, plus bank holidays.
- Private medical insurance.
- Salary sacrifice pension scheme.
- Parental leave: Enhanced maternity and paternity leave policies.
- Bike subscription: £30 subscription allowance to The Bike Club.
- Sustainability impact: Contribute to environmental and social good within a B Corp-certified organisation.
Ready to make operations efficient and sustainable?
Apply today—we’re growing leaner, greener, and smarter.
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