Senior Operations Account Manager - Mandarin Speaking , London

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M) led by deep-tech investors Plural, and a recently closed Series B ($95M), Relay is scaling faster than 99% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen

Relay’s Mission is to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

THE TEAM
• ~160 people, around half in engineering, product and data
• 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research
• Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle
• An intellectually vibrant culture of first‑principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation

Some of our biggest accounts are Chinese platforms, 3PLs and brokers moving millions of parcels into the UK. They grow with us when parcels arrive on time, issues get fixed fast, and someone on our side always knows exactly what’s going on. That someone is you.

As our Mandarin-speaking Senior Operations Account Manager, you’ll take on some of the most complex of these accounts and set the standard for how we run account operations as we scale. Your mission is simple to say and hard to do: make sure operations are never the reason a client hesitates to grow.

A team behind every client. We’ve rebuilt our growth engine around small pods of three, built to win together. A Growth Lead owns the commercial relationship, a Program Manager triages internally to get initiatives over the line, and you own the operation that makes every promise real. Same clients, same goals, same numbers. No one carries a client alone, and every win is shared.

A real say in profitability. Margin is owned jointly by the pod through different lenses. When you cut parcel losses or make a collection run more efficiently, you’ll see exactly what it’s worth, and so will everyone else.

Scale that keeps moving. We plan to more than double daily volume by July 2027 and open one or two international markets. Your accounts, and your role, grow with that.

A career you can shape. Our Account Management team is tripling. Go deeper, taking on bigger and more complex accounts until you’re the expert the business leans on. Or go wider, across more pods, and in time lead others doing what you do.

• Be the client’s go-to. Run the day-to-day relationship in Mandarin and English, on every channel, WeChat included.

• Own performance end to end. Know every metric that matters to your clients inside out, from on-time delivery to lost and undelivered parcels, and what’s driving each one. Then own every escalation from first report to final fix.

• Set the weekly rhythm. Lead weekly business reviews so clients hear the news from you first, good or bad.

• Make the forecast real. You won’t take a client’s forecast at face value. You’ll challenge it, sharpen it, and become the person whose numbers the network plans around.

• Protect the margin. Spot when an account’s profitability starts to slip, find the leak, and bring the recovery plan before anyone asks.

• Fix things once. Turn recurring issues into permanent fixes with our operations, quality and finance teams, then share them across every pod.

• You’re the person others call when a problem gets complicated, and you like it that way.

• You’ve led operational improvements that went beyond a single account, and you can show what they were worth.

• You can run a fix across operations, quality and finance at once: you map the dependencies, manage the risk and bring people with you.

• You’d rather deliver bad news early than let a client find it first, and you never quote a number you can’t back up.

• You spot a slipping account before it turns red, and you have the plan ready before anyone asks.

• You’d rather fix something once for everyone than twice for yourself, and you share the credit.

• You love making other people better: you coach, spot strengths and help others use them.

• You switch between Mandarin with clients and English with internal teams without losing nuance.

• 6+ years in an operational, account management or client-facing role in logistics, supply chain, cross-border e-commerce or a related field.

• A track record of running high-volume, complex client operations and leading cross-team improvements to measurable results.

• Fluent Mandarin Chinese and English, written and spoken.

• Comfort with data: you can challenge a forecast, read a performance dashboard and size an operational issue.

• Sound operational judgement when things don’t go to plan, and a bias for action.

• A clear, structured communication style, from a quick update to a formal escalation.

• Generous equity, richer than 99% of European startups, with annual top-ups to share Relay’s success.

• Private health & dental coverage, so comprehensive you’d need to be a partner at a Magic Circle law firm to match it.

• 25 days of holidays.

• Enhanced parental leave.

• Located in Shoreditch, our office set-up enables the kind of in-person interactions that drive impact. We work 4 days on-site, with 1 day remote.

• Hardware of your choice.

• Extensive perks (gym subsidies, cycle-to-work, Friday office lunch, covered Uber home and dinner for late nights, and more).

1. Talent Acquisition Interview (45 min)

2. Hiring Manager Interview (60 min)

3. Case Study (90 min)

4. Culture & Team Fit Conversation (30 min)

Decision and offer within 48 hours; our process mirrors our pace of work.

Who Thrives at Relay?

• Aim with Precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.

• Play to Win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.

• 1% Better Every Day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.

• All In, All the Time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.

• People-Powered Greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candour. You build trust through high standards and shared success.

• Grow the Whole Pie: You seek out win-win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.
  If these resonate, and you combine strong technical fundamentals with entrepreneurial drive, let’s connect.

Relay is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.