Operations Manager

About the role

Griffin Labs is hiring an Operations Manager to keep the company’s everyday engine running smoothly as it scales. The position sits at the center of procurement, vendor management, logistics, facilities, finance coordination, and people operations, ensuring the engineering team can stay focused on building robotics products.

This is a practical, wide-ranging role for someone who enjoys owning many moving parts at once. You may be handling a customs issue for imported sensors, planning an office relocation, reconciling a grant submission, or preparing a new hire’s accounts and contract before day one. The focus is on closing loops independently, keeping things moving, and setting up only the processes that genuinely add value.

Core responsibilities

You will be responsible for the operational backbone that supports a fast-growing robotics company, including systems, vendors, and day-to-day rhythms that help the business deliver reliably.

• Manage procurement from start to finish, including sourcing suppliers, negotiating terms, raising purchase orders, and maintaining accurate records of ordered, approved, paid, and delivered items.
• Oversee local and international shipping activities, including imports, customs clearance, and coordination with freight and delivery providers.
• Handle office and facilities operations such as space planning, seating arrangements, access management, equipment coordination, and office moves or relocations.
• Work closely with the finance team on invoices, reimbursements, payment runs, contractor billing cycles, and vendor settlements, ensuring submissions meet processing timelines.
• Support grant and government-program administration by preparing and reconciling claims, tracking follow-ups and deadlines, and keeping records ready for audit.
• Assist with people operations, including onboarding logistics, contract setup, IT account provisioning, access coordination, and liaison with HR so new hires are ready from the first day.
• Create and maintain operational reporting, trackers, and review rhythms that give leadership a clear picture of what is pending, blocked, or completed.
• Develop and refine simple tools and lightweight workflows for procurement, logistics, facilities, finance coordination, and people operations, while owning key supplier and vendor relationships.

What we are looking for

The ideal candidate brings 2 to 5 years of experience in operations, program management, or a similar function, preferably in a hardware, robotics, manufacturing, or fast-moving startup setting.

• Proven experience managing procurement and vendor relationships, including negotiation and complete order-to-delivery oversight.
• Good financial understanding, with comfort handling purchase orders, invoices, reimbursements, budgets, and coordination with finance.
• Strong cross-functional coordination skills across engineering, finance, HR, and external partners to keep deadlines on track.
• High ownership and dependability, with the ability to anticipate issues and resolve them without constant follow-up.
• Strong written communication and organizational habits, with attention to clear records and concise status updates.
• Comfort working in an early-stage environment where priorities, structure, and scope can evolve quickly.

Nice-to-have experience

• Background in a robotics, hardware, or deep-tech startup, or in manufacturing or lab operations.
• Familiarity with Singapore’s grant and agency landscape, including SGInnovate, EDB, IMDA, and BCA, along with grant claim processing.
• Experience with logistics, customs, and import/export work, especially for electronics or hardware parts.
• Exposure to facilities work or office build-outs and relocations.
• Experience implementing operational tools such as procurement trackers, asset registers, or onboarding workflows.
• Exposure to procurement expectations from government, enterprise, or facilities-management customers.

Who you are

You are the kind of person who keeps everything running quietly in the background and is only noticed when the systems stop working.

• You think in terms of systems, timelines, and dependencies, and you plan backward from deadlines.
• You are resourceful and self-directed, treating unfamiliar forms, vendors, or operational issues as problems to solve.
• You can juggle multiple workstreams without losing track of details.
• You prefer proactive communication and clear status updates over leaving others uncertain.
• You want to help build the operational foundation for a company shaping the future of intelligent machines in Southeast Asia and beyond.

What the role is helping build

The goal is to create an operations function that scales with the business, so procurement, logistics, facilities, finance coordination, and people operations run as reliable systems rather than emergency fixes. As the company expands its fleet, team, and deployments, the operational base should remain stable and dependable.

Additional information

Location: Singapore. Employment type: full-time, onsite.