Head/Senior Manager, Operations, Strategy & AI

About the Company

Big Viking Games is a Canadian game studio that builds, runs, and expands long-running online communities. Its titles have been enjoyed by millions over time, supported by live operations, evolving content, player-focused economies, and ongoing product improvements.

The company’s main games, YoWorld and FishWorld, are enduring live-service virtual worlds with active social play, virtual items, and deep in-game economies. Big Viking Games is now focused on modernization and growth through stronger operational discipline, improved internal systems, practical AI use, clearer workflows, better reporting, and scalable processes.

About the Role

Big Viking Games is looking for an operations leader to strengthen the company’s day-to-day operating foundation and help design better systems for the future. The role is highly hands-on and suited to someone who can improve execution, build structure, and support cross-functional teams with tools, reporting, automation, and process design.

This position is broader than office administration and not a pure IT role. It calls for an operator and systems builder who can spot broken processes, introduce order, improve follow-through, and apply AI to reduce manual effort across the business.

You will report to the COO and work closely with leaders and teams across product, engineering, finance, HR, recruiting, live operations, customer support, and marketing. The role is based in Toronto and requires three in-office days per week.

Business Operations

• Take ownership of internal operating processes and improve them across the organization.
• Bring structure, visibility, and accountability to cross-functional work.
• Support leaders with operational reporting, meeting follow-ups, task tracking, and recurring execution cadences.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, runbooks, workflows, and internal knowledge resources.
• Spot operational friction points and put in place practical fixes that improve clarity, speed, and consistency.
• Coordinate initiatives that involve leadership, product, engineering, HR, finance, support, and live operations.
• Assist department managers and senior leadership with planning, internal communication, leadership meeting preparation, and follow-through on decisions.
• Help ensure deadlines, commitments, and action items are tracked and completed.

Business Systems and Tool Administration

• Administer and improve core business systems such as CRMs, HRIS, customer success tools, Jira, AI automations, project management, support, collaboration, documentation, and reporting platforms.
• Maintain clean system setup, including fields, workflows, dashboards, pipeline visibility, and user adoption.
• Make sure teams use tools correctly so reporting stays reliable and processes run smoothly.
• Manage access, permissions, licenses, configuration, and tool usage across platforms such as Google Workspace, Slack, Jira, Zendesk, CRM systems, Notion, Airtable, Asana, and similar tools.
• Identify tools that are underused, duplicated, or poorly configured and recommend better setups.
• Work with teams to improve how tasks move from intake through execution and reporting.
• Create simple dashboards, reports, and operating views that help leadership understand business activity.
• Strengthen data quality, process adherence, and system reliability across internal tools.

AI, Automation, and Workflow Improvement

• Use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and similar platforms to improve operations, documentation, reporting, research, and internal workflows.
• Find opportunities to automate repetitive work across operations, HR, recruiting, finance, support, product, and leadership processes.
• Build or coordinate lightweight automations using tools like Zapier, Make, Google Apps Script, Airtable, Notion, and similar platforms.
• Create AI-supported workflows for meeting summaries, action tracking, SOP development, ticket triage, CRM updates, reporting, and internal communication.
• Help teams adopt AI-driven workflows that improve productivity without adding unnecessary complexity.
• Keep documentation current for automated workflows, system processes, and recurring operational tasks.
• Continuously look for ways to reduce manual effort, increase speed, and create more operational leverage.

Vendor, Software, and Cost Management

• Handle relationships with outside vendors, service providers, and software partners.
• Track renewals, contracts, costs, licenses, seat counts, and vendor performance.
• Improve software spend by spotting unused licenses, duplicate tools, and inefficient subscriptions.
• Coordinate vendor changes, onboarding, offboarding, procurement, and service reviews.
• Support leadership with vendor comparisons, cost evaluations, and recommendations.
• Ensure the company is getting strong value from its software and vendor stack.

Onboarding, Offboarding, and Internal Support

You will support employee onboarding and offboarding across systems, tools, devices, permissions, and documentation. This includes account setup, access changes, license assignment, and account removal. You will also help maintain hardware inventory, procurement records, and device lifecycle processes.

In addition, the role provides first-line support for common business systems, software access, account issues, and workflow questions. Light IT coordination is part of the job, including device setup, basic troubleshooting, office connectivity, and escalation to vendors or specialists when needed. You will also help keep the Toronto office organized, functional, and ready for employees, candidates, vendors, and visitors.

What You Bring

• At least 4 years of experience in operations, business operations, revenue operations, systems administration, workplace operations, project coordination, or a similar function.
• Background in a technology, gaming, SaaS, digital product, startup, or similarly fast-paced environment.
• Strong hands-on experience managing business tools such as CRM platforms, Google Workspace, Slack, Jira, Zendesk, Airtable, Notion, Asana, or comparable systems.
• Experience improving workflows, creating SOPs, managing projects, and building operational structure.
• Comfort using AI tools and a practical understanding of how they improve productivity, documentation, reporting, and execution.
• Experience with CRM hygiene, process design, dashboards, reporting, user adoption, or workflow setup.
• Strong organization and the ability to handle multiple priorities while maintaining follow-through.
• Clear communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Good judgment, discretion, and comfort handling sensitive company information.
• A hands-on mindset and willingness to solve problems directly.
• Ability to work independently, identify gaps, and create structure without detailed direction.
• Comfort with light technology coordination, access management, software setup, and vendor escalation.
• Ability to work from the Toronto office three days per week.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in gaming, live-service products, SaaS, digital products, or founder-led organizations.
• Exposure to Salesforce, HubSpot, Monday.com, Airtable, Notion, Zendesk, Jira, Google Workspace, Slack, or similar tools.
• Experience building automations with Zapier, Make, Google Apps Script, Airtable automations, or comparable tools.
• Background in reporting, dashboards, CRM operations, revenue operations, or business intelligence tools.
• Experience supporting HR, recruiting, finance, customer support, product, or live operations teams.
• Experience managing vendor transitions or moving outsourced services in-house.
• Experience with hardware inventory, device coordination, onboarding, offboarding, and basic office technology support.
• Familiarity with security fundamentals, access controls, password managers, SaaS permissions, and data hygiene.
• Experience working with remote, hybrid, or distributed teams.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal hire is an operator who builds systems. They can quickly identify where work gets stuck, where information is missing, where tools are being misused, and where manual tasks should be replaced with better workflows.

This is not a narrowly defined admin role. The company wants someone with broad ownership, direct access to leadership, and the ability to improve how the business runs. The role spans CRM cleanup, vendor follow-up, AI workflow design, onboarding support, reporting, documentation, and cross-functional coordination without sacrificing quality or urgency.

The best fit will be practical, organized, direct, and resourceful. They will understand that operations is not only a support function, but the operating system that helps the business execute.

Compensation and Benefits

The base salary range for this position is CAD 105,000 to CAD 125,000, based on experience, systems capability, AI workflow experience, and overall fit. Candidates with especially strong CRM administration, business systems ownership, automation, and cross-functional operations experience may be considered toward the top end of the range.

• Group Retirement Savings Plan with employer matching and participation.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Health and wellness spending account.
• Generous paid time off policies.
• Opportunity to help shape the operating system of a live-service gaming company.
• Exposure to leadership, business operations, systems modernization, CRM, AI workflows, and cross-functional execution.
• A high-impact role with significant ownership over everyday company operations.

Accessibility and Accommodation

Big Viking Games is committed to an inclusive and accessible hiring process for all candidates. The company welcomes applications from people of all abilities and will provide accommodations during recruitment as needed. If accommodation is required, candidates can contact hr@bigvikinggames.com for support.