Operations Director

About MIRA Wellness Club MIRA Wellness Club is a members-only wellness club opening in Chennai in 2027. It is the first club in India to bring a strength and conditioning gym, a Pilates studio, physiotherapy, sauna and cold plunge, recovery treatments, and a café into one space, under one membership. The club is for working professionals who want their fitness, recovery, and overall health handled in one place, to one standard, by one team that knows every member by name. Chennai is the first clubhouse. MIRA plans a network of clubs across India's major cities over the next decade. The way we operate is the brand. Towels are folded a specific way. Cold plunge water is at the right temperature every morning. The first interaction at the front desk feels like being recognised, not processed. A guest who walks in for the first time should sense that someone has thought about every detail. That is the bar. The role you are reading about is the role that holds it. The clubhouse A multi-floor clubhouse in central Chennai, currently in design and build. Inside it: Strength and conditioning gym Pilates studio Physiotherapy Sauna and cold plunge Recovery treatments (IV drips, diagnostics, blood work) through partner vendors Café and light food, operated by a partner The team The Chennai club will have approximately 15 to 20 staff members directly employed by MIRA when fully operational: front desk and member services, trainers across the gym, Pilates, and physiotherapy, recovery and wellness attendants, housekeeping, sales and community, and admin. In addition, the club has partner-operated staff for the café and recovery treatments. You will coordinate with these partner teams day-to-day, but they are not on MIRA's payroll. What you will do You will work closely with the founder. The founder owns the brand, vendor selection, and all major operational decisions. Your role is to support the founder in setting up the club, and then to run the daily operations once the club opens. This is a founding employee role. We expect to invest heavily in the right person. Assuming performance meets expectations, the role grows in two real ways. First, you will be deeply involved in shaping how a wellness club of this standard actually runs in India, because there is no playbook for this yet, and you will help write it. Second, when MIRA expands to other cities, this role graduates into the MIRA corporate team, where you will train and support future operations directors and general managers across the network. Before opening Help write the standard operating procedures for every part of the club. The founder leads this; you draft, document, and pressure-test them. Help hire the team. You run the screening process. The founder makes the final hiring decisions. Help onboard partner vendors. The founder selects and negotiates with vendors. You handle the day-to-day coordination and integration into the club. Help design the member experience, from how members are greeted at the front desk to how they move through the club. The founder leads the design; you support and execute. Spend time understanding the brand and the people we are building this for. We will share research, member interviews, and the brand book with you in your first month. After opening Run the day-to-day operations of the club. Manage and supervise the full staff team. Train them on the standards, hold them to those standards, and recognise them when they meet the bar. Handle member complaints and escalations directly. Pass the harder ones to the founder. Track monthly profit and loss against budget. Report to the founder every month. Make sure partner vendors are meeting service standards. Schedule trainers, classes, and treatments. Run the soft-launch period, the invite-only weeks before the public open. The standard of service we expect The Hospitality MIRA Is Built On Is Closer To What You Would Experience At a Fine Hotel Or a Members\' Club Than At a Gym. A Few Examples Of What This Looks Like In Practice A member walking in is greeted by name, not by a number on a screen. A complaint about a missing towel is fixed in under five minutes, and a quiet apology is offered without making the member feel awkward. The lockers, the steam room, the gym floor, the recovery zone: every surface and corner is held to the same standard. There is no back of house where things slide. When something goes wrong, a late vendor, a treatment running over, an overbooked class, the team handles it with calm, communicates clearly, and never lets the member feel the inconvenience. The team knows the difference between being attentive and being intrusive. Members are not interrupted unless they want to be. If this is the kind of operation you have run before, or want to run, you will fit here. Success in the role We will be honest with you about how we will judge whether the role is working. Six months in: the club has opened on time, every standard operating procedure is in place, the team is trained, the founding members have been welcomed, and the first month\'s member feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Member retention in the first three months is at or above 90%. Twelve months in: the club is running at the occupancy and revenue targets set in the financial plan. You are handling the vast majority of operational decisions independently. The team trusts you, members know you, and the club\'s reputation in Chennai is strong. Twenty-four months in: the Chennai club is in steady state. You have started shaping the operating playbook for the second city. We are talking openly about your transition into the MIRA corporate team. If we are getting this right, you will know it because the work feels like a partnership, the founder is increasingly leaning on your judgment, and the role grows toward you instead of staying still. Who should apply You Should Have 6 to 10 or more years of experience in operations at a fine hotel, hotel spa, wellness retreat, members' club, or high-standard fitness club. A hospitality background is preferred. Experience hiring, training, and managing teams of 15 or more people. Comfort with profit and loss reporting and managing a budget. Experience handling member or guest complaints in person. A hands-on working style. This is not a desk job. You Should Be Detail-oriented. You spot problems before others do. Direct with the team and warm with members. Calm under pressure. Excited about building something from the ground up. The first six months will be ambiguous, demanding, and creatively rewarding in equal measure. Compensation Fixed salary ₹15–20 lakh per year, based on experience. Performance bonus Up to ₹2–4 lakh per year, tied to club occupancy and member retention after opening. PropCo ESOPs 0.5–1.0% of MIRA\'s Chennai club entity, vesting over four years with a one-year cliff. At our current post-money seed valuation this is an estimated ₹12–24 lakh; that estimate will change as the company\'s valuation changes. Benefits Health cover for you and your family, and full club membership. How to apply The application takes 5 to 10 minutes. You will be asked to share your CV, a short paragraph on why this role, and one example of a difficult operational situation you handled and how you solved it. The process from there: a phone conversation with the founder, an in-person interview, a practical task on a real scenario from MIRA\'s operations, and reference checks. We reply to every application within 5 working days. Apply now Prefer email? Write to View email address on click.appcast.io with the subject line [APPLICATION] OPS DIRECTOR. View all open roles #J-18808-Ljbffr