Head of Growth and Operations

About Stranger Soccer

The #1 way adults play football in the UAE. We operate across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman - 200+ games every month, 30,000+ downloads, a real community of players who show up, play, meet people, and come back. Two years in, we're at the inflection point where disciplined execution on growth, retention and operational excellence is everything.

About the Role

You will run the business day-to-day on everything that doesn't require physical presence. On-ground Field Growth Operators (one per emirate) handle games, hosts, venues and players in person. You own strategy, data, growth, systems, and the operating rhythm. You report directly to the CEO and are the second-most senior person in the business.

This is not a role for someone who waits to be told what to do. If you need to be managed closely, this isn't the role.

What You'll Own

Strategic + Commercial

• P&L visibility and margin management
• Growth strategy - acquisition, retention, pricing, membership economics
• Weekly and monthly KPI reviews; health of the business
• Competitive analysis and product positioning
• Membership + Unlimited Pass performance management

Marketing + Growth

• Paid acquisition and marketing spend allocation
• Retention campaigns across all channels
• SEO, GBP, and partnership channels
• Customer journey mapping and intervention design

Operational Systems

• Design, document and enforce SOPs across the team
• Reporting and dashboards
• Monthly review framework with the CEO
• Coordination with HQ product team on roadmap and prioritization
• Weekly Friday delegation handoff - document weekend priorities and ensure Sat-Sun operations run smoothly without you

Team

• Direct reports: three Field Growth Operators (one per emirate)
• Direct management of the remote Customer Service / Ops team (2 people). Build SOPs, set and track KPIs, coach, raise the ceiling of what they can handle
• Coordination with external partners - SEO, legal, accounting, product
• Input into all hiring and firing decisions

What You WON'T Do

• Attend games physically - FGOs do that
• Live in Dubai - this role is deliberately remote
• Handle in-person customer disputes - escalated to FGOs first
• Do venue on-site walkthroughs - FGOs scout, you review and approve

Requirements Who You Are

• 5-8 years of experience, at least 3 in a growth-stage startup
• Background in marketplace, consumer tech, food delivery, ride-hailing, fitness, or similar two-sided

businesses strongly preferred

• You've actually grown and scaled a business - not advised it, not strategized it, but moved real numbers. You

can walk me through specific growth you drove and what you learned

• P&L exposure, real growth metrics, real customer behavior - not just slides
• Strongly analytical - you can procure our data, analyze it, and act on it. Specific tools don't matter; knowing

what questions to ask and what to do with the answers does

• Proactive, independent operator - you spot problems, propose solutions, and execute without being chased
• Experience managing distributed teams, or as a senior IC across multiple workstreams
• English fluency essential; Arabic a bonus
• Writes clearly and concisely - this role runs on async communication
• Comfort with ambiguity and startup grit

Culture fit

• Honesty over politics. Tell me when I'm wrong.
• Ownership over blame. Fix it before escalating.
• Data over opinions. Bring the numbers.
• Speed over perfection. Launch, measure, adjust.
• Self-direction over supervision.

Working Hours

Set the team up for success every day - but Saturday and Sunday are when you're offline. By Friday evening the team must now exactly what to do over the weekend without you.

• Working days: Monday to Friday
• Daily core hours: 11:00-19:00 UAE time (GST), fully online
• Daily extended coverage: 19:00-21:00 UAE time, reachable within 30 minutes for time-sensitive issues on game nights (Thu-Fri especially)
• Weekends off: Saturday + Sunday fully off, reachable only for genuine emergencies
• Friday delegation handoff: Document weekend priorities and empower the team before you log off Friday evening
• Total effort: 40-50 hours per week during working days
• Timezone requirement: South Asia, Middle East, Africa, or Eastern Europe ideal

How to Apply

Send the following to rayaan.grahne@strangersoccer.com

• A short note on why this role interests you (≤200 words). No cover letter templates - write like a human
• Your CV or LinkedIn profile
• One growth or operations project you ran: the problem, what you did, the result, and what you learned
• A 30-60 second video (filmed on your phone) answering: who you are, why this role, one career achievement that proves you can do this