General Manager / Community & Operations Lead

Shanty Place | Portugal (Cascais / Lisbon)

LOCATION

Portugal, with priority given to Cascais / Lisbon (regular physical presence required).

About Shanti Place

Shanti Place is a premium community space in Cascais bringing together events, retreats, cultural programming, wellbeing practices, and curated social experiences.

Think less “wellness studio”, more community-driven lifestyle business — a place where people come to connect, learn, belong, and return.

We are entering a new growth stage and looking for someone to help turn a founder-led project into a scalable, well-run, profitable business.

THE ROLE

We’re looking for an operator-builder — someone who can combine hospitality, business thinking, community programming and operational leadership.

This is not a classic corporate COO role.

It is closer to running a boutique members club, experiential business, or premium community venue.

You would act as the founder’s right hand and own the engine behind the business:

operations, programming execution, commercial performance, and growth.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

BUSINESS OPERATIONS

• Run day-to-day operations of the space

• Bring structure, systems and operating rhythm

• Coordinate team, practitioners, contractors and partners

• Improve workflows and reduce founder dependency

• Turn ideas into executable plans

GROWTH & PROFITABILITY

• Own business performance and profitability

• Manage budgets and unit economics for events/programs

• Improve occupancy, utilization and repeat revenue

• Track KPIs and make decisions from numbers

• Build sustainable commercial mechanics, not just beautiful programming

COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING & EXPERIENCES

• Oversee launches of retreats, events and new formats

• Help shape a strong programming calendar

• Ensure experiences are well-produced, profitable and aligned with brand

• Contribute ideas for partnerships, memberships and new revenue streams

TEAM & EXECUTION

• Lead a small cross-functional team

• Create accountability and clear priorities

• Hold execution quality high without bureaucracy

• Balance creative energy with operational discipline

YOU MAY BE A FIT IF YOU’VE WORKED IN AREAS LIKE:

• Boutique hospitality

• Members clubs / community businesses

• Retreats / experiential events

• Coworking / coliving / lifestyle venues

• Premium service businesses

• Founder-led businesses as operator / GM / right hand

• Growth-stage community-driven businesses

WE’D LOVE SOMEONE WHO HAS:

• Strong business and operational instincts

• Experience owning budgets / P&L / unit economics

• Team leadership experience

• Commercial mindset and comfort with numbers

• Experience scaling service or community businesses

• Understanding of sales funnels / partnerships / recurring revenue

• Digital product curiosity is a plus (future online membership direction)

Russian or Ukrainian preferred.

English working proficiency required.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within 12 months you help Shanti Place become:

• more structured

• less founder-dependent

• more profitable

• more scalable

• and even stronger as a premium community brand.

COMPENSATION

Fixed compensation + performance upside.

Potential to grow into broader GM / operating partner role as the business expands.

WHY THIS ROLE IS UNUSUAL

This is for someone who likes building businesses that have soul and economics.

Someone who can care about atmosphere and margins in the same sentence.