AI Operations Manager

🇿🇦 Up to ZAR 500,000 per year, on a full-time, permanent employment contract
🌎 Fully remote working from anywhere in South Africa! 
🏖️ 33 Days Paid Leave and Benefits
✨ Working with globally recognisable brands in US Entertainment  
💻 High-end, fast computer  
💡 All the latest software and productivity tools you’ll need

About the Role 

We are hiring a manager to relentlessly drive Storm's AI tooling operations forward. This role sits within our AI Operations team and is focused on the operational management of the AI tools, AI platforms, and AI-enabled workflows used across the business. It is a high-accountability operating role focused on AI tooling operations, AI platform reliability, and the technical standards that keep Storm's AI stack running well.

AI is moving relentlessly. We need someone who can stay on top of that pace, understand what is changing in the AI tooling landscape, decide what matters for Storm's AI stack, and continuously adapt how our AI tools are configured, run, and used as platforms, costs, risks, and capabilities shift.

A significant part of this role is making sure AI tooling is configured well, used correctly, and operationally reliable. You will work with teams that use AI tools day-to-day, understand where AI tooling is causing friction, identify the practical technical levers that will improve how those tools perform, and follow through on the detailed, sometimes tedious operational work that makes an AI stack dependable.

This role is for someone who wants real responsibility for the operational quality of our AI tooling. You will be expected to bring order to messy AI tooling operations, push through technical improvements, and keep Storm in control of fast-moving AI platform developments rather than reacting too late to them. Strong organisation and judgment are not enough on their own; the role requires practical technical judgment on AI platforms and tooling.

If you are looking for a predictable maintenance role, this is not it.
 

About Storm Ideas 

Founded in 2008, Storm Ideas is an international team working with globally recognised clients, particularly across the US TV and entertainment industry.

Our work sits at the intersection of media, technology, creativity, and operations. We build products, produce content at scale, design smarter ways for clients and internal teams to work, and keep looking for new ways to improve how the company operates.

We are a remote-first, fast-moving company with established clients, a growing team, and a strong appetite for better tools, better systems, and better ways of working.

We are an AI-native agency and AI tooling is central to how our teams work. The AI Operations team exists to keep that tooling reliable, well-configured, and well-run. This role sits within that team and is focused on driving the operational quality of our AI stack.

What You Will Do

• Take operational ownership of the configuration, reliability, and technical standards of Storm's AI tools and AI platforms
• Lead the AI Operations team's technical response when AI tools, platforms, or underlying capabilities change
• Set and uphold technical operational standards for AI tooling within the AI Operations team's remit
• Improve visibility around AI tool configuration, AI platform usage, AI tool access administration, and AI platform operational performance
• Identify weak, unstable, or high-friction AI tooling operations, develop technical solutions and drive them to be durable and scalable
• Give leadership clearer visibility on where the AI tooling stack is performing reliably, where it is fragile, and what AI platform or tooling changes are needed next

What We Are Looking For

• Demonstrable experience in the operational management of technical platforms, specifically AI tools or AI platforms
• High agency and strong ownership of technical operational outcomes
• Sound decision-making under ambiguity and pace
• Ability to prioritise hard trade-offs on a technical platform stack and act decisively
• Ability to drive technical operational improvements to completion, not just propose them
• Clear, direct technical communication and the confidence to hold technical standards
• Genuine command of AI tools and AI platforms, and a strong instinct for how fast the AI tooling environment is moving
• Strong technical aptitude on AI platforms specifically: LLM platform configuration, prompt and agent configuration, AI tool APIs and integrations, AI tool permissions, AI-related automation, and AI workflow dependencies
• Sound judgment about when to act, when to ask, and how to translate between user needs and AI platform realities
• Energy, discipline, and follow-through to operate at sustained pace

What Success Looks Like

• You do not wait to be assigned problems; you find weak spots in how Storm's AI tooling stack is running, propose technical solutions, and drive them through.
• You can look across a changing AI platform landscape, identify what matters operationally for Storm's AI stack, decide what needs to adapt technically, and then drive that change through to real operational improvement.
• You do not just keep work moving. You make Storm's AI tooling stack materially better at running.
• You take responsibility for AI tooling operational outcomes. You do not wait for perfect clarity, and you do not let the AI stack drift.

This Role Will Suit You If

• You want to operate where change is fast, technical standards are high, and the work matters
• You like turning messy AI tooling operations into controlled, repeatable technical operations
• You are comfortable being judged on AI platform operational outcomes, not just effort or intent
• You can combine practical technical execution with strong judgment on AI platforms
• You are motivated by making a company's AI tooling stack materially better at running

What It's Like To Work Here

Modern Tech Stack
We use current tools, hardware, and working methods across our teams, and this role is responsible for the operational quality of the AI tooling part of that stack.

Agility and Openness for Ideas
We actively encourage people to bring forward ideas that improve how AI tools are configured and run. Operating with the agility of a growing company, alongside the support of an established organisation, means we value quick decision-making, practical experimentation, and clear follow-through.

Team-based
This role sits within the existing AI Operations team and is accountable for a defined part of the AI tooling stack. You will contribute to team priorities within that remit.

Flexibility
Storm is a remote-first company and this role is fully remote within South Africa. We care about outcomes, communication, and availability, not where you sit.

Recruitment Process

• Online video interview (short recorded answers to role-relevant questions)
• Follow-up technical exercise (compensated) designed to test skills relevant to this position
• Interview and exercise review with the hiring manager
• Final interview with Louise (CEO)

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Privacy Notice
We process your personal data for recruitment purposes in line with UK data protection law. AI tools may assist in reviewing applications, but decisions are made by our team. We retain data only as necessary for recruitment and compliance. You can request access or deletion of your data at any time by emailing careers@stormideas.com.