Operations & Experience Lead (Artists & Guests) at VAWAA

VAWAA is building a global creative platform where master artists open their studios for immersive, one-on-one creative apprenticeships. Guests travel around the world to learn everything from ceramics to calligraphy to textile dyeing directly from a master craftsperson.

We are a small, creative, globally distributed team and community — building the world’s most inspiring ecosystem for craft, creativity, and cultural connection.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a dynamic builder to support, onboard, and elevate both artists and guests with exceptional communication, operational rigor, and strong fluency and taste for global craft processes. You’ll be the connective tissue in our two-sided marketplace: our global artist community and the guests who travel to learn from them.

This is a hybrid, cross-functional role blending communication, experience design, operations, editorial judgment, and systems-building. It requires both speed and depth, and the ability to switch between high-volume execution and thoughtful craft.

On the artist side, you’ll onboard hundreds of artists, refine their offerings, curate assets, and elevate the clarity and quality of programs. You’ll balance fast-moving communication with deeper editorial, structural, and experience-design work—making sure programs feel teachable, compelling, and aligned with VAWAA standards.

On the guest side, you’ll partner with our Guest Experience Manager while also taking meaningful ownership of the guest journey end-to-end: delivering fast, thoughtful communication, managing bookings, anticipating needs, and improving conversion. You’ll use strong emotional intelligence and operational judgment to build trust, solve issues, and create coherence between artist capabilities and guest expectations.

As the company evolves, this role may tilt more toward artist onboarding, experience design, or guest operations—depending on business needs. In all cases, you will own a core domain with autonomy and increasing strategic influence.

If you love solving hard problems, bringing order to complexity, and building systems that make people feel supported, you’ll thrive here.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and scale artist onboarding with speed, rigor, and editorial quality
• Manage all artist communications prompting submissions, gathering assets, offering guidance, co-designing, editing and support
• Understand their work, shape programs, rewrite descriptions, curate images
• Strengthen artist relationships & support their growth as hosts & teachers
• Partner with guest experience manager to support and guide guests
• Manage bookings, guide decisions, and increase conversions
• Solve time-sensitive issues across time zones, cultures and contexts
• Use AI tools to build systems, automate repeatable work, and increase leverage
• Think proactively: identify bottlenecks, propose solutions, execute
• Create clarity, calm and momentum across a fast-moving global community
  
  

You’re a Great Fit If You Have

• Experience in early-stage, high-intensity environments where ownership, coordination, communication, and operations were core to your success.
• Strong writing, editorial, visual, and experience-design judgment
• A track record of high-volume communication done with clarity, warmth, and precision
• Experience shaping programs, workshops, or learning journeys
• Operational stamina: ability to move fast, juggle multiple priorities, and shift contexts
• High cross-cultural and emotional intelligence
• Experience using tools (including AI) to scale yourself and build workflows
• A history of working full-time in remote, computer-based roles requiring responsiveness, self-direction, and sharp judgment
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership in evolving environments where no one tells you exactly what to do
  
  

Success Looks Like

• Guests receive fast, clear, thoughtful communication that increases conversion and satisfaction
• Artist onboarding scales with consistency, momentum, and editorial excellence
• Artist responsiveness, program strength, and profile quality all improve measurably
• You independently resolve 80–90% of operational issues with strong judgment
• Workflows become more efficient, automated, and founder-independent
• The global artist + guest community feels deeply supported
• Founder time shifts from operational load to strategic growth—because you own this domain
  
  

Why Join Us?

VAWAA is a small and might startup. You'll work closely with the founder working in a creative, global, sometimes-chaotic environment where your ability to take initiative matters. If you want a polished environment with predictable days, this isn’t it. If you want autonomy, responsibility, learning velocity and chance to shape core functions — it’s perfect.

Role begins as a 4-month full-time contract with intention to convert to full-time employee.

Contract phase: $3,500–$5,000 per month, depending on capability and location.

Upon Conversion To Full-time

• $65,000–$85,000 salary, depending on performance and location.
• 0.25%–0.5% equity or profit sharing options
• Health insurance
• 1 Free and discounted VAWAA experiences
• Work closely with our founder and community of artists and guests in 50+ countries + a mission that matters
  
  

Growth path: In 2–3 years, this role could evolve into Head of Guest Experience, Head of Artist Onboarding and Experience, Head of Creative Operations or even COO, depending on your skills and ambition.

We are based in New York, but open to remote applications within the US and Canada.

Tip: Cover Letters that include a link to a short 5 min video explaining why you are the best person for this role will be given preference.