Virtual Operations & Marketing Assistant

Company Overview

Our client is a growing, newly-established food business built around its own custom-developed website, which includes an integrated CRM, social media and email marketing plugins, and connects to an EPOS system in-store. As the business scales, its day-to-day operations, marketing, and customer touchpoints are still spread across separate tools and processes that need to be brought together into one smooth, reliable system.

Role Overview

This is a generalist role for someone who can move comfortably between systems/operations work and hands-on marketing execution. Because the business is new, its workflows are currently disjointed — the right candidate will help identify gaps, set up the tools and processes needed to close them, and keep things running day to day. Phase one priority is building out the customer journey: turning the current setup into a working funnel that captures a customer from first contact through to purchase, with clean data at every step, plus general admin support (labeling, SOPs, supplier research, email triage). Marketing execution (Canva design, social scheduling, campaign delivery) sits alongside this from day one, with scope to grow into a dedicated AI agent/automation build-out in a later phase.

Key Responsibilities

• Build out the customer journey and funnel from lead to purchase — working with the founder on funnel/lead magnet design, then setting it up and making it work end to end, with every data point captured along the way

• Identify gaps in current systems and workflows (website CRM, EPOS, marketing tools) and put structure in place so processes run smoothly as the business grows

• Set up and manage the marketing suite: email marketing (Klaviyo), social media scheduling and posting (e.g. Buffer), and monitoring/responding to reviews and customer questions across platforms

• Triage the business email inbox — filter which emails need the founder's direct attention vs. which can be handled or answered directly — including helping stand up a working email system from scratch

• Design labels and marketing materials in Canva (training provided on the company's labeling software), preparing print-ready assets for the founder's sign-off

• Manage print procurement: send approved designs to printers, then track and confirm on-time delivery

• Build and maintain a supplier and competitor database — organizing existing information first, then incorporating ongoing research over time

• Create and structure SOP documentation (from provided videos/notes) ready for print and staff use

• Proactively research market trends and opportunities, and bring forward marketing campaign ideas to the founder

• Set up a VoIP phone system, with future scope to layer in AI-assisted call handling

• Later phase: support deployment of AI agents for review responses, email triage, and supplier price tracking

Skills & Tools

• Experience supporting e-commerce, retail, or food service operations in a fast-paced environment

• Working knowledge of automation platforms — Zapier, Make.com, n8n — and AI tools/custom GPTs

• Strong Canva skills (Adobe Express a plus); please share a design portfolio — graphic/print design ability is nice to have but genuinely valued

• Email marketing platform experience, ideally Klaviyo (Mailchimp also fine)

• Comfortable with social media scheduling tools (e.g. Buffer) and Google Workspace

• Strong written and spoken English — able to turn work into clear reports the founder can act on

• Nice to have: prior experience in the food industry