MetroMaiden LLC is a new and growing cleaning and home services company based in Bolingbrook, Illinois. We are building our first reliable team and are looking for a hands-on Operations Manager to work directly with the owner and help build, organize, and operate the company from the ground up.
Before You Apply
This is not a traditional management position where you will inherit an established team, finished systems, and clearly separated departments.
MetroMaiden is an early-stage business. The person in this position must be comfortable helping build the operation while also doing whatever reasonable hands-on operational work is necessary to keep it moving.
This role can include recruiting, interviewing, staffing, scheduling, booking, customer communication, administrative work, training, supervising, quality control, equipment and supply logistics, solving call-offs and coverage problems, traveling to customer locations, and personally cleaning alongside the team when necessary.
No reasonable operational task should be considered beneath this position simply because it may normally be performed by a cleaner or another employee.
At the same time, the goal is not for the Operations Manager to permanently do everything. A major part of succeeding in this position is helping build reliable teams, developing employees into leads or supervisors, creating better systems, identifying work that should become a separate position, and delegating responsibilities as the company grows.
The right person must be dependable, resourceful, professional, adaptable, cost-conscious, comfortable taking initiative, and willing to learn. Responsibilities will evolve substantially as MetroMaiden grows.
The responsibilities below are examples and are not exhaustive. Reasonable duties and priorities may change as legitimate business needs, staffing, systems, services, and opportunities develop.
Operations and Customer Management
Responsibilities may include:
- Answer and return business calls, texts, and other communications
- Communicate professionally with current and potential customers
- Review customer quote and booking requests
- Transfer customer and job information between company systems
- Enter and maintain customer, appointment, and job information
- Prepare or send invoices, confirmations, booking information, and other customer communications as assigned
- Coordinate customer appointments and scheduling changes
- Handle routine customer questions, concerns, and service issues within assigned authority
- Learn and use company quoting, scheduling, invoicing, communication, timekeeping, and other business systems
- Maintain accurate customer, employee, scheduling, and operational information
- Follow up on unfinished tasks and make sure important issues are addressed
- Identify operational problems and recommend or implement solutions within assigned authority
- Take responsibility for additional reasonable operational functions as business needs develop
Hiring, Staffing, Training, and Team Development
A major part of this position can include helping MetroMaiden build and manage its workforce.
Responsibilities may include:
- Recruit and source applicants
- Review applications and screen candidates
- Contact and interview applicants
- Make hiring recommendations and participate in hiring decisions
- Assist with onboarding and training
- Help create and improve hiring and training processes
- Coordinate cleaner availability and job assignments
- Contact employees regarding available and assigned work
- Confirm job coverage and employee arrival
- Reassign work or find replacement coverage for call-offs, no-shows, and scheduling problems within assigned authority
- Train cleaners on company standards, procedures, professionalism, safety, and customer expectations
- Supervise new employees and monitor work quality
- Address and document reliability, communication, quality, and performance concerns
- Help hold employees accountable to company expectations
- Recommend appropriate coaching, discipline, staffing changes, or termination when necessary
- Identify employees capable of taking on greater responsibility
- Develop dependable cleaners into lead cleaners, trainers, or supervisors when appropriate
- Help determine when recurring work should become a separate position or responsibility
- Help recruit, train, and develop additional administrative, hiring, logistics, supervisory, or operational employees as the company grows
The Operations Manager should be comfortable taking increasing responsibility for staffing and team development instead of depending on the owner to personally manage every step.
Field Operations and Cleaning
This is not a desk-only management position.
Especially while MetroMaiden is building its teams, the Operations Manager may need to personally travel throughout the service area to train employees, supervise jobs, inspect work, solve problems, coordinate equipment, cover staffing gaps, or assist with cleaning.
Responsibilities may include:
- Meet employees at customer locations
- Train cleaners during actual customer jobs
- Supervise or assist new employees
- Verify employees arrive and understand their assignments
- Check cleaning quality and customer priorities
- Help divide and prioritize work between team members
- Resolve field problems within assigned authority
- Communicate professionally with customers when field issues arise
- Perform or assist with cleaning when necessary to keep an accepted customer job covered
- Work alongside the owner or cleaning team when additional hands-on help is necessary
MetroMaiden performs standard cleaning, first-time/deep cleaning, and move-in/move-out cleaning. The Operations Manager must be willing and physically able to oversee and, when necessary, perform the same real residential cleaning work expected of MetroMaiden cleaners.
This can include bathrooms, toilets, showers/tubs, kitchens, floors, buildup, dust, pet hair, pet areas, detailed wiping, scrubbing, and other physically active residential cleaning work.
Some homes require more work than the customer has booked. The Operations Manager must be able to help prioritize customer requests and the highest-impact work, keep jobs moving, recognize when additional time or a follow-up visit may be appropriate, and communicate or escalate issues appropriately.
Unsafe conditions, work outside approved scope, or situations requiring specialized handling, equipment, PPE, or authorization must be reported and handled according to company procedures rather than improvised.
Mobile Operations, Service Area, Equipment, and Transportation
MetroMaiden currently operates throughout the Chicagoland area and surrounding suburbs, generally within approximately 50 miles of Bolingbrook and/or Chicago, including Bolingbrook, Naperville, Joliet, Downers Grove, Chicago, and surrounding communities.
Until reliable teams and systems are established, the Operations Manager must be prepared to travel throughout the service area when reasonably necessary for employee training, supervision, customer jobs, cleaning coverage, equipment, supplies, staffing problems, or other operational needs.
As MetroMaiden grows, the goal is to reduce unnecessary management travel by building reliable geographic coverage, developing lead cleaners and supervisors, improving equipment logistics, and delegating responsibilities appropriately.
Responsibilities may include:
- Travel to customer locations, company storage, stores, employee meeting locations, and other approved business locations
- Pick up and return company supplies and equipment
- Organize and help track supplies and equipment
- Load, unload, transport, and secure normal cleaning equipment
- Deliver or retrieve equipment and supplies
- Purchase or pick up approved business supplies when authorized
- Coordinate supply and equipment handoffs
- Help coordinate employee transportation when operationally necessary
- Provide approved employee transportation when specifically needed and agreed upon
- Help develop more efficient transportation, equipment, and geographic staffing systems as the company grows
A reliable personal vehicle, valid driver's license, active personal auto insurance, and working smartphone are currently required.
The vehicle must have enough space to safely transport normal cleaning supplies and equipment when necessary.
MetroMaiden's transportation and logistics model may change as the company grows and develops better infrastructure.
Authority and Decision-Making
MetroMaiden wants this position to become increasingly capable and independent, but authority must be earned and delegated.
The Operations Manager is expected to take initiative and make reasonable decisions within the authority provided.
Authority over hiring, termination, compensation, company policy, significant expenditures, refunds, contractual commitments, system access, and other material business decisions will be determined by the owner and may expand based on demonstrated judgment, reliability, performance, experience, and business needs.
Unless authority has specifically been delegated, owner approval must be obtained before making material commitments or decisions on behalf of MetroMaiden.
The long-term objective is for routine operational decisions to be handled without unnecessary owner involvement as trust, procedures, and delegated authority develop.
Professionalism, Confidentiality, and Judgment
The Operations Manager represents MetroMaiden when dealing with customers, applicants, employees, vendors, and others.
Professionalism, discretion, reliability, communication, sound judgment, customer privacy, and respect for customer and company property are essential.
The Operations Manager must help maintain a professional, neutral, customer-focused work environment and appropriately address behavior that creates unnecessary conflict, inappropriate conversations, customer discomfort, privacy concerns, or other professionalism problems.
Confidential customer, employee, financial, pricing, scheduling, login, operational, and other company information must be protected and used only for authorized business purposes.
Company accounts, systems, information, equipment, and access may only be used within the authority provided by MetroMaiden.
Not every situation will have a written procedure. The right person must know when to use reasonable judgment, when to ask questions, when owner approval is necessary, and when a routine matter can be handled independently.
Cost Awareness and Business Judgment
MetroMaiden is an early-stage business. Labor, travel, supplies, equipment, scheduling, mistakes, refunds, unnecessary management hours, and other expenses directly affect the company's ability to grow.
The Operations Manager must consider customer satisfaction, employee needs, operational reliability, and cost when making recommendations or authorized decisions.
This includes:
- Avoid unnecessary labor and expenses
- Reduce wasted travel and time
- Recognize when additional help is actually necessary
- Protect customer relationships and repeat business
- Use company resources responsibly
- Recognize when work should be handled personally, delegated, combined, scheduled differently, or assigned to another employee
- Help develop systems that allow the company to serve more customers efficiently without unnecessary management overhead
The objective is not simply to minimize spending. The objective is to make sound decisions that help build a profitable, reliable operation capable of supporting more customers, better jobs, stronger employee retention, and continued growth.
Building the Company Beyond This Position
MetroMaiden's current processes are starting points, not permanent limitations.
The Operations Manager is encouraged to identify better ways to operate as experience with the business grows.
That can include recommending or helping develop:
- Lead cleaners and assistant leads
- Trainers and field supervisors
- Geographic cleaning teams
- Recruiting or hiring support
- Administrative or customer-service positions
- Equipment and supply systems
- Transportation or logistics roles
- Improved scheduling and communication systems
- Better training and quality-control processes
- New services or operational processes
- Employee retention programs, benefits, and other infrastructure when the business can support them
The goal is to build an organization where responsibilities do not depend indefinitely on either the owner or one Operations Manager.
Success means helping create reliable people and systems that can operate consistently, deliver strong customer experiences, generate repeat business, and continue scaling.
What We're Looking For
The right person should be dependable, trustworthy, professional, responsive, organized, resourceful, adaptable, cost-conscious, and comfortable taking initiative.
The person must be comfortable:
- Managing and communicating with different personalities
- Recruiting, interviewing, training, and developing people
- Holding employees accountable
- Solving unexpected problems
- Working independently
- Learning new technology and business systems
- Communicating professionally with customers
- Performing hands-on cleaning when necessary
- Traveling throughout the current service area when necessary
- Taking on responsibilities that may change as the company develops
- Recognizing when work should be delegated
- Recognizing when owner approval is required
- Helping build systems and positions that eventually remove routine work from management
Experience in cleaning, management, hiring, training, scheduling, customer service, logistics, administration, or small-business operations is preferred.
No applicant is expected to already know every part of this position. The right person is expected to learn, ask questions, take responsibility, accept feedback, use good judgment, and follow through.
Growth Opportunity
This is a ground-floor opportunity with a new company.
The scope of this position may change substantially as MetroMaiden develops. New customers, services, employees, teams, systems, responsibilities, positions, and opportunities may be added as legitimate business needs change.
Strong performance, reliability, leadership, initiative, increased responsibility, and meaningful contribution to company growth can be considered for greater responsibility, advancement, additional hours, bonuses, or other compensation opportunities when offered and when supported by business performance and needs.
Nothing in this posting guarantees any particular number of hours, future compensation, bonus, promotion, ownership interest, or other future opportunity.
MetroMaiden is looking for someone who sees problems and helps solve them, sees work that needs attention and takes appropriate action within their authority, and wants to help turn a small operation into a strong, professionally run company where dependable employees want to stay and customers consistently want to return.
Pay: $25.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Flexible schedule
- Opportunities for advancement
- Paid training
Application Question(s):
- As MetroMaiden grows, this role will involve building systems and developing people so the owner or Operations Manager does not have to personally handle every task. How would you approach identifying work to delegate, developing lead employees or supervisors, and helping build an operation that can run reliably without constant owner involvement?
- Do you have a reliable personal vehicle, valid driver’s license, active auto insurance, and working smartphone, and are you willing and able to travel throughout MetroMaiden’s service area—including up to approximately 50 miles from Bolingbrook and/or Chicago when needed for business operations?
- Please describe your current availability, including the days and times you can realistically work, how much advance notice you typically need, and whether your availability is flexible when unexpected business needs, call-offs, or customer issues arise.
- Are you willing and physically able to perform hands-on residential cleaning when needed—including deep cleaning bathrooms, toilets, showers/tubs, kitchens, floors, buildup, and other difficult household cleaning conditions—and to work alongside cleaners or the owner when necessary?
- Please describe your experience recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, supervising, and managing employees. Which of these responsibilities would you be comfortable taking the lead on?
- A cleaner calls off shortly before a customer appointment and no replacement is immediately available. How would you handle the situation from start to finish?
- This role requires taking initiative and solving problems without waiting for the owner to direct every step, while also recognizing when owner approval is required. How would you decide what to handle yourself, what to delegate, and when to contact the owner?
- Are you comfortable learning and taking responsibility for an evolving customer-service workflow that may include responding to leads, communicating with customers, reviewing quote information, coordinating or performing in-person assessments when needed, entering customer/job information into company systems, coordinating employees based on availability and location, sending invoices or payment requests, confirming jobs, solving problems, and determining when work should be handled personally or appropriately delegated to another team member?
Work Location: On the road
