Chief Operating Officer (COO)
About The Position
The Chief Operating Officer owns day-to-day execution across the business, with delegated authority to set operating priorities, direct department leaders, and make operating decisions. Working directly with the Founder and CEO, the COO turns company strategy into completed work and measurable business results, giving the founder more capacity to focus on strategy, brand, and growth. This is a hands-on operating role focused on identifying barriers to progress, following through on difficult decisions, building repeatable systems, strengthening department leadership, and improving revenue, profitability, and guest outcomes. The COO will lead department heads across guest experience, sales, marketing and media, technology delivery, finance operations, and people operations. Guest experience includes spa, concierge, housekeeping, maintenance, and the team creating memorable moments throughout each stay. The role connects teams through clear ownership, realistic capacity planning, and shared measures of success, while building a lean leadership structure that can grow with the business. Success means teams deliver reliably, routine decisions remain with their owners, and growth does not compromise the guest experience.
Requirements
- 7+ years leading operations across at least 3 business functions, with accountability for business outcomes.
- Experience directly managing at least 5 department heads or managers.
- Experience owning a P&L and leading operations in a founder-led company, including transferring day-to-day operating decisions from the founder to the leadership team.
- Experience implementing a repeatable operating system, such as EOS, sprint planning, or scorecards, and documented onboarding or training processes.
- Regular hands-on use of AI tools for analysis, communication, or workflow design.
- Residence within 90 minutes of Whitwell, Tennessee, or willingness to relocate, and availability for the hybrid schedule described in the posting.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in luxury hospitality, resorts, boutique hotels, or premium experiential brands.
- Experience leading multi-site operations.
- Experience using ClickUp to manage priorities, capacity, and execution.
Responsibilities
- Own execution of the company plan across departments, aligning priorities, resources, and accountability with revenue, profit, and guest experience goals.
- Identify the biggest constraint to business performance each week, use data to define the response, and lead the work until results improve.
- Run two-week execution cycles, plan several cycles ahead, and confirm team capacity before committing to deadlines.
- Set clear weekly priorities with department leaders, inspect progress, and address missed commitments within 24 hours.
- Protect work in progress by evaluating new requests, sequencing competing priorities, and limiting mid-cycle changes to genuine emergencies.
- Build documented workflows, onboarding, and training that equip employees to perform their roles consistently as the business grows.
- Recruit, coach, and hold department leaders accountable; make staffing decisions within the role's authority and partner with the CEO on final department-head hires.
- Partner with technology teams to simplify departmental workflows and use AI and automation to improve execution.
- Track financial and operational performance, including budget variance, labor efficiency, guest satisfaction, and rebooking; turn findings into corrective action.
- Keep the CEO engaged on decisions requiring founder input, bringing clear options and a recommendation while owning operational follow-through.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Executive
Education Level
No Education Listed
