Chief Operating Officer — Omnichannel Retail Network

The mandate

The retailer has approved international expansion across several physical and digitally enabled formats. Commercial and property teams can identify attractive markets, but the organisation lacks one dependable mechanism for turning a signed site into stable trade. Construction, systems, inventory, supplier onboarding, hiring and training run on different calendars. Openings are protected through senior intervention and excess buffer, leaving local teams to resolve defects after launch. The model will not scale if each site is treated as a unique rescue.

The Chief Operating Officer will create the enterprise opening and operating system. The remit includes format operations, launch readiness, supply and inventory coordination, store and fulfilment standards, facilities, operational technology adoption, service performance and partner governance. Property controls site acquisition and build within its authority; commercial leaders own assortment and demand; country leaders own local performance. The COO must integrate those commitments into a feasible launch and ensure the operating model is transferred to local leadership.

This urgent replacement is not a request for rigid global manuals. Local regulation, labour, infrastructure, climate and customer behaviour will change how a format operates. The board wants a clear core, bounded local adaptation and explicit ownership of every exception. The COO must protect launch dates from casual change while moving a date when safety, readiness or customer promise genuinely requires it.

Scope and operating context

Based onsite in Seattle, the role influences approximately 2,200 employees and material partners across the United States and a wider international region. The operating network includes stores, collection and service points, fulfilment nodes, distribution, facilities, customer care and third-party logistics. Expansion teams work across time zones with country leaders, landlords, contractors, technology vendors and product suppliers.

Formats differ in space, assortment, service and fulfilment role. A full-line store may need complex receiving, specialist service and broad inventory; a smaller urban concept may depend on frequent replenishment and digital extension; a pickup or service location requires accurate order staging and remedy. Common processes should support safety, cash, inventory and customer promise while local workflow reflects the format.

Opening readiness is currently described by task completion. The COO will shift it towards operational proof: systems transact, inventory is accurate, leaders can run shifts, colleagues can serve and escalate, partners meet capacity, emergency controls work and the first weeks of demand can be supported. A completed checklist without demonstrated capability is insufficient.

First-year agenda

The first one hundred days will review the expansion pipeline and reconstruct recent openings. The COO will compare planned and actual cost, schedule, inventory, staffing, service and stabilisation, identifying where assumptions failed and where late decisions created downstream recovery. Site visits will examine how local teams experienced handover and which central support remained necessary.

The executive will then establish format-specific readiness gates. Common domains will include construction and safety, regulatory approval, systems, payment, inventory, supplier and carrier capacity, hiring, training, facilities, customer care, crisis response and financial control. Evidence and decision authority will be defined for each gate. Red status must lead to a choice, not a negotiated colour change.

The launch calendar will be integrated with supply and people capacity. Opening inventory should reflect demand ranges, replenishment lead time and local storage rather than an across-the-board buffer. Training environments and leadership arrival dates must precede customer launch sufficiently to test real work. Where several sites compete for the same specialists or vendors, sequencing will be explicit.

The COO will create a stabilisation model for the first weeks of trade. Daily review will connect availability, service, safety, systems, colleague capability, customer feedback and cash. Central support will have clear exit criteria so local management takes full ownership. Defects will be recorded against the launch process and corrected before the next wave, not accepted as local learning alone.

Several planned formats will proceed under the new model in the first year. The COO will use them to test which standards travel, where local adaptation creates value and which format assumptions need revision. By year-end, the board should have a realistic capacity view for the expansion pipeline and evidence that opening quality no longer depends on the same small group of rescuers.

Leadership responsibilities

The COO will chair the expansion-readiness forum and run enterprise operations once formats move into trade. Reports will connect milestones to service and risk, and will present alternatives when a site is not ready. Executives who change assortment, campaign, technology or staffing assumptions late must accept the visible consequences.

The role will build the operating leadership bench. Country and format leaders require selection based on the actual work, early appointment and a development path that includes mature operations as well as launch. Central experts should coach and assure rather than retain permanent control. The COO will assess senior talent and strengthen succession across launch, supply and store operations.

Partner governance will cover landlords, contractors, carriers, facilities and technology providers. Service, evidence, remedy and transition expectations must be clear. The COO will ensure local teams can manage partners after launch and that critical knowledge does not leave with the project team.

Measures of success

The board will review openings against approved cost and time, readiness exceptions, safety, first-week availability, inventory accuracy, systems stability, colleague certification, customer service and time to stable operation. Expansion capacity and central support demand will be tracked so pipeline commitments reflect real organisational limits.

Mature operating measures include comparable contribution, fulfilment, shrink, labour productivity, facilities reliability and customer effort by format. Local adaptations will be reviewed for value and lifecycle cost. A site opened on date through excessive stock, overtime or unresolved control gaps will not be classified as successful.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring at least 28 years of operations leadership in international retail, hospitality, restaurants, consumer services or another multi-site format business. They must have opened and stabilised substantial networks across countries and owned stores, supply, people and customer outcomes beyond the project phase.

The board will seek examples of delaying an opening for a defensible readiness reason, reducing buffer without weakening availability and changing a global standard after local operating evidence. Candidates should understand property handover, systems, inventory, workforce, third-party operations and early-trade governance.

The successful COO will be systematic but not doctrinaire. They must make clear calls under schedule pressure, earn trust from country leaders and remain visible in sites through stabilisation. Experience managing simultaneous format waves and developing local successors is essential.

Compensation and appointment terms

The expected base is USD 500,000–750,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation tied to expansion quality and enterprise outcomes. Final positioning will reflect relevant network scale, international operating depth and current arrangements. Mobility assistance or responsible treatment of forfeited remuneration will be considered during final negotiations.

Confidentiality

The retailer is unnamed because target markets, sites and operating gaps are not public. Detailed pipeline and format information will be disclosed only after identity, conflict and confidentiality checks. Applicants must anonymise locations, contractor issues and unpublished opening plans from other organisations.