Chief Operating Officer
Knix Wear
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Toronto, ON, Canada
Posted on Thursday, November 2, 2023
Knix is a direct to consumer intimate apparel brand that is re-inventing intimates for real life. Through our innovative products and our engaged community, we are empowering people everywhere to be unapologetically free. Launched in 2013, we are one of the fastest growing companies in Canada and globally recognized as an innovator within the apparel space.
We are growing the senior executive team and are in search of a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who will build and lead the operational engine of the business, enabling business growth & value creation and delivering successful channel & supply chain diversification. Reporting to the Founder and CEO, Joanna Griffiths, the COO will direct and provide executive leadership to the areas of Technology, Process Improvement & Transformation, Store/Omnichannel Enablement, Production & Design, Supply Chain, and Regulatory Compliance. The organization is scaling, with ambitions to double revenues over the next three years and the growth strategy is centred on building an omnichannel presence, scaling the brand’s digital presence, Knix branded retail stores, wholesale partnerships as well as expanding internationally.
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Overview of Responsibilities
There are (5) main areas of responsibility for this role today, with endless opportunities to shape the future of how we enable our operations to deliver value to our customers:
1) Executive Leadership & Strategy
- Play a crucial role in driving operational excellence and overall business growth. Drive change and set out and execute the operational strategy to support value creation, growth, profitability, and scalability.
- Planning & Process: Lead strategy through to execution for critical initiatives, building plans and appropriate resources to deliver on goals
- Play a critical role in transforming organizational processes and engineering our current setup to ensure we are optimized to hit our revenue goals.
- Ensure optimal operations as the business expands across international markets and business models, building processes, systems & tools and inspiring the teams to think and act entrepreneurial as the business is scaling.
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing operations and technology team, coach people and foster a culture of speed, agility, collaboration, communication and accountability. Support the business culture evolution by building on the values of Knix while instilling a performance focus.
- Establish and monitor KPIs to measure and report on operational performance, providing insights and recommendations to the executive team.
2) Technology & Omni-Channel Enablement
- Provide leadership to an existing technology team, including digital commerce, operations technology, QA & IT. Enable their roadmap to better support the business, internal systems and processes as we scale - ensuring decisions and information flow optimally through the company.
- Leverage technology and systems to provide exceptional consumer experiences in all distribution channels and markets, including managing returns and exchanges, addressing customer queries, and ensuring timely order fulfilment; enable consumers to buy online and return in-store and keep an eye on where the industry is heading.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop and implement strategies for enhancing the customer and partner experience, including the ongoing optimization and development of a best-in-class e-commerce platform, seamless order fulfilment and responsive customer support. Lead and build the operational capability for the wholesale business and create a B2B platform.
3) Production & Design
- Working with the Chief Product Officer, who will be a direct report, to level up the sourcing, production, QA, and product design functions to improve speed to market and support business growth and objectives.
- Lead and optimize end-to-end supply chain management, including sourcing, production and logistics. Ensuring the production & sourcing and supply chain & logistics teams, maintain strong relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics partners, resulting in smooth operations and on-time deliveries, cost savings and vendor diversity.
- Ensure the business has the infrastructure across technology enablement, supply chain, logistics, production, sourcing and product design to have clear visibility into product timelines and effectively optimize the management and flow of products.
4) Supply Chain
- Develop a supply chain management and logistics roadmap to support profitable growth, internationalization and channel diversification.
- Leverage an organization with a track record of success in fulfilment capability within e-commerce and retail - provide strategy and capability for the expansion into wholesale, new markets and new business models.
- Meet demand, accurate forecasting, efficient production planning, and responsive supply chain management.
5) Regulatory
- Identify and mitigate operational risks while ensuring compliance with industry regulations and standards.
- Navigate the broader regulatory landscape, which differs from country to country and product to product—including but not limited to FDA registration, the menstrual right to know it Act, Prop 65 and more.
About You:
- A strategic and results-oriented executive with 20+ years of progressive experience and a strong background in consumer products, with deep omnichannel experience & exposure to different business models, including high-growth/scale-up businesses with an international presence. A strong preference for candidates with apparel experience
- Experience as a COO, CTO or Operations Executive on the senior leadership team of a dynamic, sizeable, high-growth business, specifically in an organization that produces/develops and sells consumer products/goods in a DTC environment.
- Previous P&L accountability of a retail network OR in an executive role where there was responsibility for store/retail enablement.
- Experience in directly leading Technology teams in a high-growth omnichannel brand and enabling an organization's IT roadmap, with a deep understanding of various applications, processes and systems (including but not limited to: Digital, ERP Systems, Infrastructure, IT Architecture etc.)
- Deep expertise in Planning and Process improvement, with a track record of leading initiatives from strategy to execution; a strong skillset in project management.
- Strong supply chain management knowledge, including sourcing, production, inventory management, and logistics.
- A builder of capability, processes and systems with oversight and foresight.
- Experience in change management, delivering improvements and capability, making a business future-ready and getting buy-in from across the organization.
- An inspiring leader with experience in creating a positive and performance-focused culture which creates an environment of trust, candour and respect and inspires people to bring about positive change and growth.
- Has a reputation for being a mentor - understands how to drive teams to achieve big wins. A coach who develops people, able and prepared to make difficult decisions and communicate uncomfortable truths.
- Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and external partners.
- Strong business acumen and financial literacy, with the ability to analyze and interpret data to drive performance.
- Above all, you’re proactive, positive, and inspired by Knix and our mission.
How we Hire
Our people are what make Knix, Knix! Our people are passionate and have a strong belief in our mission. Our people are naturally curious and ambitious by nature. Employees feel respected and supported at Knix. We take an inclusive and equitable approach offering the same interview experience to every candidate we meet with. Knix is an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate everyone and their intersecting identities. We know and believe that diverse and inclusive teams empower us to make better decisions and inspire innovation so that we can better serve our customers and community. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations and will work with you to meet your needs. If you are a person with a disability and require assistance during the application process, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We celebrate our inclusive work environment and welcome members of all backgrounds and perspectives to apply.
This job is no longer accepting applications
See open jobs at Knix Wear.See open jobs similar to "Chief Operating Officer" Work In Tech.