Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Executive Placements · Bo-Kaap, Western Cape

Stop applying one at a time.

JobAlertsZA auto-applies to South African jobs like this one for you, overnight. Upload your CV once — we do the applying.

At a glance

Reports to: Group CEO
Client-facing? No this is an internal, cross-functional leadership role
Direct reports : None initially. Authority comes from an explicit Group CEO mandate to own end-to-end process, not from a position in the line-management chart
Works closely with : CEO North America, CEO UK, CTO, CRO, Head of Projects, Client Operations Manager, Financial Manager, Head of Automation
Role type : Full-time, permanent, Group-wide (US / UK operations)

What you will do Operational excellence:

Own and maintain the end-to-end cross-functional process map, resolving ambiguity in ownership rather than leaving it unresolved.
Oversee the health of core handoffs: sales to delivery, sales to projects, project-to-BAU handover, support to commercial, and commercial to finance.
Provide process oversight of Procurement's seams with other functions and review regional-to-Group process consistency between the US and UK.
Act as the escalation point for unresolved systemic cross-functional issues, once normal functional escalation paths have been exhausted.

Client experience and retention

Monitor handoff health as a leading indicator of client experience, correlating process friction with sentiment and churn-risk signals.
Identify structural, non-account-specific drivers of retention risk and partner with the regional CEOs and account teams to fix root causes.
Confirm that fixes to recurring client-experience issues are durable and structural, not one-off account saves.

Design processes and playbooks that scale cleanly as headcount, client base, and regional footprint grow.
Consolidate cross-functional forecasting capacity, onboarding pipeline, and growth trajectory to flag structural scaling risk ahead of demand.
Own the operating-model implications of entering new regions, service lines, or client segments.
Standardise onboarding, handover, and QBR processes so growth does not multiply operational complexity.

Build and maintain a genuine working partnership with every functional Head of Department.
Chair a standing cross-functional forum bringing together the leads on each side of the core handoffs.
Report on handoff health, client-experience patterns, and growth-readiness to the Group CEO on an agreed cadence.
Escalate material structural risk, or any proposed change to the confirmed role structure, to the Group CEO.

.special-hidden { display: none; }