A network of coffee shops ABC Coffee Roasters is looking for an Operations Director to take charge of the daily management of the Russian business and prepare the operational system for the next stage of growth.
Role Objectives:
- The Operations Director is responsible for the results of the Russian business: meeting the financial plan, efficiency of locations and production, product and service quality, and the company's operational readiness for growth.
- We need a leader who sees the entire chain — from production to the guest — and can manage it as a unified system, not a coordinator between functions.
- A significant part of the role is managing through a strong team of leaders. The Operations Director should not solve every operational problem independently. Their task is to build a system with clear responsibilities, metrics, standards, and decision-making rules.
Responsibilities:
Oversee the operational business results:
- Manage operational P&L and EBITDA within the agreed scope. Collaborate with the CFO to form the budget, analyze deviations, and make decisions regarding sales, costs, and productivity.
- Revenue growth is important, but it's not the sole objective if profitability, product quality, or service deteriority.
Manage through leaders:
- Establish effective work processes for regional managers, product line leaders, and production managers.
- Define areas of responsibility and authority, set the management rhythm, conduct regular performance reviews, and establish clear problem-solving procedures.
- Develop the autonomy of leaders while ensuring a high level of execution discipline.
Manage different ABC formats:
- The chain includes locations with different operational models: coffee shops, bakeries, and full-service restaurants.
- The Operations Director's task is to ensure a consistent level of product, service, and operational quality, considering differences in menus, guest traffic, teams, and equipment.
Manage the entire chain from production to guest:
- In collaboration with production and supply chain leaders, establish demand planning, output, and supply processes.
- Manage capacity, inventory, logistics, and waste so that decisions in one department improve the overall system's performance rather than creating problems for the next stage.
Prepare the business for new openings:
- Be responsible for the operational readiness of new locations and new production facilities.
- Synchronize teams, capacities, procurement, equipment, and training; conduct test runs and ensure the stability of the existing business during growth.
- It's important not just to open on time, but to create a system where each subsequent location launch is more predictable and manageable.
Manage team productivity:
- Together with the HRD and relevant leaders, plan staffing, talent pipeline, and employee development.
- Determine staffing needs based on the actual business workload, control labor costs, and the quality of the management team.
- The goal is not to solve every new problem with additional hiring, but to first understand the causes and find the most effective solution.
Ensure quality and operational discipline:
- Ensure compliance with product, service, safety, sanitation, and operational standards.
- For ABC, quality is not a separate control function. If a guest encounters a poor product, weak service, or an unkempt space, it signals a systemic problem to the Operations Director: in standards, responsibility, training, or control.
- It's crucial not only to fix issues quickly but also to address the root causes to prevent recurrence.
First Months:
In the initial phase, it's important to gain a deep understanding of the existing business rather than making changes for the sake of change.
During the first months, you will:
- Assess the current operational model and team.
- Identify strengths and systemic limitations.
- Agree on the areas of responsibility for leaders.
- Establish regular reviews of operational and financial results.
- Integrate new location opening schedules and production launch plans into a unified work plan.
- Identify key areas of waste, capacity constraints, and recurring issues.
- Develop a prioritized plan for changes.
Decisions are expected to be data-driven and based on the real business situation.
Who We Are Looking For:
- We need a leader with experience managing a complex operational business with multiple locations and teams.
- The actual scope of the candidate's responsibility is more important than their previous job title.
Important:
- Experience managing multiple establishments and heads of departments with personal accountability for financial results.
- Proficient in P&L, EBITDA, cost of goods sold, labor costs, productivity, and inventory management.
- Practical experience interacting with central production or a distributed product preparation system.
- Understanding of the restaurant business, kitchen operations, bakery, coffee segment, and service at an overall operational model level.
- Experience opening new sites and scaling businesses.
- Ability to improve existing systems without uncontrolled team expansion.
- Capacity to manage through strong leaders, rather than centralizing all decisions.
- Willingness to personally delve into processes at locations and in production.
- Ability to articulate decisions and work with engaged founders.
And one more important quality – attention to detail:
- ABC is built not only on numbers and processes. Product, service, and environment are as important as financial efficiency. Therefore, the Operations Director must see the business through the guest's eyes and understand where the operational system begins to impact their experience.
How Results Are Assessed:
The Operations Director's results are not measured by a single metric.
We will look at:
- Operating profit and budget adherence.
- Labor productivity.
- Product quality and availability.
- Service quality.
- Losses in the production and sales chain.
- Operational readiness for new openings.
- Stability and autonomy of the management team.
The main goal is to make ABC's Russian business more efficient and scalable without compromising product quality, service, and guest experience.
Interaction and Authority:
- The Operations Director will work closely with the founders, CFO, HRD, and heads of key departments.
- Company strategy, brand concept, and major investment decisions remain within the scope of agreement with the founders.
- However, within the agreed operational model, we expect the Operations Director to have high autonomy and responsibility for results.
- This role does not replace the CFO, specialized chefs, or functional heads. Its purpose is to ensure all parts of the business function as a unified system.
What We Offer:
- A large-scale management role in a rapidly growing business. ABC continues to open new locations, develop its own production, and increase the complexity of its operational model – the Operations Director will have the opportunity to directly influence how the company navigates its next stage of growth.
- Real responsibility for results. This is not a role of a coordinator between functions. The Operations Director will have the opportunity to influence the business's economics, location and production efficiency, service quality, and the company's readiness for scaling.
- A high level of autonomy. We are looking for a leader to whom a significant portion of operational decisions can be delegated, expecting not only execution but also independent opinions, initiative, and accountability for results.
- Direct collaboration with founders and a strong management team. In this role, it's important to understand ABC's vision and be able to translate it into a functioning operational system.
- The opportunity to build, not just maintain. New openings, production development, and further business scaling lie ahead. Many processes already exist, but parts of the system will need strengthening and restructuring.
- A business where efficiency does not exist separately from the product. Financial results are important, but we are not willing to achieve them at the expense of product quality, service, or environment. The task is to find solutions that make ABC simultaneously stronger as a business and better for the guest.
- Competitive compensation and a motivation system tied to business results.
Work format and conditions:
- Work with ABC's Russian business, locations, and production in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- The base location, travel arrangements, level of authority, compensation, and motivation system will be discussed individually.
