Chief Operating Officer (COO)

THE COMPANY

We are a founder-led premium hospitality and experiential brand helping couples slow down, reconnect, and strengthen their relationships through deeply restorative experiences. Our work centers on renewal and emotional connection, creating private environments where guests can step away from everyday demands and return to what matters most.

With guest demand and investment in talent, technology, and AI, we are building the operating foundation for our next stage of growth. This is an opportunity to shape how the business scales while protecting the experience that makes it worth visiting.

YOUR TEAM

You will lead department heads across guest experience, sales, marketing and media, technology delivery, finance operations, and people operations. Guest experience spans spa, concierge, housekeeping, maintenance, and the team creating memorable moments throughout each stay.

These teams share one challenge: translating ambitious priorities into consistent delivery. You will connect their work through clear ownership, realistic capacity planning, and shared measures of success, building a lean leadership structure that can grow with the business.

YOUR ROLE

As Chief Operating Officer, you will own 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, you will turn 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 for someone who stays close to the work, identifies what is limiting progress, and follows through on difficult decisions. You will build repeatable systems, strengthen department leadership, and improve revenue, profitability, and guest outcomes. Success means teams deliver reliably, routine decisions stay with their owners, and growth does not come at the expense of the guest experience.

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 your 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.

MINIMUM 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 above.

NICE TO HAVE

• 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.