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.
Skills
As published by ashby · 15 questions · 2 written answers
Basics
Full Name, Email, Resume
Short answers (2)
- Phone
- Optional: If you were you referred to Bolt Farm, who referred you? optional
Pick from a list (11)
- Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for an employment visa to work in the United States?
- Bolt Farm is an AI-first company. Every leader here uses AI to run their work, not just to speed it up. Which best describes how you use AI today? Select the highest level that applies.
- Based on the compensation package listed in the job posting, which of the following best describes where you stand right now?
- This role calls for at least two days per week on site in Whitwell, Tennessee, and requires living within 90 minutes of Whitwell. Which best describes your situation?
- How many years have you held direct accountability for operational results across at least three business functions at the same time?
- What is the largest number of department heads or managers who have reported directly to you at the same time?
- Which best describes the financial accountability you have personally held?
- In a founder-led company, who made the day-to-day operating decisions while you were in your role?
- Which of the following have you personally built (not just inherited or used) in an operating leadership role? Select all that apply.
- In which of these settings have you held an operations leadership role? Select all that apply.
- Which best describes the guest-facing teams you've led operationally?
Written answers (2)
- [Optional] Name one responsibility you took over from a founder. How did you know it was working? optional
- Pick one item you checked above. What was broken before you built it, and what changed after?