The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for architecting and driving the operational strategy of the business. This person will serve as a critical member of the Executive Team, overseeing logistics, inventory planning, and operational infrastructure across all channels, ensuring the organization is positioned to scale efficiently and profitably. The COO will serve as the connective thread across departments, translating business objectives into disciplined execution, while building the systems, processes, and teams required to support sustained growth.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Strategy
- Define and lead the operational strategy in alignment with long-term business objectives.
- Drive planning across revenue, inventory, and channel performance.
- Establish a scalable operating model to support wholesale, retail, and eCommerce growth.
- Serve as a key thought partner to the CEO on company-wide strategy, growth initiatives, and investment decisions.
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)
- Establish and lead a refined S&OP framework that unifies Merchandising, Planning, Finance, Wholesale, and eCommerce teams around a single, forward-looking view of the business.
- Develop and implement a disciplined monthly cadence integrating demand forecasting, inventory strategy, and financial targets, ensuring alignment with brand vision and seasonal product narratives.
- Translate customer demand signals, sell-through insights, and market dynamics into actionable forecasts and inventory decisions across eCommerce, wholesale, and retail channels.
- Guide cross-functional leadership through key business trade-offs, balancing growth, inventory health, and margin integrity with a luxury mindset.
- Implement elevated reporting and forecasting tools that provide clarity, precision, and accountability, while scaling the brand’s growth.
- Partner with leadership to champion a culture of proactive planning and continuous refinement, leveraging technology and data to enhance forecast accuracy and operational excellence.
Logistics & Fulfillment Leadership
- Provide executive oversight of all logistics and fulfillment operations, including 3PL partnerships, both domestic and international.
- Set strategy for distribution, shipping, and delivery to optimize speed, cost, and customer experience.
- Lead continuous improvement of fulfillment performance, service levels, and operational reliability.
- Oversee infrastructure planning to support geographic and channel expansion.
Inventory Planning & Alignment
- Own the strategic framework for inventory planning across all channels.
- Partner with Merchandising and Finance to align assortment, demand, and financial targets.
- Oversee OTB strategy, allocation, and inventory optimization to maximize sell-through and margin.
- Ensure disciplined inventory management to support cash flow, minimize risk, and drive profitability.
Business Leadership
- Build, mentor, and retain a high performing team, developing next level operators across logistics and planning.
- Establish a culture of accountability, ownership, and performance excellence, with clear goal setting and feedback.
- Lead, coach, and elevate senior leaders, ensuring alignment on priorities while strengthening decision-making capabilities across the organization.
- Drive organizational clarity through thoughtful structure, role definition, and succession planning to support long-term scalability.
- Act as a central operator across the business, ensuring alignment between:
- Merchandising (assortment, lifecycle, and product flow)
- Finance (budgets, forecasts, and margin performance)
- Technology (ERP, system architecture, and data infrastructure)
- Wholesale & Retail (demand signals and channel performance)
- Lead cross-functional operating cadences, including forecasting, inventory reviews, and performance tracking.
- Drive accountability and decision making at the executive level.
Systems, Data, & Operational Infrastructure
- Own the vision and execution of the company’s operational systems and data infrastructure.
- Ensure optimization and scalability of the ERP system and planning tools.
- Champion data-driven decision making through robust reporting and KPI frameworks.
- Identify and implement automation and AI-driven solutions to enhance efficiency and visibility.
Financial Ownership
- Own core operational and financial performance drivers, including:
- Inventory productivity (turn, sell-through, aging)
- Fulfillment performance and service levels
- Logistics & distribution costs
- Contribution to gross margin and working capital efficiency
- Partner with Finance on long-term planning, scenario modeling, and capital allocation.
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience in operations, planning, or general management within fashion, apparel, or consumer brands.
- Proven executive leadership experience in a high-growth, multi-channel startup environment.
- Strong expertise in inventory planning, allocation, and operational scaling.
- Ability to manage ERP systems and operational technologies.
- Ability to operate at both strategic and highly detailed levels.
- High level of financial acumen and analytical care.
- Strong executive presence within a startup environment with the ability to influence key decision makers.
