Chief Operating Officer

About the role

Republic of Africa, a pan-African fashion, lifestyle and cultural company based in Accra, is looking for a Chief Operating Officer to build the operating systems that turn its strategy into results every day. The role reports to the CEO, who focuses on vision, brand, product and relationships, while the COO owns execution. It is a hands-on, builder's role covering Ghana and the wider African market.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the restructure from a production-heavy team to one focused on content, community and selling, with clear roles, reporting lines and KPIs.
• Set up finance, inventory, production and sales systems, including monthly management accounts, budgets, cash-flow forecasts and an integrated ERP system.
• Run the selling engine: content studio, daily live selling with hosts and influencers, online stores and the Accra store, with tracked sales and customer data.
• Plan production between in-house tailors and partner factories, and lead the warehousing rollout.
• Manage supplier and logistics partnerships, and run events and experiences with clear budgets and income.
• Run HR, performance management, learning and development, and build a high-performance culture.
• Support the CEO on fundraising, investor materials and data rooms, strengthen governance and represent the company at events.

Required profile

• Senior operations experience in a consumer, retail, e-commerce or creative business, ideally one that sells through content and community.
• A strong record of turning complex or chaotic environments into efficient, repeatable systems.
• Proven leadership, coaching and people-management capability.
• Pan-African perspective and confidence representing an African company globally.

Required skills

• Budgeting, cash-flow management and management reporting.
• ERP implementation and experience with ISO 9001:2015 (a strong advantage).
• Negotiation, partnership-building and project management.
• Experience engaging Boards, investors and senior stakeholders.