Head of Strategic Execution
Key Responsibilities
Execution & Accountability Management
- Own and maintain a central view of all COO and leadership-level initiatives, projects, and priorities.
- Establish clear timelines, owners, milestones, and success criteria for cross-functional initiatives.
- Track progress against agreed timelines and proactively flag risks, delays, or dependency issues.
- Drive follow-ups and resolution without requiring constant COO intervention.
- Facilitate corrective action planning when initiatives are off-track
- Conduct post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned and continuously improve execution capability
Cross-Functional Project Leadership
- Work with department heads to structure complex initiatives into clear, actionable workplans.
- Identify interdependencies across teams and surface execution risks early.
- Support leaders in simplifying scope, sequencing work, and removing bottlenecks.
- Ensure decisions, actions, and commitments from leadership meetings are documented, assigned and executed.
Operating Rhythm & Cadence
- Establish and manage execution cadences (weekly, monthly, quarterly) for priority initiatives.
- Develop simple dashboards and trackers to provide visibility into progress and blockers.
- Standardise how updates are reported so leadership can quickly assess status without excessive detail.
Process & Structure Improvement
- Identify recurring operational inefficiencies, duplication of effort, or unclear ownership.
- Work with functional leads to introduce lightweight but effective structures, SOPs, and workflows in collaboration with functional leads.
- Recommend and support the adoption of project management tools and execution frameworks.
- Create and maintain templates, playbooks, and tools that enable consistent execution across the organization
COO Enablement & Strategic Support
- Act as a thought partner to the COO on structuring complex problems and initiatives.
- Reduce cognitive and operational load on the COO by filtering, structuring, and escalating issues appropriately.
- Prepare concise briefs, execution summaries, and decision-ready insights for leadership.
Desired Skills & Experience
- 8-10 years of progressive experience in operations, strategy consulting, PMO, strategy & operations, or similar roles
- Proven ability to manage cross-functional initiatives and influencing without direct authority.
- Experience in retail, manufacturing, or similarly complex operational environments preferred.
- Highly structured thinker with excellent follow-through and attention to detail.
- Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools (e.g., Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Notion, Odoo, or similar)
- Confident communicator who can engage senior leaders and challenge timelines respectfully but firmly.
Method of Application
Interested candidates should submit:
- Current CV/resume
- Brief cover letter explaining:
- Why you’re interested in this role specifically
- An example of a complex cross-functional initiative you’ve driven
- Your approach to influencing without authority
To apply send resume and cover letter to hr@ruffntumblekids.com
