SVP Operations

Purpose:  The Senior Vice President, Operations role is responsible for executing the Chief Operating Officer’s leadership vision for the company within one of the defined geographical regions in North America.  The VPO drives Duty Paid Retail and Restaurant excellence through intermediate leaders at all levels, employing exceptional relationships with our landlords and business partners, and industry-leading engagement.

Essential Functions:

• In conjunction with the COO and peer SVPs, participates in the establishment of priorities, goals, and strategies to execute the COO’s leadership vision for the company, and creates an in-depth understanding of that vision for all leaders across the region
• Creates understanding, acceptance, and adoption of established, enterprise-wide key performance indicators, and ensures broad understanding of actions and behaviors that drive positive KPI results among area and branch leaders
• Ensures financial operating objectives, profit margins are maintained, and revenue is maximized; monitors financial and operational information within the region, questions subordinate managers about operational challenges, listens to concerns and issues, and coaches for resolution and results
• Leads a diverse, inclusive, high performing senior operations leadership team that focuses on people, growth, and operational excellence
• Develops knowledge base of individual managers and staff within the region to ensure an authentic culture of coaching, engagement, empathy, trust, and mutual respect
• Engages, educates, leads, recognizes, and manages subordinate leaders to create an environment of cascading associate engagement at all levels within the region; creates mentorship opportunities for less experienced leaders
• Establishes and maximizes working relationships with landlords within the region to ensure ongoing performance feedback and issue resolution
• Consults with peer SVPs and VPOs on operational issues and problems, creates connections between leaders to find best practice solutions
• Advises and consults with EDOs, senior level GMs and SDOs to ensure all Landlord, ACDBE and other JV partner, corporate staff, and brand relationships are maximized in order to further the company’s business interests
• Monitors business intelligence for operational trends, determines most effective intervention path, coaches for performance, and sets-up opportunities for success
• Develops and uses their personal understanding of the industry, its unique trends and challenges, and external influences that will affect Retail and F&B business outcomes to anticipate and proactively prepare for opportunities and challenges within the region

Reporting Relationships:

• The SVP Operations reports to the EVP, F&B Operations or EVP Retail Operations
• The SVP Operations is directly supported by a regional staff (Field Finance, People & Culture, etc.) and directly supervises approximately 10 – 13 individual SDOs over large, core branches and VPOs over sub-regions of smaller branches
• This position is responsible for up to approximately 10,000 associates and ~$900 million in annual revenue at full capacity

Major Interdependencies:Development. Category Management/Commercial, Restaurant Concepts, Culinary, Design & Construction, Marketing & Communications, Supply Chain, Operations Finance, People & Culture, Development, Legal

Minimum Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Work Environment: 

• Education and Experience: The combination of education and professional experience must exceed 15 years:
  • In a leadership role: Requires 10 years of experience leading a senior level team of operations professionals engaged in developing and executing operations programs
  • In a technical role: Requires 10 years of experience engaged in developing and delivering business operations programs
    • A bachelor’s degree in a program related to the functional area can count for 3 of the ten-year requirement
    • An MBA or a master’s level degree in a program related to the functional area can count for an additional 2 years of the ten-year requirement
  • In the industry: 3-5 years of Retail, F&B and/or Hospitality experience
• Specialized Training:
  • Knowledge of applicable state and federal regulations and statutes
• Specialized Skillset/Competencies/Traits
  • Requires a demonstrated ability to effectively grow sales and operating profit, while continuously improving customer, team member, and landlord satisfaction
  • Requires a successful track record of growing sales and operating profit, while continuously improving customer delight, associate engagement, and landlord satisfaction
  • Requires a demonstrated successful track record managing highly visible relationships with both public and private clients and stakeholders (City Councils, Airport authorities, developers, landlords, DBEs, Unions, and joint venture partners)
  • Proven ability to work effectively with landlords, DBEs, joint venture partners and similarly positioned stakeholders
  • Highly advanced business acumen and also has the strategic mindset required to understand the long-term implications of operations management decisions and to advance the organization’s goals
  • Demonstrated history of anticipating and balancing the needs of the business with the needs of complex stakeholders, the employee population, and individual circumstances
  • Demonstrated history of creating and maintaining positive work environments through coaching, developing, and leading teams to achieve common goals
  • Demonstrated experience exhibiting a continuous improvement mindset with the ability to optimize work processes and achieve positive results
• Location/Travel:
  • The SVP Operations is expected to reside within their assigned region to minimize travel time, distance, and expense
  • Requires ability to travel up to 70% of the time