Chief Operating Officer at Alfred & Victoria Associates

Job Brief

• We seek a hands-on Chief Operating Officer (COO) with strong leadership skills to lead operations, optimize processes, and drive service delivery excellence in both markets.
• The COO will act as the key integrator between the CEO and the wider organization, ensuring that our teams, tools, and systems are efficient, productive, effective and align with the agency’s growth objectives.

Position Overview

• As the COO, you will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company, managing the company’s P&L, systems, processes, service delivery, resource optimization, and client satisfaction.
• Reporting directly to the CEO, you will lead a team of senior leaders across operations, HR, Finance, strategy, digital, creative, and client management. You will be instrumental in implementing scalable systems, improving operational efficiencies, and driving profitability.
• The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in creative and digital advertising agencies, preferably having worked their way up to an executive role. This trajectory helps develop a unique mix of business and management expertise, plus proficiency with our industry's practices, policies, and procedures.

Key Responsibilities
Operational Excellence:

• Act as the integrator between the CEO and the rest of the company, setting and driving organizational vision, translating high-level strategy into actionable steps for growth, implementing organization-wide goal setting, human performance management, and annual operations planning
• Oversee operations, human resources, finance, and service delivery ensuring projects are completed on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.
• Implement tools and processes to standardize project management, time tracking, and employee utilization.
• Optimize resource allocation and utilization across creative and digital teams to improve efficiency.
• Monitor performance with time-tracking software, take corrective measures when necessary, and prepare detailed updates and forecasts

Process Development & Compliance:

• Develop and enforce scalable operational processes that meet international standards.
• Analyze internal operations and identify areas for process enhancement
• Champion compliance with regulatory requirements, integrating them into workflows.
• Implement and maintain quality assurance practices to ensure consistent delivery excellence.
• Ensure compliance with business regulations in the Nigeria and UK markets, and take appropriate action when necessary

Procurement and Outsourcing:

• Create a vendor management system for sourcing and onboarding freelancers, vendors, and suppliers globally.
• Develop procurement policies to streamline outsourcing and vendor relationships.

Pricing and Scoping:

• Develop accurate templates and processes for scoping and pricing retainers and projects to ensure profitability.
• Analyze historical project data to refine cost estimates and resource planning.

Technology and Innovation:

• Champion the integration of technology tools into operations, creative, digital and other teams to enhance efficiency.
• Collaborate with the innovation and data teams to test, adopt, and scale new technologies.
• Ensure existing tools are fully leveraged while identifying and implementing additional solutions when required.

Financial Oversight:

• Work closely with the CFO to monitor operational budgets, manage P&L, and ensure financial performance aligns with business objectives.
• Analyze financial performance data to identify and address inefficiencies or opportunities for growth.
• Manage capital investments and expenses aggressively to ensure that the company achieves investor targets for growth and profitability

Leadership and Culture:

• Lead and mentor directors to foster a culture of accountability, growth, and excellence.
• Promote Company’s core values: responsibility, innovation, owner mindset, growth orientation, excellence, and team spirit.
• Actively participate in talent development, ensuring the team is equipped to adapt to industry changes.

Client Relationship Management:

• Oversee high-level client relationships, stepping in to manage accounts when account directors are unavailable.
• Support the account management team in upselling services to existing clients when required.
• Build and maintain trusting relationships with clients
• Grow business volume with existing clients by delivering projects optimally, securing additional value-adding opportunities, and strengthening client relationships.

Human Resources:

• Ensure effective recruiting, onboarding, professional development, performance management, and retention

Others:

• Maintain a continuous line of communication with the CEO. Keep him informed of all critical issues.
• Represent the organization externally, as necessary
• Manage and cultivate existing relationships with partners, regulators, key suppliers, and other stakeholders to ensure effective project and program delivery and overall group performance.

Key Result Areas

• Results proven track record of exceeding goals and a bottom-line orientation; evidence of the ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; high level of business acumen; the ability to balance the delivery of programs against the realities of a budget; and problem-solving, project management and creative resourcefulness
• Strategic Vision and ability to think strategically, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into the organizational plan
• Capacity building – the ability to effectively build organization and staff capacity, develop an effective workforce, and the processes that ensure the organizational plan.
• Leadership and organizational exceptional capacity for managing and leading people; a team builder; ability to connect staff both on an individual level and in large groups; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower effective leaders from the bottom up, lead from the top down
• Action-oriented – enjoys working hard and looks for challenges; proactive, able to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available; not afraid to take charge of a situation; can overcome resistance to leadership and take unpopular stands when necessary.

Required Qualifications
Experience:

• Five or more years of leadership experience in marketing agencies with both digital and creative expertise
• Proven experience in operational management, service delivery, and scaling teams in high-growth environments.
• Strong track record of implementing processes and systems to improve efficiency and profitability.
• Experience in consulting/ professional services and IT would be a distinct advantage
• Age: 35-50

Skills & Competencies:

• Undergraduate Degree in relevant discipline required. MBA or a similar advanced degree is highly desired
• Exceptional leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and align cross-functional teams.
• Expertise in project management, resource optimization, and operational systems.
• Familiarity with tools and data-driven approaches to digital marketing, creative production, and agency operations.
• Financial acumen, with experience managing budgets, forecasting, and P&L oversight.
• Strong client relationship management skills, with a focus on service excellence.
• Proficiency in Technical tools in project management, analytics, and other tools that can drive digital marketing and data optimization will be an advantage. Excellent leadership skills, with steadfast resolve and personal integrity
• Solid grasp of data analysis and performance metrics
• Ability to diagnose problems quickly and foresee potential issues

key Competencies Requirements
Functional /Technical:

• Entrepreneurial
• Innovative
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Mission-driven
• Strategic thinker
• Practical Doer

Supervisory:

• Strong mentoring and creative problem-solving skills
• Collaborative
• Team leader
• Capacity building ability

Behavioural:

• Action-oriented
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong presentation skills.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: Competitive and commensurate with experience.
• Benefits: Flexible work environment, professional development opportunities, and the chance to shape the future of a dynamic, culturally-driven creative agency.
• Performance Incentives: Bonus structure tied to operational efficiency, profitability, and client satisfaction metrics.