COO (Chief Operating Officer) wanted for adventurous journey with commercial stage FoodTech startup i Sweden

Om tjänsten

One of the most interesting things about event catering is how mind-bogglingly uninteresting it is. That’s mostly due to the fact that traditional caterers have to work within extreme, expensive and physical supply chain limitations to their capacity, flexibility, margins and scalability. We’ve set out to change that. Gastronaut is a caterer with a radically different and superior tech-enabled focused cellular supply and value chain that transcends traditional limitations to scale physical assets with the same ease, speed and cost as scaling software.

Since we don’t live in the Matrix yet (at least, to the best of our knowledge), we still coordinate and deliver a physical product/service. And that’s exactly why we need a COO like you: to work out kinks, run and lead operations into the future.

About Gastronaut

From the outside, Gastronaut is the only award-winning catering company challenging Michelin-starred and other top chefs. From the inside, we are a next-generation tech-enabled n-sided managed marketplace and logistics company revolutionising the supply and value chain of a big, dinosaur industry.

We develop and coordinate a proprietary network of independent cloud-kitchens (quite different from the ones you imagine) to produce a complex catering service for a single buyer, and a single cloud-kitchen to produce simultaneously for multiple buyers. 

Gastronaut works only with talented immigrant chefs who bring specialised craftsmanship and refined flavours exclusively from their home countries in order to secure a premium food experience. Thanks to our innovative supply chain model, we’re able to bring this premium food experience to our customers at mid-level prices.

Whenever our clients and their guests enjoy our catering service they directly contribute to creating jobs, integration opportunities and financial sustainability for immigrants, without doing or paying anything extra. We are also extremely proud to say that 80% of our chefs are female, in this male dominated industry.

Gastronaut aims to be the definitive catering choice in key European markets and beyond, as well as an organisation with meaningful depth and breadth in social impact.

COO - a “sandwich” position

You will have a dual focus on top-line growth and bottom-line performance. While the focus on operations should never be downplayed, you have to combine these skills with a set of strategic and forward-looking capabilities. Operational excellence, optimisation, innovation and clarity are of strategic importance.

We want you to help change things around here, but this should come from a genuine interest in the company’s growth and should not be purely engineered for its own sake. Also, our CMO’s humour is quite debatable, so if you can help sort that out too, we’ll be eternally grateful.

Why you should NOT apply for this job:

It requires hard work. From all of us, not just you. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will be physically working 24/7, but your brain will likely be. Your first year will be demanding.

Why you should apply:

If you set the right foundation in your first year, the years to come will be radically closer to normality. From then on, it’s a matter of time to start enjoying the big fruits of our labour. The harder and smarter we work, the bigger the fruits and the sooner we all enjoy them.

Objectives:

• Collaborate with the CEO in setting and driving strategy for the various growth stages.

• Collaborate with the CMO in bringing forward the value chain in all the touch-points with external and internal customers.

• Ensure suitable operations and process management

• Optimise operational processes

• Implement strategies into operations

• Drive key change and transformation initiatives

• Shape the future of the business

Responsibilities:

• Analyse internal operations and identify areas of process enhancement

• Responsible for running the daily operations

• Introduce efficiency and optimisation for sustainable growth

• Map out needed changes, stumbling blocks and preparations.

• Formulate and deploy specific frameworks and processes that can deliver on the strategic objectives set for each part of the organisation.

• Responsible for supplier relationships (transactional and strategic). Liaising to understand potential issues that we both may face and how we can improve them in a way that is beneficial for both parties.

• Network to attract operations staff from other sectors that can bring new ideas and a different perspective to the company.

• Planning entrance to new markets.

Experience:

• Operational experience with physical goods/services (e.g. logistics management, production management, plant management, capacity planning or other)

• Project, process, product and risk management

• Financial, budget management and controlling (e.g., planning & forecasting, pricing, profitability analysis, cost management)

• Participation in development and design of strategy

• Assessment of operational readiness and implementation choices (feasibility analysis)

• Scenario planning

• Experience with managing a software development team is a plus but not necessary.

Lack of experience in one or more fields should not discourage you from applying.

Personal characteristics:

As the not-so-famous quote goes: “without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.”

• Entrepreneurial - relentless resourcefulness

• Ability to delve into and also rise above complexity

• Be comfortable making decisions.

• Leadership, people skills, vision, ambition

• Not afraid of a healthy disagreement

• Find joy and motivation in the diversity of the role.

• Hard working

An important note:

The hiring of a COO is a long-term investment for us. If you move to the final stage we will enable you to do your due diligence with Gastronaut to better understand the function of the role and begin to identify the key challenges that you might inherit. There’s always something broken at companies. We want to give you a reasonable opportunity to see inside, before you accept an offer. The format of this due diligence can be adapted according to your current situation and needs, around reading material we’ll provide and discussions with the founders/management team.

Our principles:

Long-term VS short-term thinking: a short-term approach leads to chasing your tail in circles dealing with re-appearing problems. Long-term thinking creates a framework for daily decisions that are a foundation for the future. These decisions may seem counter-intuitive today but natural in hindsight (easy to say, but hard to implement).

Balance patience and impatience: be impatient about getting shit done today, but be patient in your confidence that radical results simply do not come to life overnight.

Don’t think and act by analogy: seeing the amazing “thing” that XYZ Company did should inspire you. But don’t try to copy it. Their success was built by solving their own unique set of challenges, in relation to their own goals and their own unique position in a unique environment. We have our own. Stick to the fundamentals that are relevant to our unique situation.

Process, process, process: No one can guarantee success, but with better processes it is certain that we’ll get better results. Success is only a byproduct of strategic systems with effective & efficient processes.

Success & profitability and Social Impact and not mutually exclusive -  if anything, the opposite. We let results do the talking for us, and not some corporate “greenwashing” marketing.

Start & Compensation:

The job is estimated to start in October - depending on the closing our funding round and your availability. Very Reasonable startup salary to begin with, and a piece of the pie.

In conclusion:

If this job isn’t for you, then it isn’t for you. But if you are unsure if this job is right for you, then it’s very likely that it is perfect for you. The kind of COO we’re looking for is someone who is willing to step out of her/his comfort zone. Ultimately, the team we build is the company we build. The perfect Gastronaut COO is someone who is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike us.

Please send resume, cover letter and any questions that you think are relevant at this stage.

Extra information

Status

Stängd

Önskad utbildningsnivå

Universitet/Högskolestudier

Ort

Sweden

Typ av kontrakt

Heltidsjobb (förstajobb)

Typ av jobb

IT

Körkort önskas

Nej

Tillgång till bil önskas

Nej

Personligt brev krävs

Nej

Språk

Engelska