Job Description
Job Summary
- Do you lead with operational rigor, strategic clarity, and a bias for scale? As Chief Operating Officer (COO), you’ll be the architect and executor of Sabi’s operating model across all business lines, geographies, and products. You’ll work side-by-side with the CEO to align growth, execution, and infrastructure—ensuring every part of the business delivers measurable impact at scale.
- This is a defining executive role for a systems thinker who thrives in complexity, leads with excellence, and builds for the long term.
What you will be doing
- Lead Sabi’s multi-product operating model, ensuring cohesion between strategy and execution across all functions
- Drive day-to-day business performance across the entire value chain—from field operations and logistics to partner onboarding, data, and compliance
- Design and implement operational frameworks that support high-growth scale while managing cost, quality, and risk
- Oversee Sabi’s local market operations teams, setting operational KPIs, SLAs, and delivery cadences across verticals and countries
- Serve as executive sponsor for high-stakes initiatives across Trace, Market, and Katsu—driving cross-functional alignment and outcomes
- Lead quarterly and annual business planning cycles, including goal-setting, forecasting, and resource prioritization
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Commercial leadership to ensure operating models are tightly integrated with platform capabilities and user needs
- Build and lead a world-class team of operational leaders, instilling a culture of excellence, accountability, and innovation
Requirements
Special Skills and Qualifications
- 12-15 years of senior leadership experience in high-growth, operationally intensive environments
- Proven track record leading multi-market operations in emerging markets, ideally in commerce, fintech, or supply chain
- Strong experience designing scalable systems, managing P&L, and leading through complexity
- Expertise in building and optimizing distributed teams, especially across Africa
- Executive-level communication skills with the ability to influence board, investor, and partner-level stakeholders
- Advanced degree (MBA or equivalent) strongly preferred
Candidate Specification
- Motivated by the mission of Sabi
- Pragmatic with quantitative and analytical ability and attention to detail
- Driven, independent thinker and leader who can juggle multiple projects simultaneously with fast-changing priorities
- High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency.
- A focus on execution. Willing and able to get hands dirty.
- Flexibility to roll up your sleeves and attack problems and projects as they arise, where you will need to set out a clear structure, method and outcomes yourself.