Chief Operating Officer

Job description

Chief Operating Officer (COO) - Flash Forward Productions | Sandton, Johannesburg | Full-Time
IMPORTANT —applications via link only
All applications must be submitted through our official online application form below:
https://forms.monday.com/forms/943836da918eb5b5f0faf64c680f0bc3?r=use
Applications submitted directly through LinkedIn, Indeed, BizCommunity, email or any other channel will not be reviewed and will be disqualified from consideration. Submitting a CV through one of these platforms will automatically be rejected. You must complete the official application form above.

About the role

Flash Forward Productions is looking for an exceptional Chief Operating Officer (COO) to become a genuine operational 2IC to the CEO and take significant ownership of the day-to-day running, people, systems, performance and operational health of the business.
Flash Forward is a global multi-award-winning Johannesburg-based production company working across film, television, video and events including TV Commercials, branded content, corporate content, documentaries, live events, broadcast, post-production, animation and emerging AI-driven content creation. We operate in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment where multiple productions, clients, teams, deadlines and departments are moving simultaneously.
This is not a junior or mid-level operations role, an administrative position, a traffic-management role or an opportunity to make your first move into senior management. We are looking for an experienced senior operator who is comfortable making decisions, managing people, interrogating data, improving systems, holding teams accountable and taking ownership when things are not working.

Key responsibilities

Business operations and leadership

• Take significant ownership of the day-to-day operational management of the company.
• Maintain visibility across priorities, deadlines, departments and key business risks.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and resolve issues before they escalate.
• Drive accountability and follow-through across the business.
• Improve communication and coordination between departments.
• Ensure agreed priorities, responsibilities and deadlines are clearly understood and executed.
• Work closely with the CEO on company structure, operational planning and business improvement.
• Make appropriate operational decisions independently without requiring approval for every minor issue.

People management, performance and HR

• Establish clear performance expectations, KPIs and accountability across the team.
• Oversee structured one-on-ones and performance reviews.
• Identify employee underperformance early and ensure appropriate corrective action.
• Manage difficult performance conversations professionally and confidently.
• Oversee performance improvement plans, written warnings and disciplinary processes where required.
• Support managers in distinguishing genuine capacity issues from poor planning or underperformance.
• Oversee practical HR processes, employee documentation and leave administration.
• Coordinate specialist HR or labour support where required.
• This role requires someone who can build strong relationships with employees while still being comfortable holding those same employees accountable.

Recruitment and onboarding

• Take ownership of recruitment from identifying the requirement through to appointment.
• Develop and refine job specifications.
• Manage recruitment channels and external recruiters where required.
• Screen applicants, conduct interviews and identify strong candidates.
• Coordinate reference checks and appointments.
• Build structured onboarding and probation processes.
• Ensure employees understand their roles, systems, responsibilities and performance expectations from the outset.

Data, reporting and management intelligence

• Consolidate data from multiple systems and business areas.
• Build useful management dashboards and reporting.
• Establish and track meaningful KPIs.
• Analyse operational, employee and departmental performance.
• Analyse sales performance, trends and pipeline activity.
• Build and interpret financial and operational reporting.
• Conduct trend, variance and comparative analysis.
• Support forecasting, capacity planning and resource allocation.
• Identify anomalies and areas requiring investigation.
• Translate raw information into clear management insights and recommended actions.

Systems, AI and automation

• Working with modern project and workflow-management platforms.
• Understanding how information moves between business systems.
• Identifying opportunities for workflow automation.
• Building, configuring or coordinating integrations between platforms.
• Understanding API-enabled workflows at a practical business level.
• Using AI to improve reporting, analysis, productivity and administration.
• Exploring AI-assisted system and workflow development.
• Reducing duplicate data capture and repetitive manual processes.
• Improving data integrity across systems.
• Continuously identifying opportunities to make the business faster, smarter and more efficient.

You do not need to be a software engineer. You do need to be someone who sees a repetitive manual process and instinctively thinks: “There has to be a better way of doing this.”

Processes, SOPs and operational discipline

• Maintain and continuously improve company SOPs.
• Identify processes that are unclear, inefficient or repeatedly ignored.
• Investigate root causes rather than repeatedly treating symptoms.
• Ensure changes are properly communicated and implemented.
• Monitor whether agreed processes are actually being followed.
• Create clear ownership and accountability.
• Improve systems intelligently rather than replacing established processes simply because another company did things differently.

Sales accountability

• Monitoring targets and sales performance.
• Reviewing pipeline activity and follow-up.
• Tracking conversion and performance trends.
• Identifying underperformance.
• Ensuring agreed sales processes are followed.
• Helping create corrective action plans.
• Providing management with concise sales-performance reporting.

How to apply - read carefully

All applications must be submitted through our official online application form:

https://forms.monday.com/forms/943836da918eb5b5f0faf64c680f0bc3?r=use

Please do not apply through LinkedIn, Indeed, BizCommunity or email. Applications received through these channels will not be reviewed and will be disqualified from consideration.

The person we are looking for:

This role requires an unusual combination of leadership, analytical intelligence, commercial thinking, systems thinking and backbone.

You are likely someone who:

• Has already operated at senior-management level.
• Is exceptionally organised and follows through relentlessly.
• Is highly analytical and naturally data-driven.
• Has strong numerical and commercial reasoning.
• Is confident working with Excel and business reporting.
• Can bring structure to complex or messy information.
• Spots patterns, anomalies and problems quickly.
• Thinks in systems rather than isolated tasks.
• Is technologically curious and learns software quickly.
• Uses AI as a serious professional tool.
• Is comfortable holding people accountable.
• Does not avoid difficult conversations.
• Is fair, firm and commercially sensible.
• Can distinguish between a genuine operational problem and an excuse.
• Can make sound decisions without requiring constant direction.
• Is comfortable working closely with the CEO and senior leadership team and assuming meaningful responsibility.

Experience and qualifications

We are more interested in what you have actually owned, managed and built than the title on your previous business card.

You should ideally have:

• Substantial management experience, including a strong track record in senior operational leadership.
• Meaningful responsibility for people, business performance and cross-functional operations.
• Experience managing employees and/or managers.
• Performance-management and disciplinary experience.
• Recruitment and onboarding experience.
• Strong data-analysis and management-reporting capability.
• Strong Excel or equivalent spreadsheet capability.
• Experience with project/workflow-management platforms.
• Strong technology and systems fluency.
• Meaningful professional use of AI.
• Experience improving operational processes and accountability.
• Strong commercial judgement.
• Experience working directly with CEOs, Managing Directors or executive leadership teams is highly advantageous.

A relevant tertiary qualification in Business, Management, Finance, Operations or a related field is advantageous. An MBA or advanced qualification would be an additional advantage; however, proven senior operational leadership experience is more important than qualification alone.
Experience within film, television, media, advertising, marketing, creative agencies, events, experiential, entertainment, broadcast, content, post-production or another fast-moving project-based environment is highly advantageous.

Location

Sandton, Johannesburg. This is a full-time office-based position based at Flash Forward Productions.

Renumeration 

Remuneration will be dependent on experience, seniority, skill set and overall suitability for the position. Applicants will be asked to provide their requested gross monthly remuneration as part of the official application.

How to apply 

All applications must be submitted through our official online application form:

https://forms.monday.com/forms/943836da918eb5b5f0faf64c680f0bc3?r=use

Please do not apply through LinkedIn, Indeed, BizCommunity or email. Applications received through these channels will not be reviewed and will be disqualified from consideration.

Posted on 25 Aug 11:35, Closing date 23 Oct