Chief Operating Officer

Lead Operations. Drive Growth. Build What's Next

The COO is one of the most critical leadership roles within Social Garden, responsible for scaling operations, strengthening client strategy, and driving sustainable growth.

Working closely with the CEO and broader Third Door Venture Group, the COO will set the operational standard for the agency and lead the business through its next stage of expansion. This role offers a clear pathway to CEO succession for the right candidate.

Strategic Leadership & Growth

• Collaborate daily with the CEO and executive team on business-wide decisions.
• Drive growth through process improvement, leadership, product innovation & sales enablement.
• Oversee key business functions with a focus on production, delivery, and client success.
• Embed AI and automation into agency processes to improve efficiency, quality, and margin.
• Build succession layers within the business by coaching and empowering senior leaders.
• Keep the team motivated and work with them on building their resilience and confidence.

Client Strategy & Commercial Leadership

• Provide guidance on best practice client service.
• Celebrate progress and team wins but call it out when standards aren't met.
• Own the individual KPIs for all client service team members (draft provided by CFO/CEO).
• Lead major pitches, strategic client relationships, and commercial negotiations.
• Own client retention and growth targets, ensuring the agency consistently delivers value.
• Champion a customer-first approach to help drive product/service direction.

Operational Excellence

• Oversee company performance against revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA targets.
• Standardise and document operational processes to ensure scalability and repeatability.
• Monitor KPIs across all functions, including sales forecasting and delivery performance.
• Balance sales, service, and production capacity to achieve growth and margin goals.
• Collect feedback from our customers on product market fit and service standards.
• Have an open mind when it comes to new ways of generating revenue.

Candidate Requirements

Experience

• Proven track record in media or digital agencies (30+ staff), essential.
• Demonstrated business growth through operational and commercial leadership.
• Strong client strategy background (e.g leading pitches, winning & managing key accounts)
• Experience scaling teams and embedding leadership capability across multiple layers.
• Business transformation and innovation experience (e.g. reshaping revenue streams)
• Experience working with cross-functional teams (e.g. production, finance, client service)

Skills & Attributes

• Commercially sharp with strong P&L management skills.
• Exceptional communicator, credible at board level, and influential both internally & externally.
• Obsessed with customer problems and matching solutions effectively.
• Comfortable leading transformation, challenging legacy ways of working, and driving cultural adoption of new practices
• Ambitious growth mindset, motivated by the opportunity to step into a future CEO role

What about our team?

Social Garden is one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country. We challenge each other constantly to improve and ask tough questions. We have a heart and take the wellbeing of our staff seriously, we're global citizens, do as much as we can to support causes we believe in, and above all, we bring the good vibes.

What about the perks?

Our offices are open, collaborative and fun To support you at work (and play) we offer some great perks: ample time off to relax and recharge, one week a year where you can work from a remote location (whether it's NYC or Guatemala is up to you) and the option to work from home from time-to-time. We love our staff and appreciate their loyalty. We have a program to reward them with an awesome holiday each time they hit their work anniversary (it gets better every year), and we also have a quarterly bonus program where everyone in the business gets to share in the company successes.

So you're a little different?

At Social Garden we believe that innovation and performance is driven by a team culture based on equality, empowerment, inclusion and respect. We welcome and encourage candidates of all backgrounds and identities to apply for the above role if you think you have the skills and attitude required to join the Social Garden team.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work – the Wurundjeri people – and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.