WE ARE HIRING: Chief Operating Officer

Location: Sri Lanka
Employment Type: Full time
Industry: FMCG / Food Manufacturing

Role Overview

We are seeking a commercially driven and operationally strong Chief Operating Officer to lead end-to-end business operations, commercial performance, profitability, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, sales, and market growth within the food manufacturing and FMCG sector.

The selected candidate will be responsible for transforming a growing commodity-based business into a leading national consumer brand by delivering excellence across procurement, milling, supply chain, production, distribution, sales, quality, customer service, and business transformation.

Key Responsibilities

Business Growth and Profitability

• Lead overall business operations and drive sustainable growth, profitability, and market leadership.
• Develop and execute business strategies to increase market share and strengthen brand position.
• Deliver annual revenue, gross profit, and NPAT targets.
• Drive profitable growth while maintaining healthy cash flow and working capital.
• Monitor business performance and implement corrective actions to achieve agreed targets.
• Identify new growth opportunities across markets, customer segments, channels, and product categories.

Commercial Leadership

• Lead the sales and marketing strategy to strengthen brand presence and customer reach.
• Expand distribution and improve outlet penetration across Sri Lanka.
• Develop and grow key accounts, institutional sales, dealer networks, distributor partnerships, and modern trade channels.
• Drive route-to-market strategies to improve market coverage and sales efficiency.
• Lead pricing, promotional, channel, and customer-development strategies.
• Monitor market trends, competitor activity, consumer behavior, and trade performance.
• Build strong commercial discipline across sales planning, forecasting, target achievement, and customer profitability.

Supply Chain and Operations

• Oversee paddy procurement, milling operations, production planning, warehousing, and logistics.
• Ensure uninterrupted product availability while optimizing inventory levels.
• Improve manufacturing efficiency, production yield, throughput, and cost competitiveness.
• Strengthen procurement planning, supplier relationships, and raw-material availability.
• Ensure effective coordination across procurement, production, quality, warehousing, logistics, sales, and finance.
• Monitor operational performance and implement productivity improvement initiatives.
• Drive on-time and in-full delivery performance across customer and distribution channels.

Quality and Food Safety

• Maintain high product quality standards across procurement, production, storage, and distribution.
• Lead quality assurance and food safety practices across the value chain.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable food safety, regulatory, statutory, and internal quality requirements.
• Implement controls to minimize stock losses, quality issues, product complaints, and operational risks.
• Promote a culture of quality, safety, compliance, and continuous improvement.

Financial Performance and P&L Ownership

• Own the full profit and loss responsibility of the business.
• Drive cost optimization, margin improvement, and productivity enhancement initiatives.
• Improve inventory turnover, debtor collection, and cash conversion.
• Monitor gross margins, operating costs, working capital, and financial performance.
• Work closely with finance teams to manage budgets, forecasts, financial plans, and performance reviews.
• Use financial insights to support commercial, operational, and investment decisions.

Leadership and People Development

• Build a high-performance culture driven by accountability, ownership, and results.
• Lead, coach, and develop cross-functional teams across operations, sales, procurement, supply chain, production, quality, and support functions.
• Recruit, develop, and retain future leaders.
• Establish succession planning, talent development, and performance-management practices.
• Promote collaboration, discipline, transparency, and operational excellence across the business.
• Strengthen employee engagement, capability development, and leadership effectiveness.

Customer and Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with distributors, retailers, institutional customers, suppliers, and government authorities.
• Enhance customer satisfaction through reliable supply, quality products, and responsive service.
• Develop long-term partnerships with key stakeholders to support sustainable business growth.
• Resolve high-level customer, supplier, and operational issues professionally.
• Represent the business with professionalism and strong commercial credibility.

Business Transformation and Governance

• Lead digitalization, process improvement, and data-driven decision-making initiatives.
• Introduce best practices across commercial, operational, manufacturing, and support functions.
• Drive innovation in products, packaging, service delivery, and customer offerings.
• Ensure compliance with company policies, regulatory requirements, internal controls, and ethical business practices.
• Safeguard company assets and strengthen governance across operations.
• Identify operational, financial, commercial, and compliance risks and implement mitigation plans.
• Improve management reporting, business visibility, and decision-making processes.

Candidate Profile

• Bachelor's degree in Business Management, Agriculture, Food Science, Supply Chain, Engineering, Marketing, or a related discipline.
• MBA or Master's degree in Business Administration or a related field will be a strong advantage.
• Minimum 15 years of progressive leadership experience.
• At least 8 years of experience leading a complete business unit or major function with full P&L responsibility.
• Proven experience in FMCG, food manufacturing, rice milling, grains, agriculture, commodities, or consumer products.
• Demonstrated success in scaling a business and improving profitability.
• Strong experience managing sales, manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, and commercial operations.
• Strong exposure to dealer management, distributor management, route-to-market execution, and market expansion.
• Excellent commercial acumen and financial acumen.
• Strong understanding of production planning, procurement, inventory, logistics, quality, and customer service.
• Proven ability to drive revenue growth, margin improvement, cost optimization, and operational efficiency.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to build, develop, and retain high-performing teams.
• Strong negotiation, stakeholder-management, and influencing skills.
• Ability to work with customers, suppliers, distributors, government authorities, and senior leadership.
• Strong strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to use insights for operational and commercial decisions.
• High level of ownership, accountability, resilience, agility, and results orientation.
• Professional, ethical, customer-focused, and committed to operational excellence.

Key Performance Expectations

• Revenue growth
• NPAT achievement
• Gross margin improvement
• Market share growth
• Distribution reach expansion
• New outlet acquisition
• Production yield improvement
• Inventory turnover improvement
• Stock loss reduction
• On-time in-full delivery performance
• Customer satisfaction
• Employee engagement
• Talent retention
• Safety and quality compliance

Core Competencies

• Ownership and accountability
• Strategic thinking
• Commercial acumen
• Financial acumen
• Customer centricity
• Results orientation
• People leadership
• Change leadership
• Negotiation and influencing
• Data-driven decision-making
• Operational excellence
• Resilience and agility

Ready to take your career to new heights?

We're InTalent Asia, your go-to recruitment partner in Sri Lanka, and we've got an exciting opportunity for you! Our client is looking for a dynamic individual to fill the role of Chief Operating Officer.

At InTalent Asia, we're not just recruiters; we're here to architect your career success. Join us in the journey of matching your skills with unparalleled opportunities.

Apply now and see how you can be the perfect fit for this exclusive leadership position!

#InTalentAsia #CareerOpportunity #JobVacancy #ChiefOperatingOfficer #COOJobs #FMCGJobs #FoodManufacturing #RiceMilling #OperationsLeadership #ElevateYourCareer