Chief Operating Officer

Kusini Water & Filters; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 60 000 - 100 000; Full time

Job summary

Join a mission-driven social enterprise focused on ending water poverty in Africa. As the Chief Operations Officer, you will lead operational excellence, manage cross-functional teams, and build scalable systems to drive growth. This role offers the opportunity to work alongside a visionary CEO in a high-pressure environment, making a real impact in underserved communities. If you're an experienced operator with a passion for social impact, this is the perfect role for you.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in operational excellence and team management.
• Ability to build scalable systems and processes.

Responsibilities

• Drive operational excellence across all departments.
• Manage senior team leads and ensure performance.

Skills

Operational Excellence

Systems Thinking

Cross-Functional Management

High-Pressure Environment Adaptability

Tools

ERP Systems

Operational Dashboards

Job description

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Kusini Water is a mission-driven social enterprise working to end water poverty in Africa through solar-powered water kiosks, local manufacturing, and job creation. We’re scaling fast—and we’re looking for a Chief Operations Officer (COO) to help us lead with precision, speed, and discipline.

What You’ll Do:

1. Drive day-to-day operational excellence across all departments: technical, kiosk delivery, marketing, finance, M&E, and manufacturing.
2. Build scalable systems and SOPs that deliver results at speed.
3. Manage senior team leads, drive accountability, and ensure performance across teams.
4. Lead the execution of Kusini Water’s growth roadmap—from kiosk expansion to ERP system rollouts.
5. Oversee the delivery of key KPIs: kiosk uptime, sales growth, manufacturing output, inventory accuracy, data quality, and more.
6. Partner with the CEO to turn vision into action, fast.

You Are:

1. An experienced operator who thrives in chaos and builds clarity.
2. A systems thinker who scales processes, not problems.
3. A leader who can hold teams accountable and drive results.
4. Comfortable in high-pressure, high-growth environments.
5. Strong in cross-functional management, ops design, and execution.

Bonus If You Have:

1. Experience in water, energy, FMCG, or manufacturing/logistics
2. Built or scaled ERP/POS systems or operational dashboards
3. You’ll lead execution at a fast-growing African impact company.
4. You’ll work alongside a visionary CEO and mission-driven team.
5. You’ll build systems that bring clean water and jobs to underserved communities.

Seniority level

• Executive

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Management and Manufacturing

Industries

• Food and Beverage Services

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