Title: Senior Director, Launch Operations & Supply Chain
Location: Remote
The Role
Kasa is seeking a seasoned, entrepreneurial leader to join us as Senior Director over our Launch Operations & Supply Chain teams. This is a dynamic, growing team of 40+ individuals who manage the full scope of Kasa’s new property openings through the design, planning, installation, and launch phases. This role also oversees Kasa’s global supply chain and procurement efforts across the company’s rapidly growing portfolio of tech-enabled short term rental apartments, boutique hotels, and vacation rentals. Reporting to the VP of Operations, the Senior Director will set the strategy for all of Kasa’s launch and supply chain operations to optimize the team’s quality, precision, and efficiency with successful property launches. The Senior Director, Launch Operations & Supply Chain is a key contributor to Kasa’s company-level operational strategy and sits within both the operations leadership and company-level leadership teams. This role is remote, with opportunistic travel (~20%) expected to stay informed about the team’s on-the-ground experience and Kasa’s approach to launches and property support.
About the Team
This role is a member of Kasa’s Operations Leadership Team as well as the company’s Senior Leadership team. Kasa Operations manages the full end-to-end delivery of our “rarely seen but always felt” tech-enabled hospitality to guests in dozens of cities across the US, and manages properties with as few as five or as many as one hundred Kasa units. Your peers lead our locally and regionally organized field operations, our fully remote 24/7/365 guest experience team, and hospitality program management experts.
As the Senior Director, Launch Operations & Supply Chain, you will also work cross-functionally across Kasa, especially with partners in Real Estate and Marketing, to ensure that our launch and supply chain efforts are coordinated with Kasa’s broader growth and revenue performance objectives.
Experience
- Many years of progressive management experience in strategy or operations roles and experience leading multi-layered, multi-functional teams, ideally in a hospitality, real estate, or entrepreneurial businesses
- Several years in a role overseeing the launch of physical properties or facilities, preferably at a company with a rapid growth history
- You are a goal-driven strategy setter, learning about all aspects of a problem statement and then proposing a clear and achievable path forward
- You know the importance of “getting into the field” in order to understand how strategy collides with reality, and because it helps you to connect more deeply with your team
- You enjoy environments where the only constant is constant change – you are dynamic, optimistic, and adept at leading teams through rapidly evolving business environments
- Whether or not you have worked in a startup before, you have an entrepreneurial orientation and a track record of putting aside long-held norms and standards to try innovative new approaches
- You are analytically adept and inclined to “measure what matters”, seeking out clear and quantitative leading indicators you can use to assess a team’s performance against their goals
- You are comfortable interpreting nuanced financial data and can hold your own in managerial accounting conversations or projects to find cost efficiency
- You have an aversion to workplace politics and always put your cards on the table and collaborate to find the best solution, even with teams who might naturally have a different priority
- You are a perceptive and empathetic developer of people – you help people understand their key strengths and weaknesses, and can create energy and cohesion in a highly diverse team. You are able to bring out the best in both “left brain” and “right brain” focused individuals
Plus if…
- MBA degree or commensurate management consulting or strategy experience
- Direct experience in hospitality, short-term rentals, or an innovative property management business
- Extensive experience in project management (maybe you even have a PMP certification or equivalent educational background) and establishing and using launch budgets for physical projects
- Meaningful experience working with or managing multifaceted supply chains
In one year, you will succeed at Kasa by having:
- Overseen the launch of thousands of new Kasa units on time, on budget, and with perfect execution
- Built Kasa’s launch process for multifamily apartments, hotels, and single family vacation rentals into a well oiled machine that meets the needs of Kasa’s property partners
- Elevated our project management capabilities into a profit center of their own, enabling us to pursue more complex launch scenarios with confidence
- Built a robust supply chain and vendor for the next phase of Kasa’s scaling, able to operate with flexibility and efficiency for both new launches and ongoing resupply
- Expanded the team’s culture of excellence and collaboration and helped to strengthen the integration of LaunchOps & Supply Chain with other parts of the business
Day in the life of the Senior Director of LaunchOps & Supply Chain
The LaunchOps and Supply Chain team of 40+ people covers a wide span of different responsibilities which include:
- Management of Kasa’s growth pipeline in partnership with Real Estate
- Design and budgeting development for late stage pipeline of prospective new properties
- End-to-end project planning and management for all launches and expansions
- On-the-ground installation of furnishings, equipment, and technology into every Kasa unit and property
- Pre-opening and post-opening general management for hotel properties through a Task Force team
- Setup and management of utilities, insurance, wifi, security, and vendor services for each property
- Collection and documentation of operational details of each property using Kasa’s proprietary data models
- End-to-end furniture, operating supplies, and hardware tech supply chains, including 3PL warehousing and deployments
- Ongoing procurement support to all Kasa properties for the restocking of consumables and replacements of furniture
Across these many disciplines, you will be held to three primary goals:
- Quality – measured through the experiences of the first guests who stay at each property, as well as the NPS of the property partners and building residents
- Efficiency – measured through our ability to achieve target budgets and timelines and be competitive with industry standards
- Flexibility – measured through the breadth of different scales (number of units) and scopes (degree of renovation/design, type of unit) that the team can confidently be deployed against
As a senior leader, your primary goal is to ensure that your department is focused on the most important priorities that will help achieve the above goals. Your days will break down into four equally important areas of focus:
- Setting a strategic direction – understand our company-level strategy by working with your cross-functional leadership team peers and translate this strategy into the projects, priorities, and initiatives within your team
- Working alongside the team to drive execution – get your hands dirty and observe how things translate at the ground floor, whether this means joining a new build or launch, jumping into a weekly project planning meeting, helping audit a warehouse, or chatting with guests at a grand opening event
- Coaching and developing your team – you understand that senior leaders are only effective by leveraging the talent on their team, and constantly seek to empower, develop, and hold your team members accountable to big and exciting goals
- Leading across Kasa – getting involved in strategic and tactical ways with teams beyond LaunchOps & Supply Chain in order to gain a more holistic appreciation for what Kasa is building, which you can take back to your department
Benefits
- Remote Work: With flexibility as a core value, and over three-quarters of the team working remotely, Kasa employees are able to work from anywhere!
- Kasa Travel Credit: We love to travel! Kasa employees get an allowance of free stays with us in any of our locations, plus a 50% discount on any night for friends and family
- Generous Stock Option Plan: We believe the success of our business should be shared with our team. As you grow with us, we increase the opportunities for you to become part-owners of our company.
- Flexible PTO: Full-time exempt Kasa employees are encouraged to take time off as they need and see fit, ensuring that it’s not disruptive to their work.
- Cell phone reimbursement: We reimburse a portion of your monthly cell phone bill to say thanks for using your personal phone during the workday.
- 401(k) plan: As you invest in yourself and your future, Kasa invests in you too: we match 50% of the first 4% of deferred salary.
- Leadership coaching: A growth mindset is a core value for Kasa. One of the ways we deliver on it is by offering complimentary external leadership coaching to Kasa team members.
- Competitive Salary: We offer base salaries at or above market rates plus additional earning opportunities based on the position
- Health Coverage: We’ve invested in comprehensive health insurance options to help when you need it most
Who We Are
Kasa is building a global accommodations brand unlike any other. We took the best that hotels and short-term rentals had to offer and created a new class of hospitality that is well priced, trustworthy, and that offers a large selection of great locations. Our guests enjoy seamless check-ins, spacious apartments, and attractive amenities, helping them feel right at home. If anything comes up, our remote guest experience team is available 24/7, ensuring our hospitality is always felt, though rarely seen.
Behind the scenes, we build technology that combines with our innovative operations to grow a globally scalable offering that delivers high-quality stays. Our products and systems unlock unparalleled flexibility to operate anywhere from a few Kasa to a few hundred Kasas in any type of building, in just about any location. We currently have Kasas in over 17 states and are expanding into new markets all the time.
All of this is made possible by our team members, each of whom plays a critical role in fulfilling our vision and mission. We strive to foster a culture that values feedback, support, and collaboration throughout the organization. As a remote-first company, we work hard to bridge the gap of distance through initiatives that foster connection across Kasa. A few examples include lively All-Hands meetings, department get-togethers (online and in-person), and teamwide celebrations of important milestones. We offer benefits that encourage team members to stay at Kasa properties to experience our product firsthand and meet local team members when nearby. Guests are crucial to Kasa’s mission. Accordingly, every new Kasa team member gets trained in our Guest Experience Akademy during their onboarding.
Our team is fortunate to have diverse backgrounds, personalities, and experiences united by a commitment to excellence and passion for our industry. If Kasa’s vision and culture speak to you, and you’re up for the challenge of building a company on the cutting edge of real estate, we would love to have you on our team!
Kasa Living is an E-Verify participant. We will verify the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States by matching information employees provide on the form i-9 against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). You may find more information here and here.