Chief Operating Officer, COO

About the role

The operational backbone of MAGIC AI - owning supply chain, people, legal, and the cross functional glue that turns strategy into shipped product, on time, on margin, on both sides of the Atlantic.

MAGIC AI is scaling a connected hardware + AI product across the UK and US. The CEO needs a senior operator to take ownership of the run the business machine so product and growth can compound without ops becoming the bottleneck.

Mandate

Take full accountability for CM1 and CM2, and partner with the CMO and CFO to secure CM3 targets. This mandate runs across four pillars.

1. Supply Chain, Logistics & 3PL (UK + US)

• End to end ownership of manufacturing, freight, customs, dual region 3PL, and the unit economics of landed cost.
• Supply chain strategy and systems infrastructure, including ERP implementation.
• International freight strategy.
• UK: 3PL and warehouse process review and ownership.
• US: full audit of 3PL, freight, and operational tax set up.
• Reverse logistics - returns, grading, and restock flow design and ownership.

2. Inventory Management & Operational Finance

• The operational counterpart to the CFO and Head of Finance - turns the financial plan into purchase orders, and the inventory reality into the financial plan.
• S&OP, demand model, and ordering cadences.
• Complete ownership of inventory accuracy.
• COGS / GPM reporting and operational financial reporting.
• Investor facing margin work.
• External audit.

3. HR & Legal

• People ops, hiring infrastructure, and external counsel across UK and US entities.
• Comp bands, performance cycles, and employment compliance across UK + US.
• US entity and corporate tax set up.
• Commercial, IP, employment, and regulatory legal - managing external counsel.
• Product compliance.

4. The glue - cross functional operating system

• Runs the company's operating cadence: weekly metrics review, quarterly planning, OKRs, exec staff meetings.
• The person every department head - including the CFO and Head of Finance - goes to when something is stuck between functions.
• KPIs: decisions made per week, blockers cleared, on time quarterly delivery.

Requirements Must haves

• 10-15+ years operating experience, including a senior role at a scaling consumer hardware or DTC company shipping ideally large, heavy, expensive goods.
• Direct ownership of international supply chain (ideally UK US Asia manufacturing).
• Sourcing and ownership of warehousing, 3PL and delivery partners in the US and UK.
• Has built or rebuilt an S&OP / inventory planning process from scratch.
• Strong commercial and financial literacy - can challenge a CFO's model and own the operational drivers behind it, without needing to be the CFO.
• Track record managing people ops and external legal across multiple jurisdictions.
• High agency, low ego, written first communicator.

Nice to haves

• Connected fitness, wearables, or AI hardware background.
• Experience with a Series A B C transition.
• Existing UK & US 3PL / freight forwarder relationships.