The Director of Operations owns the end-to-end performance, compliance, and guest experience of the premium lounge and clubhouse portfolio across Australia. This is a hands-on, standards-driving leadership role: the successful candidate is expected to know premium hospitality operations well enough to train, coach, and personally troubleshoot alongside line managers — not simply oversee from a distance. The role carries full P&L; accountability for the portfolio and is directly responsible for lifting the guest experience and brand to a world-class, premium standard, in line with the company's ambition to be the recognised benchmark for premium lounge and clubhouse experience in the region.

Licensing & Regulatory Governance

- Own and maintain all venue licensing, site operating agreements, and landlord/venue-partner compliance obligations across Australia sites, including but not limited to lease and concession conditions, and site-specific operating protocols.
- Ensure the business and all relevant personnel meet all required security clearance, credentialing, and restricted-access obligations at every site.
- Maintain working knowledge of, and ensure ongoing compliance with, the Australian regulatory framework relevant to operating in high-security, tightly regulated venues (including but not limited to work health and safety (WHS) legislation and site-specific security directives), escalating and remediating gaps proactively.
- Act as the primary operational point of accountability to venue partners, regulators, and landlords across the region, including but not limited to audits, inspections, and incident reporting.
- Keep the GM, Australia and relevant stakeholders informed of regulatory changes, licensing renewals, and compliance risk with sufficient lead time to act.

Lounge Operations & People Leadership

- Provide direct, hands-on leadership to Managers across Australia, including but not limited to setting standards, coaching, problem-solving, and building their operational capability so they can run their lounges to a consistently high standard without escalation for routine issues.
- Personally hold sufficient operational, service, and technical knowledge of lounge operations to train, demonstrate, and troubleshoot alongside Lounge Managers rather than relying solely on their own judgement.
- Establish and govern a consistent leadership and accountability framework across all lounges, including but not limited to KPI setting, performance reviews, succession planning, and structured development plans for Lounge Managers and their teams.




- Build a high-performance, team-oriented culture across the portfolio, with clear ownership and accountability at every level.
- Lead recruitment, onboarding, and capability-building for lounge leadership roles in partnership with People & Culture.

Commercial Performance & P&L; Ownership

- Own full P&L; accountability for the Australia portfolio, including but not limited to budgeting, forecasting, cost control, labour modelling, and margin management.
- Identify, lead, and implement cost-saving and efficiency initiatives across the portfolio without compromising guest experience or brand standards.
- Drive commercial performance through pricing, product, and partnership initiatives, working closely with the GM, Australia and relevant commercial stakeholders.
- Use data, BI tools, and labour/cost modelling to proactively identify risk and chance across the portfolio, rather than reacting after the fact.
- Own turnaround planning and execution for any underperforming site, with clear, time-bound action plans and accountability.

Brand, Product & Guest Experience

- Take direct ownership of elevating the lounge and clubhouse product and service experience to a world-class, premium standard, with the ambition of making the brand the recognised benchmark for premium guest lounges in the region.
- Drive consistent brand standards, service quality, and guest experience governance across all lounges, including but not limited to quality assurance frameworks, mystery-guest programs, and guest feedback systems.
- Lead continuous improvement and innovation initiatives across the portfolio, identifying opportunities to modernise product, service, and operating model.
- Support new lounge openings and refurbishments, including but not limited to operational planning, staffing, training, and readiness.

Stakeholder Management & Crisis Response

- Build and maintain strong working relationships with venue partners, landlords, suppliers, partners, and cross-regional leadership.
- Lead crisis management, business continuity, and incident response for Australia lounges, including but not limited to operational disruptions, security incidents, and regulatory escalations.




- Represent the Australia business professionally and credibly in front of external stakeholders, regulators, and venue partners.

This role may be required to undertake other reasonable duties, within its scope and level, as directed by the General Manager, Australia, including responsibilities not explicitly listed above but reasonably connected to the operational, commercial, compliance, or people leadership of the Australia portfolio.

Key Requirements

- Demonstrated senior operations leadership experience in a multi-site, regulated, customer-facing premium service environment (including but not limited to hospitality, private members' clubs, premium lounges, retail, or facilities operations).
- Proven P&L; ownership and strong commercial/financial acumen, including but not limited to budgeting, forecasting, and cost management.
- Strong, hands-on leadership capability — able to train, coach, and problem-solve directly with site-level managers, not just direct from above.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including but not limited to venue partners, landlords, and cross-functional teams.
- High accountability and ownership mindset, with solid attention to detail and a bias for action.
- Collaborative, team-oriented leadership style with the ability to build and govern a consistent performance culture across a multi-site portfolio.
- Right to live and work in Australia, and eligibility to obtain and maintain any required security clearance or site accreditation.
- Willingness and ability to travel regularly across Australia sites.

Preferred (Not Essential)

- Prior exposure to highly regulated, security-controlled venues (for example transit hubs, private members' clubs, or other credentialed-access environments) is advantageous but not required; full training and support will be provided.

Key Attributes

- Highly proactive, with a genuine hands-on mindset.
- Strong leader who leads from the front and is credible with frontline teams.
- Strong communicator across all levels of the organisation and with external stakeholders.
- Takes ownership and accountability for outcomes, including but not limited to compliance, commercial, and people outcomes.
- Comfortable with numbers and commercially minded, with a genuine P&L; mindset.
- Collaborative team player who builds capability in others rather than working around them.
- Meticulous attention to detail, particularly in compliance and licensing matters.

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📌 Director of Operations (City of Sydney)
🏢 Confidential Jobs
📍 City of Sydney