About Puppy Sphere:
Welcome to Puppy Sphere, we are a high-growth startup redefining the wellness category through puppy therapy! We’re on a mission to bring people together in welcoming spaces where the gentle power of puppies helps them slow down, boost their mood, and return again and again.
As North America’s original puppy yoga company, we’ve built a community of over 400,000 people, making puppy therapy part of their everyday wellbeing ritual. We’ve partnered with global brands including the NBA, TikTok, and Google to bring the gentle power of puppies to even more workplaces, events, and communities!
If you’re excited by growth, impact and care deeply about people, animals, and raising the bar in everything you do - we’d love to hear from you!
Job Description:
The Director of Operations owns operational execution, stability, and leadership across all Puppy Sphere markets. This role is responsible for ensuring company decisions are implemented with clarity and consistency, teams are effectively led and supported, and systems are built, optimized, and enforced.
As the day-to-day operational leader of the business, the Director of Operations drives accountability, operational discipline, and performance across all studios and markets, enabling the COO to focus on long-term strategy and growth, while ensuring the business runs safely, efficiently, and at scale.
This is a full-time remote role, located in North America. EST Hours are required.
Some travel and weekend work is required in this role.
Job Requirements:
Operational Leadership & Management Excellence
- Serve as the primary leader for regional and city Operations Managers, setting clear expectations, enforcing accountability, and elevating management quality across the organization
- Actively identify and address management gaps, performance risks, and breakdowns in execution before they escalate into larger issues
- Lead with clarity and confidence, ensuring leadership decisions are understood, supported, and consistently executed across teams
- Maintain visibility into event team health and performance through Operations Managers, stepping in directly or directing corrective action when trust, execution, or standards begin to break down.
Execution of Company Strategy & Leadership Decisions
- Own the implementation of COO and leadership-driven initiatives across Operations
- Translate strategic direction into clear operational plans, timelines, and execution expectations
- Proactively identify execution risks, barriers, and gaps, and ask the right questions of leadership early to ensure clarity, alignment, and successful outcomes
- Act as a unified and confident voice of leadership across regions and teams
- Ensure alignment and consistency in how decisions are communicated and executed across markets
Project Ownership & Operational Systems Building
- Independently lead cross-functional operational projects from scoping through rollout
- Build end-to-end operational processes, including documentation, training, enforcement, and adoption tracking
- Ensure projects are implemented operationally, not just designed
- Conduct structured post-mortems on completed initiatives to assess outcomes, identify gaps, and drive continuous improvement
Animal Welfare Oversight & Cross-Department Leadership
- Oversee the Animal Welfare function within Operations, ensuring welfare standards and protocols are consistently followed across all markets
- Maintain regular working touchpoints with the Animal Welfare team to ensure clarity, resourcing, and execution support
- Partner with leadership to build, implement, and operationalize new processes as needed
- Lead coordination between Operations and Animal Welfare during incidents, escalations, or emergency situations
Studio Operations & Landlord Management
- Own studio quality control across all markets, ensuring each location consistently follows the company’s customer experience blueprint, operational standards, and brand expectations
- Establish and enforce regular studio quality checks, including in-person audits and structured reviews, to identify gaps in execution and customer experience
- Ensure findings from quality checks are translated into clear corrective actions, ownership, and follow-through by Operations Managers
- Maintain visibility into recurring studio-level issues and proactively drive improvements to protect the customer experience
Training, Development & Performance Management
- Own the training and development of Operations Managers and operational leadership roles
- Ensure managers are equipped to lead teams, manage performance, and uphold company standards
- Drive consistent performance tracking, feedback loops, and corrective action when needed
Finance Partnership & Operational Financial Ownership
- Partner closely with the Finance team to translate financial goals into operational plans and execution
- Own operational financial discipline across markets, ensuring budgets, cost targets, and financial tradeoffs are understood and upheld
- Lead regular financial reviews with Operations Managers to identify risks, variances, and corrective actions
- Collaborate with Finance on forecasting, cost modeling, and financial impact assessments for operational initiatives and expansion
- Ensure financial considerations are embedded into operational decision-making and project planning
Expansion & Market Readiness
- Lead operational readiness for new market launches, including staffing, training, and execution planning
- Ensure new locations launch with strong operational foundations and leadership preparedness
- Support venue sourcing and launch logistics as needed to ensure successful openings
Marketing Visibility & Cross-Functional Alignment
- Maintain visibility into local marketing initiatives executed in partnership with Marketing and Operations Managers
- Ensure operational feasibility and execution alignment for marketing initiatives at the city level
- Act as the operational point of accountability for cross-functional initiatives impacting studio performance
Required Qualifications:
- 7+ years of senior operations leadership experience in multi-location, high-growth environments
- Proven ability to lead managers and elevate management performance
- Demonstrated ownership of complex operational systems and cross-functional initiatives
- Strong project management experience with full lifecycle ownership
- Experience managing budgets, P&Ls, and operational KPIs
- High emotional intelligence, decisiveness, and leadership presence
- Comfortable operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments
- Ability to travel frequently and support weekend operations
What Success Looks Like in This Role:
- Operations teams are confident, supported, and clearly led
- Managers execute consistently without hesitation or ambiguity
- Operational issues are identified early and resolved decisively
- Systems are built proactively and adopted company-wide
- Trust is maintained across event teams through strong leadership
- The COO is able to focus on strategy, growth, and long-term priorities
Your Traits:
- Exceptionally strong people manager with high standards and follow-through
- Confident executor who supports leadership decisions and leads with conviction
- Process-builder who takes ownership and drives solutions independently
- Calm, credible leader in high-pressure or emergency situations
- Deeply aligned with company values, brand standards, and animal welfare mission
Perks:
🚀 Join a fast-growing startup with upward mobility.
🏡 Remote work flexibility around the world.
⏱️ Flexible working hours, we trust you to manage your own time.
🏝️ Annual Team Retreat.
🧘 Unlimited complimentary puppy yoga classes for you, family and friends.
🎟️ Attend networking and unique invite-only events in your city and beyond.
✨ Opportunity to work with celebrity clients and industry giants (recent clients : NBA, TikTok, and Google).
We’re so grateful for your interest in joining the team here at Puppy Sphere! Due to the high number of applications we receive, we may not be able to personally reach out to everyone, but please know we truly appreciate the time and effort you’ve taken to apply ❤️