Virgin Active are committed to changing people's lives for the better through wellness. Our team are dedicated to delivering a unique leisure and relaxation experience throughout all our clubs. All our team members pride themselves on incorporating Virgin Active values and ensuring the highest Brand Standards into their work, so our members can experience the finest facilities and service. We take value in recruiting the very best team members who work behind the scenes to support our clubs in delivering a world class member experience. We are looking for a Chief Operating Officer to join our UK Leadership Team
The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for leading the strategic and operations of the business.
The Role
- Accountable for the performance, consistency, and evolution of our social wellness clubs, while infusing every touchpoint with radical hospitality.
- Develop and deliver the operational strategy to support business growth, brand goals, and member impact.
- Act as a key member of the UK Leadership team, contributing to overall company direction, priorities, and governance.
- Lead cross-functional collaboration between operations, people, IT, marketing, and finance to drive strategic initiatives.
- Own and optimise the end-to-end operations of all clubs, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and profitability.
- Set and monitor KPIs across member satisfaction/experience, retention, cost control, and site performance.
- Design and embed playbooks, training, and rituals that bring hospitality to life in a wellness setting.
- Build and develop a high-performing operations leadership team (e.g., Regional Business Directors, Club GMs).
- Partner with the People Team to drive recruitment, retention, L&D and performance frameworks.
- Lead with empathy, clarity, and drive—developing a team culture that is disciplined, warm, and accountable.
- Oversee operational planning and execution for new site openings, expansions, or refurbishments.
- Ensure scalable infrastructure that maintains service magic as we grow.
Experience
- Proven success in senior operational leadership roles, ideally within the fitness, hospitality or premium multi-site brands.
- Experience leading large, dispersed teams and complex projects with commercial impact.
- Obsessed with service, able to create scalable solutions without losing the personal touch.
- Data-savvy with strong commercial acumen, financial literacy, and performance management skills.
- Inspirational leadership style, clear, empathetic, and energising.
- Deep understanding of both hard (process, systems) and soft (culture, service) aspects of operations.
- Strong commercial acumen with experience managing large budgets and performance targets.
Our Perks
- 25 days (excluding bank holidays) annual leave, plus a Celebration Day – and we want you take them
- Access to The Peoples Pension, with our contributions at 3% OR Access to Scottish Widows Pension with us matching contributions up 5%
- Complimentary Virgin Active membership for you and a buddy. You can also get free membership for your children too, ability to take advantage of our Club V.
- Private Dental and Healthcare Insurance – your physical health is important, and we want you to have the access to healthcare should you require it.
- Life Assurance 4x your salary – which we hope you will not need.
- We want you to love Virgin Active like we do, so you get discounts across Virgin active – everything from guest passes to 50% off PT sessions.
- You will join Virgin Family - where not only can you communicate with your colleagues across Virgin Group, but also many discounts (including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Media/O2)
- Maintaining a healthy diet while at work can be hard, so we offer all our team members 20% off food and drink at our KAUAI branches located in clubs.
- Managing finances can be difficult, so we offer access to Salary Finance. They can support you with loans and savings plans, as well as help you become a personal finance expert.
- Mental health is a cornerstone of wellbeing. Our BUPA employer assistance programme is there when you need a helping hand with 4 free counselling sessions.
- We know finding a new home to rent can be stressful. We partner with Dexters who offer complimentary corporate letting services – meaning no tenant charges.
- Access to ePoints, offering loads of online discounts to retailers.
- Always wanted to take that yoga course? Well VA offer discount on all their Academy courses, trained by the very best instructors.
