VP, Operations

Job Description:

Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.

If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.

The Role:

As VP of Operations at Kobo, you will lead the teams that keep our products running, our systems secure, and our developers productive. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, you will be a strategic partner in shaping the multi-year technology platform strategy that underpins Kobo's business — from infrastructure and security to the developer experience that increasingly defines how fast and how well we build.

You will own Infrastructure, Security & Compliance, Developer Experience & Platform Engineering, and our Corporate IT enablement (delivered in partnership with our Rakuten parent). Your team of ~40 is based primarily in Ontario with a small presence in Germany.

Role Details

• Location: Toronto
• Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
• Direct Reports: 3–7
• Team Size: ~40

What You'll Own

Strategic Direction

• Define and execute a multi-year technology platform strategy in partnership with the CTO — optimizing for development velocity, system performance, security, reliability, and cost effectiveness.
• Lead the transformation of the operations model from a ticket-driven organization to a platform team: where most of the broader organization self-serves against a well-designed platform, and your team's time is spent building and managing that platform rather than handling individual requests.

Infrastructure & Operations

• Own Kobo's co-located and cloud infrastructure, including hardware procurement, lifecycle management, and capacity planning.
• Meet and exceed production and corporate system SLOs for performance and reliability.
• Drive disaster recovery and resilience strategy at organizational and technology levels.

Security & Compliance

• Maintain and govern Kobo's security posture and compliance practice.
• Oversee incident response governance and process design.
• Maintain practices around Data Loss Prevention, data retention, privacy frameworks, and audit methodologies in an international ecommerce setting.

Developer Experience & Platform Engineering

• Elevate developer experience and productivity as a first-class concern — an increasingly strategic mandate given the pace of change in AI-assisted development.
• Build the platform, tooling, and paved paths that let engineering teams move faster with less friction, while keeping reliability and security as defaults rather than afterthoughts.
• Partner with multi-team development organizations to facilitate DevOps and SRE practices.

Corporate IT Enablement

• Serve as Kobo's primary conduit to Corporate IT, which is delivered through Rakuten. You will not own Corporate IT directly, but you are accountable for ensuring Kobo's staff are well-enabled through it.

Vendor & Rakuten Partnership

• Manage a diverse set of partners and vendors to get the best value for investments in tooling, software, and hardware.
• Work with Rakuten centers to find areas where Kobo benefits from scale, purchase power, shared understanding, and shared methodologies — achieving synergies and economies where they genuinely exist.

The Experience We're Looking For

• A track record of building effective teams — attracting talent and mentoring them to success.
• Experience delivering a portfolio of concurrent strategic initiatives in an agile environment while maintaining a high level of service for business-as-usual operations.
• Management of a sizeable, diverse team, including remote and distributed members, while optimizing communication and trust across time zones and cultures.
• Deep expertise in managing both co-located and cloud infrastructure at scale, including hardware procurement and lifecycle management.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native and hybrid cloud infrastructure, including containerization, distributed processing, and high availability.
• Experience working with large, multi-team development organizations to facilitate DevOps and SRE practices.
• Experience governing a security and compliance practice for an international ecommerce setting — familiarity with Data Loss Prevention, data retention policies, privacy frameworks, and audit methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to own and optimize a meaningful operating budget, finding continuous efficiency without compromising reliability or security.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in a technology career spanning systems design, production operations, security, and vendor management.
• 5+ years of management experience with evidence of increasing responsibility in terms of portfolio scope and people.
• Excellent communication skills, including outstanding written and spoken English.

The Perks:

• Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
• Subsidized in-office lunches
• Four extended long weekends in the summer
• Full benefits starting from your first day
• Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
• Work From Anywhere Program for up to 3 months (90 days)
• Lifestyle spending account
• Talent and development training budget
• Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
• Weekly Kobo Spark sessions
• Maternity/paternity leave top up
• Dog friendly office

About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is the world’s digital bookseller created by and for booklovers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten Group, Inc. and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo’s millions of worldwide users can read anytime, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks and audiobooks, and the best dedicated eReaders and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives. To learn more about Rakuten Kobo, visit www.kobo.com.

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially.  

Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.  

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