The posting
The Hot Box Sauna is Ireland’s leading sauna and wellness experience, offering a unique blend of relaxation, community, and wellbeing. Around the venues sits a group that designs and manufactures its own sauna and cold-plunge units through Aalto, and is now taking the model into Northern Ireland and the United States under the Kota brand.
Leadership have built a strong expansion pipeline for the next 24 months and are looking for a strong leader and implementer to ensure this expansion is executed to perfection. With a subsidiary opening in the US alongside this expansion, managing these simultaneously is a key priority. THBS is seeking a strong leader with experience in a consumer facing, service led business to grow the business, nurture internal talent and take the business to the next stage in its development.
Key Accountabilities
Group P&L and Capital Structure
• Own group EBITDA, unit economics, and payback period per location.
• Work with the CFO on forecasting, board reporting, and lender relationships.
Site Pipeline and Development
• Own the site pipeline end to end: identification, feasibility, planning, lease negotiation, fit-out, and opening.
• Lead commercial lease and Heads of Terms negotiations with landlords.
• Manage planning and regulatory risk across three jurisdictions — Republic of Ireland (BC(A)R, Fire Safety Certificates, Disability Access Certificates, Commencement Notices), Northern Ireland (zoning, sequential test, NI Water capacity, DAERA ecology consultation), and US municipal zoning and permitting.
• Direct external consultants: architects, planning consultants, MEP engineers, Assigned Certifiers.
Existing Estate Performance
• Drive revenue, margin, and utilisation across the operating estate.
• Own the customer retention agenda: cohort analysis, repeat-visit conversion, membership and pricing architecture, and the marketing stack (Shopify, Klaviyo, booking systems).
• Track and act on per-location NPS variance; hold site leadership to a consistent experience standard.
• Build corporate and partnership revenue channels (health insurers, corporate wellness platforms, hospitality partners).
Technical and Product Standard
• Set the specification standard for the group's sauna and cold-plunge estate: heating and chilling plant, heat reclaim, BMS control logic, controller and electrical specification across EU and US voltage standards.
• Ensure Aalto's manufacturing capacity, quality, and cost base support the site pipeline.
• Approve deviations from standard specification and own the consequences.
US Expansion
• Lead the Kota launch: corporate structure, entity setup, transfer pricing, US tax and accounting advisers, relocation policy, and local hiring.
• Establish the operating model that makes site two through ten faster and cheaper than site one.
Risk, Crisis and Reputation
• Act as the group's senior decision-maker in incidents affecting trading, safety, or reputation.
• Own insurance claims strategy, contractor and professional-negligence disputes, and the sequencing of public communication against live legal exposure.
• Serve as principal media spokesperson.
Board and Governance
• Prepare and present board reporting: financial performance, per-location metrics, pipeline status, and operational priorities.
• Manage board composition, conflicts of interest, and shareholder relations.
• Assess and act on franchise, licensing, and inbound partnership approaches.
Organisation and Talent
• Build the leadership team ahead of the growth curve — CFO, operations, and construction project management.
• Develop internal talent into specialist roles rather than defaulting to external hire.
• Set the culture and performance standard across office, site, and workshop teams.
About You
A commercially numerate operator and problem-solver, equally at ease in a board pack, on a building site, and across a lease negotiation table. Strong logical reasoning and the ability to make tough decisions with incomplete information, fostering a culture of accountability. Practical leader with a "fix-it" mindset, excellent organizational and project management skills, able to hold a cool head across multiple sites, jurisdictions and priorities, and to stay steady when trading, safety or reputation is on the line. Technically curious enough to challenge a specification and credible enough to hold your own with landlords, consultants, advisers and the media. A natural team leader, passionate about developing and nurturing talent. Always focused on the best customer journey and experience.
Required Skills and Experience
- Proven 5+ years in senior leadership roles with full profit and loss ownership, within a fast-paced, multi-site and service-oriented B2C environment with physical premises servicing customers.
- Track record of opening new physical sites end to end — identification, feasibility, commercial lease and Heads of Terms negotiation, planning and regulatory approvals, fit-out and opening — and of directing external consultants such as architects, planning consultants and engineers.
- Strong financial command: forecasting, board reporting, unit economics and payback per location, working alongside a finance lead and with lenders or investors.
- Experience driving revenue, margin and utilisation across an existing estate, including customer retention, membership and pricing architecture, and the digital booking and marketing stack.
- Proven ownership and accountability: identifying risk early, navigating challenging commercial discussions with landlords, contractors and advisers, and owning the consequences of your decisions.
- Excellent track record in people management, building a senior leadership team ahead of the growth curve and setting a consistent culture and performance standard across dispersed teams.
- Clean Irish B category driving license.
- Right to work in Ireland (Work Permit Sponsorship is not available).
- Based in Ireland with the ability to work from the office location in Dublin 2.
- Ability to regularly travel to site locations across the island of Ireland and internationally, including the United States, without Visa restrictions.
Desired Skills and Experience
- Operational experience in the health, wellness, leisure or fitness industries.
- Working knowledge of planning and building control regimes in the Republic of Ireland (BC(A)R, Fire Safety and Disability Access Certificates, Commencement Notices) and/or Northern Ireland.
- Experience launching or scaling a business into the US market, including entity setup, local advisers and first hires.
- Exposure to manufacturing, product specification or plant and M&E engineering — heating and chilling plant, heat reclaim, controls and electrical standards.
- Tech-savvy, with experience implementing and utilizing e-commerce, booking and marketing platforms such as Shopify and Klaviyo.
- Experience building corporate, partnership, franchise or licensing revenue channels.
About Us
The Hot Box is one of Ireland’s fastest-growing wellness brands, offering a variety of unique wellness and relaxation facilities across the country, especially well known for outdoor saunas and plunge pools in tranquil surroundings and places of natural beauty.
Our team is held together by five values. If they sound like you, you’ll feel right at home:
Give a damn: You care deeply about what you do and the standard you do it to. If something isn’t right, you take ownership and act.
Get things done: You value action and outcomes over over-analysis. You move fast and follow through until the job is finished to a high standard.
Be a team player: You put the team ahead of ego, titles, or personal wins. You show up for the people around you and do what’s needed, even when it isn’t strictly “your job.”
No bull: You’re honest, direct, and transparent, even when the truth is a little uncomfortable. You say what you mean, with respect.
Keep your promises: You do what you say you’ll do, for guests and teammates alike. If something slips, you flag it early, own it, and fix it.
