Fractional Opportunity · CXOwork
Operations & Scale Excellence
Fractional COO
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About this opportunity
We are placing Fractional COOs with Series A–D companies that have outgrown informal coordination but haven't yet built the operational infrastructure to sustain scale. Decision-making is slow. Accountabilities are unclear. Cross-functional projects stall. The CEO is spending 40% of their week managing internal chaos.
You will walk in, diagnose the highest-leverage operational gaps, and systematically fix them. This role requires someone who has scaled an operations function before — through hypergrowth, geographic expansion, or category leadership — and can build without perfect information.
Core responsibilities
- Conduct a 30-day operational audit and deliver a prioritised transformation roadmap to the CEO
- Design and implement company-wide OKR frameworks, quarterly planning cycles, and weekly leadership reviews
- Own cross-functional project management — creating accountability structures across Product, Engineering, Sales, and Finance
- Streamline business operations through process automation, tooling decisions, and workflow design (Notion, Monday, ClickUp, or equivalent)
- Build and manage vendor relationships, procurement processes, and contract reviews
- Lead the 18-month headcount planning exercise in partnership with the CEO and CFO
- Prepare operational materials for board meetings, Series B/C data rooms, and investor updates
- Drive international expansion planning where relevant — entity setup, localisation, and in-market ops
- Identify and implement 40%+ reduction in operational overhead through process and tooling improvements
Required qualifications
- 10+ years in operations or strategy, with at least 4 years as COO, VP Operations, or Chief of Staff
- Track record of scaling a company's operational infrastructure through at least one major growth phase
- Deep experience with OKR design, quarterly planning, and cross-functional alignment frameworks
- Strong financial fluency — comfortable working alongside CFO, owning vendor budgets, and modelling headcount plans
- Excellent project management skills — experienced with both waterfall and agile delivery methods
- Comfortable working 15–25 hours per week, with monthly on-site presence
Nice to have
Not required — but will strengthen your match quality.
- McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or equivalent strategy consulting background
- Experience with international entity setup, EOR (Employer of Record) structures, or cross-border operations
- Background in marketplace, logistics, HealthTech, or SaaS operations
- Prior fractional COO or Chief of Staff experience
Compensation & benefits
- Performance bonuses tied to operational KPI achievement (e.g. overhead reduction, NPS improvement)
- Hybrid flexibility — typically 2–3 days on-site per month
- Access to CXOwork's COO peer network, OKR implementation playbooks, and vendor benchmarks
- Engagements typically run 6–18 months — one of our longest average tenures
Application process
- 01Application with one operational transformation case study: before state, interventions, and measurable after state
- 0245-minute panel interview — operational diagnosis, OKR design, and cross-functional leadership
- 03Profile approved and matched to active companies
- 04Founder intro call — operational maturity and gap assessment
- 05Kick-off within 2 weeks of mutual agreement
Roles included
- COOs
- Head of Operations
- Operations Managers
Key skills