COO jobs · Chief operating officer vacancies · Permanent, interim and fractional

COO jobs · permanent, interim and fractional

COO jobs are chief operating officer roles: the executive who runs the business day to day, turning the strategy into operations, owning delivery, processes, people and cost, and often deputising for the chief executive. They come as permanent full-time posts, interim assignments and fractional or part-time seats. The board below shows the COO roles on our board, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time.

We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time operations leaders, and non-executive directors. Hiring rather than looking? On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Brief us on a COO hire →See the roles

How a brief runswhat we undertake

01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

In the press

Financial Times The executives going ‘fractional’, not freelance (paywall)
Some senior operators now hold leadership seats in several companies at once rather than one permanent post. It is one of the choices in front of anyone looking at COO jobs today.

3–5

Shortlist · with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 set out

Vetting · stages before a candidate reaches a client

£137,834

COO salary, median · Glassdoor, as reported

Exec Capital, 2026

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes to hire a COO

Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with COO candidates, their day rates and availability.

0115 minutes, video or phone
02We scope the role and the days a week
03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs

Prefer email? Use the booking page →

Pick a day that suits · live availability

Open the booking calendar →

On the board · last 3 months

COO jobs jobs on the board

3 on the board · 2 confirmed open

Browse every role on the board →

Current COO roles on our board

Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a COO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.

01/ the role

COO jobs: what the board holds

The board on this page holds the COO roles on our board: chief operating officer, group COO and COO roles in every mode of work. Roles whose posting says full-time come first. Interim, fractional and part-time COO roles follow, and where a posting states how the role is engaged, the listing says so. When there are few COO roles, the board widens to the operations director and operations manager seats below it, and says that it has.

What the seat does

A COO makes the business run: operations, delivery and service, supply chain or technology where they sit with operations, the operating cadence of the leadership team, and the cost base. In many companies the seat also holds people, legal or IT. No two COO jobs carry the same remit, so read the posting for what it owns. For the full picture, see what is a COO.

Some COO jobs carry personal duties with them. The HSE notes that a director or manager can be prosecuted personally where a health and safety offence is attributable to their neglect. In an FCA-regulated firm, the most senior decision makers hold senior management functions, executive director among them, and must be approved before they start; banks, insurers and payment firms must also meet the FCA’s operational resilience rules, which usually land on the COO’s desk.

One seat, several ways to hold it

A permanent COO is employed full-time and owns operations for years. An interim COO holds the seat for a set period, to cover a departure, a turnaround or an integration. A fractional COO holds it for agreed days a week, often in a founder-led business that needs operating discipline before it needs a full-time chief. The title is the same; the contract, the days and the tax position are not.

02/ scope

How to get a COO job

1. Run operations at scale

There is no single qualification for the seat. A COO shortlist is decided on what you have run: the size of the operation, the budget, the people, and what changed while you held it. The usual path runs through operations manager, head of operations and operations director. See operations director jobs and head of operations jobs for the seats below, and our guide on how to become a COO.

2. Add the professional marks

Where a posting asks for one, it is usually a management or board credential rather than a technical one. CMI’s Chartered Manager status (CMgr) is the Royal Charter mark for management and leadership. The IoD’s Chartered Director Programme runs in three stages: the Certificate in Company Direction, the Diploma in Company Direction, then an interview and assessment of business experience.

3. Show the board work

Expect to be tested on a turnaround, a scale-up or an integration you led, on how you set and held a cost base, and on how you worked with the chief executive and the finance director. If the seat carries a board appointment, the duties of a company director come with it, and directors stay legally responsible for the company’s records, accounts and performance.

4. Pick the route in

Not every COO job is permanent. Interim COO jobs cover a gap or a turnaround; fractional COO jobs and part-time COO jobs hold the seat for set days a week. If you work through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status turns on how the engagement runs, and a medium or large client makes the determination. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.

03/ related roles

COO jobs by type

Every page we keep for the COO seat, one per kind of role or question. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time COOs.

Fractional COO jobsInterim COO jobsPart-time COO jobsCOO headhunterChief operating officer salaryWhat is a COO?How to become a COOCOO job descriptionInterim COO

04/ vetting

How we vet COOs

What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.

01
Qualification screen
Verify COO tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING
02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING
03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY
04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5

05/ chief operating officer jobs

Chief operating officer jobs the seat and its titles

Chief operating officer jobs are advertised under several titles. Chief operating officer and COO are the same seat; group COO runs operations across a group of companies; in owner-managed and mid-sized businesses the top operations seat is often called operations director, and the job is much the same. Some COO jobs are close to a managing director’s seat: running the business while the chief executive faces investors and the market.

Read the posting for who the seat reports to and what it owns. A COO reporting to a founder before a funding round is a different job from a group COO in a listed company, even with the same title. Ask which functions sit inside the remit: technology, people, finance operations, customer service, supply chain.

Search chief operating officer, COO, operations director and head of operations together; employers use all four for the top operations seat.

06/ permanent coo jobs

Permanent COO jobs the market and the pay

Permanent COO jobs are full-time employed roles, and they are the ones listed first on this page. Glassdoor’s median for a COO is £137,834, and £153,346 in London, as reported in Exec Capital’s 2026 COO salary guide. Exec Capital is a recruiter, and its guide says COO pay depends heavily on company size, sector and ownership.

Base pay is one part of a permanent package. Bonus, equity, pension and notice period vary widely by company stage and ownership, so compare offers line by line. For pay across permanent, interim and fractional seats, see our chief operating officer salary guide.

Some permanent COO searches are run by a headhunter rather than an open advert. Our COO headhunter page sets out how a permanent COO search works from the hiring side.

07/ questions

COO jobs FAQ

The questions people ask before bringing in a COO.

On this page: the board shows the COO roles on our board, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time, then interim, fractional and part-time. Each kind of COO role also has its own page, from interim COO jobs to fractional COO jobs.

Roles running a company’s operations as a whole: delivery, processes, the operating rhythm of the leadership team and the cost base, often with people, technology or supply chain in the remit, reporting to the chief executive. The title varies (COO, group COO, operations director in smaller firms); the reporting line tells you the seat.

Glassdoor’s median for a COO is £137,834, and £153,346 in London, as reported in Exec Capital’s 2026 COO salary guide. Pay rises with company size and ownership. Interim and fractional COOs are paid by the day; see our chief operating officer salary page.

Run operations at growing scale, through operations manager, head of operations and operations director, and build a record of what changed while you held the seat. A management or board credential, such as CMI’s Chartered Manager or the IoD’s Chartered Director, is optional. Our guide on how to become a COO sets out the steps.

No law requires one, and the qualification asked for is the employer’s call. An MBA, CMI’s Chartered Manager status or the IoD’s Chartered Director programme each appear in postings; in a regulated firm, the FCA must approve senior managers before they start.

Often only the title. In a smaller company the operations director is the top operations seat. Where a company has both, the COO sits on or reports to the board and owns the operating model, and the operations director runs a function or a site. See operations director jobs.

It depends on how the engagement runs in practice, not on its label. In most cases a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides (HMRC). We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist and do not promise an outcome.

Decide whether the seat is permanent, interim or for set days a week, then write down what it owns and who it reports to. For a permanent search, start with our COO headhunter page; for set days a week, see fractional COO jobs. On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5 after five-stage vetting.

Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5

Bring the brief. We architect the team.

A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.

Book a call →Submit a brief