COO Jobs | Chief Operating Officer Jobs and Vacancies

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

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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.

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01/ the cross

Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.

Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.

Day rate£1,100Published band for a fractional COO: £800–£1,400 a day (Connectd 2026)Days a week2 days

Fractional COO, a monthPermanent COO, a month

At 3.2 days a week a permanent hire costs less.

At 2 days a week: fractional COO £9,526 a month · permanent £14,802 a month

Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.

Permanent = the £122,500 composite (our median of three 2026 guides) median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.

Fractional COO at 2 days a weekInterim COO, five days a weekPermanent COO

The fractional COO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
Interim passes permanent at month 2.

Month 12: fractional COO £114,312 · interim £363,720 · permanent £177,625

Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. Interim = the midpoint of the published interim band (£1,400 a day, Exec Capital 2026) × 5 days × 4.33 weeks. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.

02/ the route

Fractional, interim or permanent?

Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.

How much of the week does the work fill?

Is there a fixed end or a programme?

Does the seat sit on the board for years?

Is the need now, or can it wait for a search?

The route · Fractional

A fractional COO.

The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.

A fractional COO holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.

The fractional COO route Talk it through

03/ 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.

04/ 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.

05/ the maths

What the seat costs, by the days a week

Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.

Day rate£1,100Days a week needed2 daysMonths engaged12 months

The slider runs across the published band for a fractional COO: £800–£1,400 a day (Connectd 2026).

Cost over 12 months

£114,400

104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax

Fractional COO£114,400

Permanent COO, same period£177,625

Fractional costs less over 12 months£63,225

Fractional COO, 12 months£114,400

Fractional COO, a month at 2 d/wk£9,526

Permanent COO, same period£177,625

Book a 15-minute call →

Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £122,500 composite (our median of three 2026 guides) median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.

06/ the week

How a week divides.

The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.

Your companyAnother clientA third client

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Illustration only: one way a fractional COO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.

07/ the board

What the board holds.

A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.

On this board, last 90 days · 3 roles · COO jobs

Engagement

Interim2
Fractional1

Days a week

Stated in the posting2
Not stated1

Day rate

Verified rate0
Estimated (est)1
Rate not stated2

Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)

Remote0
Hybrid1
On-site0
Not classified2

Newest posting on the board: 9 Oct 2026.

08/ 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

09/ 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

10/ 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.

11/ 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.

12/ 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.