Operations director jobs · permanent, interim and fractional

Operations director jobs: what the seat is, and what our board lists

The Institute of Directors describes the operations director as the person who oversees all operational aspects of company strategy, helps set strategic goals and is responsible for the flow of operations information to the chief executive and the board. In practice the seat turns the business plan into delivery: the sites or service lines, the supply chain and suppliers, quality, capacity, cost, and the operations managers who run each area day to day.

Where a company has a COO, the operations director usually reports to them; the IoD’s COO factsheet gives the COO direction and control of all organisational operations in line with the strategy agreed by the chief executive and board. In a smaller company the operations director is the top operations role. Read the scope, the budget and the reporting line, not the title.

What the board below lists

The board shows the roles on our board for this seat, operations director and COO roles, permanent roles first where the posting says full-time. Each card says how the employer advertised the role: permanent, interim or fractional. If the seat has nothing current, the board says so and shows the nearest roles, labelled as what they are. Operations manager roles are not listed here. We recruit permanent, interim, fractional and part-time operations directors.

Director of operations jobs the titles and the duties behind them

Director of operations jobs and operations director jobs are the same roles under two word orders; search both. Some employers use operations director for a senior functional head, others for a board-level leader with operational profit and loss across several sites. Compare the decision rights, the budget, the headcount and the number of locations before you compare the pay.

Not every operations director is a company director in law. If you are appointed to the board, or act as a director without being formally appointed, the duties of a director apply, and a director stays legally responsible for the company’s records, accounts and performance. The Health and Safety Executive’s Leading health and safety at work sets out what it expects of directors, board members and their equivalents. In an operations seat that is your agenda, whatever the title.

The roles sit across sectors, from manufacturing and logistics to care, services and technology. The interview tests what you have run (sites, people, budget), what you changed and the numbers that moved, and how you work with the chief executive and the finance director.

How to get an operations director job experience first, then the credentials

No single qualification is required. The IoD’s COO profile asks for a degree or equivalent and relevant professional qualifications, extensive experience in operations management, significant experience of the industry and significant managerial experience. Operations directors are judged the same way.

The usual route runs through operations manager roles (the Skills England operations manager standard describes the level below: leading teams, delivering operational plans, managing resources) into head of operations and then director. The CMI’s management qualifications run from operational and departmental manager at Level 5 to senior, director and CEO at Level 7 and 8; its Chartered Manager status, backed by a Royal Charter, recognises experienced managers. For board work, the IoD’s Chartered Director programme leads to chartered status in three stages.

Interim and fractional roles are a route in as well: they put a turnaround or a new-site brief on your CV sooner. See how to become a fractional executive.

If you take an interim or fractional role through your own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply; a medium or large client decides the status, based on how the engagement runs in practice.