Chief Operating Officer (COO) Job Description

Chief Operating Officer (COO) — role guide, job description template, salary benchmarks, and what to look for in the right candidate

The Chief Operating Officer is the executive responsible for the operational delivery of the business. While the CEO sets direction and represents the organisation externally, the COO owns what happens internally — how the business runs, how functions perform, how operational plans get executed, and how the leadership team is held accountable for results. Getting this role right is one of the highest-leverage decisions a board can make. Getting it wrong is one of the most expensive.

This guide covers everything you need to write an accurate COO job description: the core accountabilities the role carries, the differences between COO mandates at different business types, what qualifications and background the strongest candidates bring, how the role sits within the executive structure, and what a competitive remuneration package looks like in the UK market. For our COO recruitment service, see our COO recruitment page. For interim appointments, see Interim COO. For part-time arrangements, see Fractional COO.

What is a Chief Operating Officer?

The Chief Operating Officer is the senior executive accountable for the company’s internal operations. The role sits directly below the CEO in the executive hierarchy and is responsible for translating the CEO’s strategic direction into operational plans, managing the functional leadership team, and ensuring the business delivers against its commitments. In practice, the COO is the person the CEO relies on to make the business run.

The COO title covers meaningfully different mandates depending on the organisation. In some businesses the COO is effectively the CEO’s deputy, with broad oversight of every function. In others the role is scoped to operational delivery only — supply chain, manufacturing, service operations — with finance, technology, and people reporting separately to the CEO. In PE-backed businesses the COO frequently carries a transformation or value-creation mandate alongside the steady-state operational brief. In professional services and financial services firms the COO role often carries regulatory accountability, particularly where the firm is FCA-regulated and the COO holds SMF24 responsibility.

This variation in scope is why a COO job description written without a clear brief tends to attract a mixed pool of candidates who are not directly comparable to each other. Defining the scope accurately — what functions report to the COO, what the relationship with the CEO looks like, what the operational agenda is for the next three years — is the most important work done before the search begins. The UK Corporate Governance Code and guidance from the Institute of Directors provide the governance framework within which the COO operates, particularly in listed and large private companies.

Core COO Responsibilities

Operational strategy and planning. The COO translates the board-approved strategy into an operational plan — defining the milestones, resource requirements, functional accountabilities, and performance metrics that will determine whether the strategy is actually delivered. A COO who cannot build a credible operational plan that the CEO, CFO, and functional leadership team all believe in is not operating at the level the role demands. The quality of the operational plan is the primary diagnostic for whether a COO appointment is working.

Functional leadership and cross-functional accountability. The COO manages the functional directors who report to them — typically operations, technology, people, supply chain, and sometimes sales and marketing depending on the business model — and holds them accountable for delivery against the operational plan. The value-creating work happens at the interfaces between functions: the COO resolves the cross-functional blockers that individual directors cannot resolve at their level, and manages the handoffs between functions that produce delays, quality failures, and cost overruns when they are not actively managed.

Operational performance management. The COO defines and owns the operational KPI framework, monitors performance against it, investigates underperformance, and reports to the CEO and board on operational outcomes. The difference between a strong and a weak COO in this area is whether they can explain the commercial context behind the numbers — not just report what the KPIs show, but explain what is driving them and what the business is doing about it.

Process improvement and operational efficiency. The COO drives continuous improvement in how the business operates — identifying inefficiencies in processes, cost structures, and ways of working, and leading programmes to address them. In high-growth businesses this frequently means scaling operational infrastructure to match business growth before the business outgrows the infrastructure it has. In mature or declining businesses it means reducing the cost base without degrading service quality.

People and organisational development. The COO is accountable for the quality of the operational leadership team. This means recruiting, developing, and where necessary replacing the functional directors who report to them, setting the performance standards for the operational organisation, and building the management capability the business needs to operate at scale. The COO’s ability to raise the performance of the team around them is a primary indicator of long-term operational health.

Risk, compliance, and governance. The COO is responsible for identifying and managing operational risk — including supply chain risk, regulatory compliance, health and safety, and the operational controls that prevent the business from exposing itself to avoidable liabilities. In FCA-regulated firms, the COO holding SMF24 is personally accountable to the regulator for operational resilience, with obligations under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. The Companies Act 2006 establishes the director-level duties that apply to COOs who hold a formal board directorship alongside their operational role.

COO Job Description Template

The following template covers the standard components of a Chief Operating Officer job description. It should be adapted to reflect the specific scope, reporting structure, and mandate of the role in your organisation.

Job title: Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Direct reports: [Insert the functional directors who report to the COO — Operations Director, IT Director, People Director, Supply Chain Director, as applicable]

Purpose of the role: The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for the operational performance of the business. Working in close partnership with the CEO, the COO translates the company’s strategic direction into an operational plan and leads the functional team in delivering against it. The COO is accountable for operational efficiency, quality, cost management, and the performance of the functions within their remit.

Key accountabilities:

Develop and own the annual and medium-term operational plan, aligned with the board-approved strategy. Manage and develop the functional leadership team, setting performance expectations and holding directors accountable for delivery. Define and maintain the operational KPI framework, report on operational performance to the CEO and board, and drive improvement where performance falls short of plan. Lead operational improvement programmes — process efficiency, cost reduction, technology adoption, and capacity development — that position the business to perform against its growth agenda. Manage operational risk, ensure the business maintains appropriate controls, and ensure compliance with all relevant regulatory and legal requirements. Work with the CFO to develop and manage the operational budget, and ensure resources are allocated efficiently across functions. Act as the CEO’s deputy in operational and organisational matters, including leading the business in the CEO’s absence where required.

Person specification — experience: Significant experience in a senior operational leadership role, with direct accountability for multiple functions. Demonstrable track record of delivering an operational transformation or scaling an operational organisation through a period of growth. Experience managing and developing a functional leadership team. Sector experience relevant to the business [insert sector as applicable]. Experience working in a business of comparable scale and complexity [insert revenue/headcount range].

Person specification — skills and attributes: Strong operational planning capability — the ability to build credible operational plans and manage delivery against them. Cross-functional leadership — the ability to manage the interfaces between functions and hold a senior team collectively accountable. Commercial acumen — the ability to read operational performance data in its commercial context and make good decisions on the basis of it. Communication and influence — the ability to present operational performance clearly to the board, engage the wider organisation, and manage relationships with the CEO and functional peers. Resilience and pace — the COO role demands delivery under pressure, often at speed, across complex and competing priorities.

COO Salary UK — 2025 Benchmarks

COO compensation in the UK varies significantly by business scale, sector, and complexity of the mandate. The following benchmarks reflect current market rates for permanent COO appointments in the UK, across different business types.

In smaller privately-owned businesses with revenues between £10m and £50m, COO base salaries typically fall in the range of £100,000 to £160,000, with a bonus opportunity of 15–25% of base. At this scale the role often combines operational and general management responsibilities, and the COO may also carry a broader commercial remit.

In mid-market businesses with revenues between £50m and £250m, COO base salaries typically range from £160,000 to £250,000, with bonus structures of 25–40% of base. At this scale the COO is usually managing a leadership team of five or more functional directors and the role has a genuine cross-functional complexity.

In PE-backed businesses the compensation structure shifts significantly toward variable pay. Base salaries may be in line with the ranges above, but the total package frequently includes a meaningful carried interest or management equity participation — typically ranging from 0.5% to 3% of equity depending on the stage of the investment and the COO’s contribution to the value creation plan.

In large corporate or listed businesses, COO total packages commonly exceed £300,000–£500,000 once long-term incentive plans are included. In these environments the COO is a significant governance figure as well as an operational leader, and the role carries commensurately greater personal accountability.

Benefits packages at COO level typically include a company car or car allowance, private medical insurance for the individual and family, pension contributions of 10–15% of salary, and life assurance. Executive-level role-based benefits — travel, hospitality, and professional development — are standard.

COO Qualifications and Experience

There is no standard qualification route to the COO role. The role is defined by operational experience rather than academic or professional credentials, and the strongest COO candidates are more likely to be distinguished by their track record of operational delivery than by their educational background.

That said, a degree-level education is common among COO candidates, and postgraduate qualifications — an MBA from a leading business school, or a professional qualification in a relevant discipline — are increasingly prevalent at the most senior levels. In operationally intensive sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and financial services, sector-specific qualifications (engineering, supply chain management, financial services regulation) carry weight alongside operational experience.

What distinguishes the strongest COO candidates from the adequate ones is not qualification level but the quality of their operational track record. The candidate who has led a business through a complex transformation — a post-acquisition integration, a technology-enabled operational overhaul, a turnaround under significant performance pressure — and can speak specifically about how they did it, what they got wrong, and what they learned, will outperform the candidate with an impressive CV who cannot give concrete examples of the decisions that drove operational outcomes.

Who Does the COO Report To?

The COO almost always reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer. In most UK businesses this is a one-to-one reporting line, with the COO functioning as the CEO’s principal internal partner — the person who holds the operational reality of the business and can be trusted to manage it without close oversight from the CEO.

In some large corporate structures the COO reports to the board through the CEO, and may attend board meetings or specific board committees in their own right — particularly audit and risk committees where operational risk and internal controls are in scope. In FCA-regulated firms where the COO holds SMF24, the COO has a direct accountability relationship with the FCA alongside the line accountability to the CEO, and this is a material governance consideration in how the role is framed and recruited.

In a small number of businesses — typically owner-managed groups or family businesses — the COO reports to the Chairman or the founder rather than to a CEO. This usually indicates that the founder is effectively performing a combined Chairman-CEO role and the COO is the most senior full-time executive managing the business. It is important to understand and document this reporting dynamic accurately in the job description, as it materially affects the mandate and the candidate pool.

COO vs CEO — How the Roles Differ

The CEO is responsible for the company’s direction — the strategy, the external relationships, the board relationship, and the organisation’s presence in its market. The COO is responsible for the company’s delivery — the internal operations, the functional team, the execution of the plan that the CEO and board have set.

In practice the line between the two roles is not always clean. In high-growth businesses the CEO often retains significant operational involvement, and the COO’s mandate is correspondingly scoped. In businesses with a strong external or commercial focus for the CEO, the COO may carry near-total responsibility for internal management. The job description needs to reflect the actual scope rather than a generic template, because the most experienced COO candidates will probe this in their assessment of the role.

Where both roles exist on the executive team, the CEO-COO working relationship is the most important relationship in the organisation. A COO who is not fully aligned with the CEO on strategy, priorities, and working style will be ineffective regardless of their individual capability. At Exec Capital, we treat the CEO-COO relationship dynamic as a core element of the brief — not an afterthought — and assess candidates against it explicitly. For CEO recruitment, see our CEO recruitment page.