How to Hire a Chief of Staff

What Is a Chief of Staff?

The Chief of Staff role has become one of the most searched-for senior appointments at UK scaling firms, PE-backed businesses, and major listed companies over the past five years. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Ask ten CEOs what their Chief of Staff does and you will receive ten different answers — which tells you something important about the role. It is, by design, shaped by the leader it serves. But beneath the variation there is a consistent core: the Chief of Staff is the person who makes the CEO more effective, at scale.

This guide explains what a Chief of Staff actually does in a UK context, how the role differs from adjacent positions, when the hire makes sense, what candidates look like, how to run the search, and what you should expect to pay. It is written from the perspective of UK executive search, drawing on the work Exec Capital does on senior leadership appointments at scaling and PE-backed firms.

The Chief of Staff is not a glorified EA, and it is not a junior COO. It occupies a distinct position in the leadership architecture — one that can have an outsized impact when the hire is right and that can create significant confusion and frustration when it is wrong. Getting the brief correct before the search opens is the single most important thing a firm can do.

Chief of Staff vs EA, COO, and Deputy CEO

The most common confusion in Chief of Staff briefs is boundary definition — specifically, where the role ends and adjacent roles begin. Getting this wrong in the brief produces a candidate pool that is either too senior or too junior, and often results in an appointment that frustrates both the CEO and the hire within the first year.

Chief of Staff vs Executive Assistant. The EA manages the CEO’s time, diary, and logistics. The Chief of Staff manages the CEO’s priorities, decisions, and organisational leverage. These are different skills, different seniority levels, and different relationships. A strong EA is indispensable; a strong Chief of Staff operates at a fundamentally different level of abstraction. Firms that try to upgrade an EA into a Chief of Staff role almost always find the transition fails — not because of the individual’s ability, but because the relationship dynamic is wrong. The EA works for the CEO; the Chief of Staff works with the CEO on behalf of the organisation.

Chief of Staff vs COO. The COO owns operational delivery — P&L management, functional leadership, execution cadence. The Chief of Staff has no P&L and typically no permanent functional reports. The Chief of Staff’s authority derives entirely from proximity to the CEO, not from organisational position. A COO at a 500-person firm has a team of 100; a Chief of Staff at the same firm may have a team of two. The Chief of Staff is faster-moving, more fluid, and more dependent on influence than authority. At firms that already have a COO, the Chief of Staff manages the interface between the CEO’s strategic agenda and the COO’s operational execution — a genuinely distinct function.

Chief of Staff vs Deputy CEO or MD. The Deputy CEO or MD typically has explicit succession intent or defined coverage scope. The Chief of Staff does not carry the CEO’s title when the CEO is absent, and is generally not positioned as heir apparent. At PE-backed firms, this distinction is commercially important: a Deputy CEO may be positioned for an eventual CEO role as part of a portfolio value creation plan, whereas the Chief of Staff is positioned to make the current CEO more effective, not to replace them. Some Chief of Staff roles do evolve into COO or other operational roles, but this should be a consequence of the hire’s development, not a premise built into the original brief.

What a Chief of Staff Actually Does

The Chief of Staff mandate varies by CEO and context, but the following areas of ownership are consistent across scaling and PE-backed firms where the role has been well-defined.

Strategic agenda management. The CEO operates across an enormous range of priorities simultaneously. The Chief of Staff provides the connecting tissue — tracking which priorities are moving, which are stalled, where the CEO needs to spend time, and where decisions are backing up. This is not administrative tracking. It requires genuine understanding of the business, the competitive landscape, and the CEO’s strategic logic.

Preparation and follow-through on CEO commitments. Board papers, investor updates, all-hands presentations, partner conversations, acquisition discussions — the Chief of Staff prepares the CEO for high-stakes interactions and ensures that commitments made in those interactions are followed through. At a scaling firm with an active board and investor base, this alone is a substantial workload.

Cross-functional alignment. The Chief of Staff is often the first person to notice when two parts of the organisation are working at cross-purposes — when the product roadmap and the sales pipeline are out of sync, or when the HR plan and the finance headcount model have diverged. They surface these misalignments to the CEO before they become problems, and often work directly with functional leaders to resolve them.

Special projects and CEO-level initiatives. M&A due diligence, new market entry assessments, organisational design reviews, investor relations projects — the Chief of Staff frequently leads or co-leads the initiatives that sit at the CEO’s level but below the threshold for a standalone hire. These projects often become the Chief of Staff’s primary visible output within the firm, though they represent only part of the actual workload.

Internal communications and culture. At scaling firms, the CEO cannot personally maintain the cultural signal at every level of the organisation. The Chief of Staff helps maintain that signal — translating the CEO’s thinking into internal communications, ensuring that the leadership narrative is consistent, and managing the cadence of all-hands, leadership forums, and town halls.

Relationship management. Board members, key investors, senior advisers, strategic partners — the Chief of Staff manages many of these relationships on the CEO’s behalf, providing continuity between the CEO’s personal interactions and ensuring that nothing important falls through the gaps of a crowded executive schedule.

When Is the Right Time to Hire a Chief of Staff?

The Chief of Staff hire is almost always made later than it should be. CEOs at scaling firms tend to manage without one until the organisational complexity has already become unmanageable. By that point, the Chief of Staff is hired into a reactive brief — fixing problems rather than preventing them.

The CEO’s leverage problem. The clearest trigger is when the CEO is consistently unable to spend time on the things that only they can do, because they are spending it on coordination, preparation, and follow-through that could be delegated. A CEO who is spending 30 percent of their week on board and investor preparation, internal alignment meetings, and follow-through on previous commitments is a CEO who needs a Chief of Staff.

Organisational scale inflection. The transition from 100 to 300 employees, from 300 to 1,000, from single-market to multi-market, or from founder-led to institutionally-backed — each of these transitions creates a step-change in the CEO’s coordination requirements. A Chief of Staff hired at the start of one of these transitions is far more valuable than one hired into the chaos that follows.

PE investment or institutional board activation. Private equity firms consistently push for Chief of Staff appointments at portfolio companies following investment. An active board requires reporting rigour, investor relationship management, and strategic project capacity that most CEO offices cannot provide without dedicated support at a senior level.

IPO preparation. The pre-IPO phase creates an enormous additional workload on the CEO around investor relations, regulatory compliance, and governance maturation. A Chief of Staff with capital markets experience or a strong grasp of listed-firm governance is a high-value hire in the 18-24 months before a planned listing. The IPO Executive Hiring guide covers the broader senior team implications of a planned listing.

The Chief of Staff Candidate Profile

The Chief of Staff candidate market is smaller than most firms expect, because the combination of attributes required is unusual. High intelligence is necessary but not sufficient. Operational experience is useful but not the primary criterion. The defining characteristics are relational intelligence, intellectual range, and a specific kind of ambition — one that finds satisfaction in making others more effective rather than in accumulating personal authority.

The intelligence requirement. A Chief of Staff needs to operate credibly across every function in the business. In one day they may be reviewing a financial model with the CFO, editing a board paper on product strategy, navigating a sensitive people situation with the CPO, and preparing the CEO for an investor call. The ability to switch contexts quickly and contribute meaningfully in each is not negotiable.

The relationship requirement. The Chief of Staff’s effectiveness is almost entirely a function of how well they are trusted — by the CEO, by the leadership team, and by the board. Trust takes time to build and is easily destroyed. Candidates who are politically astute, emotionally regulated, and known for discretion are orders of magnitude more valuable in this role than candidates who are brilliant but transactional.

Experience profile. The strongest Chief of Staff candidates typically come from one of three backgrounds. First, management consulting — a McKinsey, BCG, or Bain analyst or associate who has moved into an in-house strategy role has exactly the analytical breadth, structured communication skills, and executive exposure that the role demands. Second, investment banking — particularly those who have done significant M&A execution or coverage work and can operate in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. Third, in-house strategy or corporate development roles at scaling firms, where candidates have already worked closely with a CEO or board and understand the rhythm of a leadership team. Candidates from very large corporates with extensive bureaucratic structures sometimes struggle with the autonomy and pace of a scaling-firm Chief of Staff role.

The ambition calibration. This is the most delicate aspect of the hire. A Chief of Staff who is privately resentful of the CEO’s authority, or who is primarily using the role as a stepping stone to a title they can pursue elsewhere, will underdeliver. The most effective Chiefs of Staff find genuine satisfaction in the role — in the quality of their influence, the breadth of their exposure, and the knowledge that the organisation is performing better because of their work. This is not a common combination. Identifying it requires careful process design and honest reference conversations.

Stage and sector fit. A Chief of Staff who has excelled at a 5,000-person firm may struggle at a 150-person scaling business where there is no support infrastructure, no established processes, and no template for the role. Stage fit matters more than sector fit for this appointment. As with the CPO role, the candidate’s experience of building and navigating ambiguous environments is more valuable than deep sector knowledge that can be acquired on the job. See the Scale-Up Executive Hiring guide for broader context on stage-fit considerations.

Where Chief of Staff Talent Comes From

The Chief of Staff talent pool in the UK is diffuse — there is no obvious career path that produces a ready-made Chief of Staff in the way that the CFO track produces finance leaders. The role is usually someone’s second or third act, not their first.

From strategy consulting. Ex-consultants who have moved in-house into strategy or chief of staff roles at other firms are the most common source. They combine analytical rigour with the communication skills and executive exposure that the role requires. The transition from consulting to an in-house Chief of Staff role is one of the cleaner moves in the market.

From investment banking and private equity. Former bankers or PE analysts who want operational exposure often move into Chief of Staff roles as a bridge. These candidates are typically financially literate and comfortable with pace, but may need development on the relationship and communication dimensions that are central to the role.

From within the firm. Internal promotions into Chief of Staff roles are common and can work well when the candidate already has the CEO’s trust and a strong internal network. The risk is promoting someone whose internal relationships are defined by their previous functional role rather than the broader remit the Chief of Staff requires.

From adjacent roles at other firms. Former Chiefs of Staff, strategy directors, and corporate development leads who are looking for a step up or a change of context. These candidates are the most directly comparable and typically the most immediately effective, but they command a premium and the pool is limited.

Running the Chief of Staff Search

A Chief of Staff search requires a different process design than most C-suite searches, because the role is so tightly coupled to the CEO. The standard executive search approach — brief construction, longlist, shortlist, final panel — needs to be adapted to include meaningful CEO exposure earlier in the process and a more nuanced assessment of the candidate-CEO fit.

The CEO interview is the assessment. More than any other role, the Chief of Staff hire lives or dies on the quality of the relationship between the hire and the CEO. A search process that does not include direct, substantive CEO time with candidates until the final stage is a search process that is optimising for the wrong signal. The best process designs include a working session — not just a formal interview — with the CEO in the second round, so that both parties can assess the working dynamic before the final shortlist is formed.

Board and investor engagement. At PE-backed firms and listed companies, the Chief of Staff will have significant exposure to board members and investors. Many searches include a board member in the final stage assessment, both to validate the candidate’s credibility at that level and to build early relationships that will matter on day one.

Confidentiality. Chief of Staff searches are almost always confidential. The appointment signals something about the CEO’s workload and the firm’s organisational maturity that firms do not always want in the market. Confidential search requires a targeted direct approach rather than an advertised process, and a search firm that can approach candidates discreetly.

Timeline. A well-run Chief of Staff search typically runs 10–14 weeks from brief to offer. The shorter timeline compared to other C-suite roles reflects the more focused candidate pool and the ability to make faster decisions when the CEO-candidate fit is clear. Searches that drag beyond 16 weeks usually do so because the CEO has not been sufficiently involved in the early stages.

For a broader view of how retained search works for senior appointments, the Executive Search Methodology guide covers the process end to end.

Chief of Staff Compensation Benchmarks

Chief of Staff compensation in the UK is wide-ranging because the seniority of the role varies significantly across firm types. A Chief of Staff at a 200-person series B firm is a different role from a Chief of Staff at a FTSE 250 company, and the compensation reflects that.

Base salary. At UK scaling firms with 100–500 employees, Chief of Staff base salaries typically run from £80,000 to £150,000 depending on the seniority of the brief and the background of the candidate. More senior roles at larger firms — where the Chief of Staff is effectively a deputy to a FTSE-tier CEO — can reach £180,000–£220,000. The most common range for PE-backed scaling firms is £100,000–£140,000.

Bonus. Annual bonuses of 15–25% of base are standard. At PE-backed firms, bonus structures often include a component tied to company performance metrics, which the Chief of Staff needs to be comfortable with given their proximity to the firm’s strategic decisions.

Equity. Equity participation is increasingly standard for Chief of Staff roles at venture and PE-backed firms. EMI options of 0.1%–0.3% of the equity pool are common at series B/C firms. At PE-backed businesses, participation in the management incentive plan is typical for a genuine Chief of Staff role, though the level of participation will be below that of functional C-suite roles. The Executive Equity Incentives guide provides broader context on how equity is structured for senior hires at different stages.

Benefits. Private medical, life assurance, and pension contributions at standard senior-employee levels are expected. Flexible working arrangements are particularly important to negotiate clearly for this role, given the on-call nature of the CEO support function.

The Career Path from Chief of Staff

One of the most common questions from candidates evaluating a Chief of Staff opportunity is what comes next. The honest answer is that the Chief of Staff role, done well, opens more doors than almost any other position at a comparable level — because the breadth of exposure it provides is unmatched.

The most common transitions from Chief of Staff are into COO or General Manager roles, where the operational and cross-functional experience the candidate has accumulated is directly applicable. Strategy director, corporate development, and CEO roles are also common outcomes for ex-Chiefs of Staff, particularly those who have operated in PE-backed or high-growth environments. Former Chiefs of Staff who move into CEO roles tend to be unusually effective at managing their own board and investor relationships, because they have spent years observing and facilitating them from the inside.

The risk of the role — and this is worth discussing with candidates directly — is that its lack of functional ownership can make it harder to articulate to future employers than a more conventional role. A Chief of Staff who can clearly document what they built, what decisions they influenced, and what outcomes they drove will not face this problem. One whose experience has been primarily procedural and coordinative may find the next move more difficult than expected.

Onboarding Your Chief of Staff

The Chief of Staff onboarding requires deliberate CEO investment in the first 30 days — more than almost any other appointment. Because the role’s effectiveness depends so heavily on the CEO’s trust and on the Chief of Staff’s understanding of the CEO’s thinking, the most important early investment is structured time between the two: not just formal briefings, but the CEO sharing their unfiltered view of the firm’s challenges, their leadership team relationships, their board dynamics, and the things they find hardest about the role. This kind of context cannot be given in a written briefing and cannot be absorbed in a standard executive induction programme.

In the first 30 days, the Chief of Staff should accompany the CEO in as many significant interactions as possible — board meetings, leadership team sessions, investor calls, key customer conversations — observing rather than participating, building the contextual understanding that will allow them to act autonomously within 90 days. By the end of month one, they should have met every member of the leadership team individually and have a clear picture of the CEO’s most pressing priorities for the next quarter.

By day 90, the Chief of Staff should be operating with genuine independence on defined areas of the CEO’s agenda. Any appointment where the Chief of Staff is still primarily accompanying rather than leading by the end of the first quarter is either a brief definition problem or a fit problem. The Executive Onboarding guide provides the full 30/60/90 day framework applicable to C-suite appointments.

Common Hiring Mistakes

1. Treating it as a stretch assignment rather than a strategic hire. Some firms appoint a Chief of Staff from within as a developmental opportunity rather than because they have found the right person for the role. This is a false economy. A Chief of Staff who is still learning the fundamentals of executive-level influence while managing the CEO’s most sensitive relationships will slow the CEO down, not speed them up.

2. Under-defining the role before the search opens. The most common search failure is a brief so vague that it cannot be evaluated. “Support the CEO, drive cross-functional initiatives, manage strategic projects” describes most of the senior population. The brief needs to identify specific problems the Chief of Staff will solve and specific outcomes they will be accountable for.

3. Ignoring cultural and chemistry fit. The Chief of Staff will know more about the CEO’s thinking, relationships, and vulnerabilities than almost anyone else in the organisation. A hire who the CEO does not fundamentally trust will be ineffective regardless of their CV. Chemistry is a legitimate search criterion for this role, and the process should be designed to test it properly.

4. Setting wrong expectations on authority. Chiefs of Staff who are given the title but not the access, trust, or mandate to operate effectively will fail. The CEO must be genuinely willing to delegate decision rights, share sensitive information, and allow the Chief of Staff to act with authority on their behalf. CEOs who are not ready to do this should not hire a Chief of Staff.

5. Hiring for today’s problem rather than tomorrow’s scale. A Chief of Staff hired to solve an immediate coordination problem may be the wrong hire for the firm in 18 months when the complexity has increased. The brief should be written for the organisation the firm is becoming, not the organisation it is today.

How Exec Capital Approaches Chief of Staff Appointments

Exec Capital runs Chief of Staff searches as retained mandates with direct CEO involvement from brief stage through to offer. Our process for this role includes a structured brief development session with the CEO before any outreach begins — specifically designed to surface the three or four things the CEO most needs from the hire, rather than building a generic job description.

We maintain a candidate network that includes former management consultants, ex-bankers, and in-house strategy professionals who have moved through Chief of Staff roles at UK scaling and PE-backed firms. Many of these candidates are not actively searching but are open to the right opportunity. Approaching them requires a relationship and a compelling brief — both of which we invest in before the search opens.

The Chief of Staff search sits within our broader C-suite practice. For firms considering whether a Chief of Staff is the right hire or whether a different senior appointment would better address the CEO’s leverage problem — perhaps a COO or a Chief People Officer — we are happy to have that diagnostic conversation before any search commitment is made.

Further Reading and Authoritative Sources

On the Chief of Staff role in organisational design, Harvard Business Review’s leadership research has published extensively on the CEO office and how effective senior leaders structure their support functions. Their research on CEO time allocation is directly relevant to understanding when and why the Chief of Staff hire makes sense.

For PE-backed firm governance and senior team design, the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) publishes guidance on value creation through management team structure. The shift from founder-led to institutionally-managed leadership teams is a consistent theme in their portfolio company research.

On executive coaching and senior leadership development — a discipline closely related to the Chief of Staff function — the Association for Coaching and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) provide professional frameworks that are increasingly relevant to how firms think about senior leadership support structures.

Related Exec Capital guides: How to Hire a CEO · How to Hire a COO · How to Hire a Chief People Officer · Scale-Up Executive Hiring · PE-Backed Executive Hiring · Executive Search Methodology · Fractional, Interim or Permanent