Hiring a Fractional COO

Most Common Situations Or Problems That Warrant a Fractional COO

1. Founder bandwidth: The CEO is stuck running day-to-day ops, and execution slows down when priorities shift.
2. Scaling challenges: Growth is stressing the business (handoffs break, quality slips, timelines drift) and the operating system is not keeping up.
3. Process problems: Work lives in people’s heads, projects get rebuilt from scratch, and the same issues keep repeating.
4. Accountability: Teams are busy but outcomes are inconsistent, KPIs are unclear, and it is hard to know what is actually working.

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How a Fractional COO Helps Solve Those Problems

1. Operational strategy: They define and implement company-wide systems and workflows so execution is consistent and scalable.
2. Organizational design: They create clearer ownership, team structure, and operating cadence so decisions and handoffs stop bottlenecking.
3. Scaling execution: They work on converting disparate tasks handled across the organization into centralized processes that are more amenable to a scaling company.
4. KPI tracking: They build dashboards and reporting that make performance visible and create accountability across teams.
5. AI & automation: They introduce automation into core workflows to reduce manual work and keep improvements durable.

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Fractional Ops Lead or a More Senior Fractional COO?

If you already know what needs to be built and mostly need someone to execute (project manage, document processes, run tooling, keep projects moving), a strong Fractional Ops Lead can be enough. If the problem is broader (unclear operating model, cross-functional misalignment, recurring execution misses, need for leadership-level ownership) you want a more senior Fractional COO who can design the operating system and run it.

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Under-Rated Use Case: Workflow Automation

We published a post about a Fractional Strategic Ops Leader (COO-level) who joined Moose’s March on a monthly retainer for ~5 hours/week and personally built autonomous workflows that connected existing tools into an automated intake + approval system. The result was a 75% reduction in approval cycle time (4 weeks → 1 week), a 71% reduction in incomplete submissions, and an 80% reduction in the founder hours required to run the program, plus faster partner onboarding that supported revenue growth.

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Fractional COO Case Study

Sema Software is an IT services firm that was going through a big business model transition, with the introduction of a new SaaS product. They came to Fractional Jobs hoping to find an accomplished Fractional COO that has taken growth-stage orgs through this exact business model transition.

After seeing the candidates, Sema Software said: “I just did a deep dive on the profiles you sent. All of them are high-caliber operations leaders, without a doubt.”

Fractional Jobs also helped:

1. Xchange Auto (procurement) hire a Fractional COO for 15 hours per week.
2. Bloom AI (consumer AI) hire a Fractional COO for 10 hours per week.
3. Grace Capital (healthcare) hire a Fractional General Manager for 20 hours per week.

All with similar results.

Get help hiring a Fractional COO for your startup or SMB, learn more here.

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