Chief Operating Officer
On-siteDenver, Colorado, United States
Job Summary
Own IO's operational model, including structures, systems, and rhythms that keep the organization coherent across business units and geographies. Build frameworks enabling functional autonomy while maintaining enterprise-wide alignment, and serve as the primary operational decision-maker with authority over facilities costs and M&A costs. Manage the Book of Work, lead the Executive Committee, and set a meeting philosophy focused on resolving KPI gaps and installing remedies. Design and deploy the business operating system, transitioning from informal processes to scalable, AI-enabled infrastructure that replaces person-dependency with institutional knowledge. Partner with the CEO and C-suite peers to shape strategy, rebuild engineering delivery capability, and drive the transition to a globally distributed, async-first workforce.
Required Qualifications
- Experience as an operational leader of a company
- Experience owning business infrastructure
- Experience planning, deciding, measuring, delivering, and improving as an organisation
- Experience leading a transition from a centralised operating model to one with greater business unit autonomy
- Experience replacing informal, person-dependent processes with adaptive, AI-enabled systems
- Experience designing and deploying a business operating system including frameworks, workflows, metrics, and governance structures
- Experience leading Enterprise Operations, ICT, AI, People, Finance, Legal, and Venture Studio operations
- Experience working in close partnership with a CEO and C-suite peers
- Experience rebuilding engineering and delivery capability
- Experience bringing the organisational rigour of elite software companies into an operating model
- Experience overseeing organisation-wide and enterprise-level operational functions
- Experience managing multiple VPs and divisional leaders
- Experience influencing the company's overall direction and performance through broad functional leadership
- Experience shaping and aligning organisation-wide strategic decisions
- Experience operating with executive-level autonomy to set policies, allocate resources, and shape strategic initiatives
- Experience holding enterprise-level budget responsibility across functions
- Experience approving large-scale resource allocations
- Experience collaborating with C-suite peers to shape and execute organisational strategy
- Experience leading the operational function at enterprise level
- Experience owning the leadership bench for the operational domain
- Experience managing other senior leaders including VPs and EVPs
- Experience setting standards for leadership development and performance across an organisation
- Experience collaborating with C-suite peers to align leadership expectations
- Strong systems thinking and cybernetics
- Ability to apply feedback loops, requisite variety, and adaptive control to real organisational problems
- KPI and metrics-oriented mindset
- Deep interest in AI and agentic systems
- Hands-on experience building agentic tools
- Strong operational leadership across multiple functions including People, Finance, Legal, ICT, and enterprise operations
- Proven ability to design and run governance frameworks, OKR systems, and operating cadences
- Strong risk and cost sensing
- Ability to see the full implications of significant commitments before they are made
- Technically literate enough to earn the respect of engineers and product leaders
- Ability to make sound investment trade-offs across ICT, AI, and data
- Comfort with globally distributed, async-first teams
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