Chief of Staff to the COO

Job description

The Role CFGI is a PE-backed professional services firm with 30+ offices, strong year-over-year growth, and an expanding international footprint. The firm is in an active phase of building the infrastructure, people systems, and operating discipline needed to scale without sacrificing quality or culture. This role will report directly to CFGI’s Chief Operating Officer, a former McKinsey Partner. This role sits at the center of that buildout. The Chief of Staff / VP Operations is the COO’s most senior operational partner, responsible for driving the firmwide initiative portfolio, organizing and advancing large cross-functional programs, and ensuring that the Office of the COO functions at the highest level of execution. It is a leadership and coordination hybrid role that requires judgment, executive presence, and the ability to drive outcomes across a complex, Partner-led organization. It also sits at the forefront of how CFGI is building an AI-enabled firm; this role is the COO’s operational arm for how AI gets adopted, governed, and scaled across the business. What You Will Own Portfolio Execution Lead large, complex initiatives that span the enterprise and require senior engagement, including people architecture redesign (Partnership model, incentives, performance management), office operating model buildout, and AI governance and implementation. Drive accountability across initiative owners and Partners without direct line authority, triaging risks, blockers, and decisions that require COO attention or delegation, and influencing Partners and senior leaders to keep work moving. Serve as the COO’s proxy in working sessions, executive meetings, and cross-functional forums. Represent COO positions with clarity and confidence. Structure problems, build the analytical backbone for decisions, and develop the materials needed to take recommendations to the co-CEOs and Board. Close decisions independently within defined scope; escalate appropriately with a clear recommendation. Operating Rhythm and Executive Effectiveness Design and run the COO’s operating cadence: priorities, meeting rhythms, decision cycles, and stakeholder communications. Prepare executive briefings, Board materials, and co-CEO updates. Writing must be concise, direct, and ready for senior audiences without heavy editing. Manage the COO’s bandwidth: triage incoming demands, filter noise, and know when the COO needs to be in the room versus when decisions can move without them. Serve as the COO’s intelligence layer across the firm. Attend key meetings, synthesize what is being heard from Partners, practice leaders, and office staff, and surface patterns and sentiment the COO needs to know. Firm Operations Drive operational infrastructure improvements across the firm: standard operating procedures, reporting systems, process discipline, and governance frameworks. Partner with functional leads (CHRO, CCO, practice leaders, Office Managing Partners) to ensure operational alignment. Support the design and rollout of the firm’s office operating model, Partner performance systems, and pricing governance. Identify systemic operational gaps before they become risks and build the case for structural fixes. Champion the cultural agenda of the COO across the firm, identifying where culture is drifting from intent and supporting initiatives that reinforce the firm’s identity through a period of significant growth. AI and Innovation Lead on behalf of the COO in driving the firmwide AI agenda: track commitments, follow through on decisions, and ensure workstreams are moving with urgency and accountability. Help implement the AI governance framework operationally: data security policy, risk standards, human review protocols, and adoption accountability across the firm. Translate AI strategy into practice-level adoption. Work with practice leaders and Office Managing Partners to identify the highest-value use cases, sequence implementation, and build the internal capability to sustain it. Bring personal AI fluency to the role. You use AI tools daily, understand their application in a professional services context, and can credibly represent the firm’s AI agenda in senior conversations. Who You Are What we are looking for: 5+ years of total professional experience, including at least 3 years at McKinsey, Bain, or BCG or similar, with demonstrated ability to structure complex problems, operate in ambiguous environments, manage enterprise-level special projects and influence senior stakeholders. Experience working in or with professional services, financial services, or PE-backed firms is a strong advantage. Track record of managing multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously without losing quality or momentum. Proven ability to operate at both the strategic and execution level, from shaping a recommendation for the Board to following through on the operational detail. Ability to earn credibility in rooms full of senior Partners without relying on hierarchy. Awareness to know when to push and when to escalate. You do not sit on problems. Write well, concise, structured, and calibrated to a senior executive audience. Comfortable with ambiguity and build structure rather than waiting for it. Hold yourself and others to a high standard of follow-through. What Success Looks Like In year one, the COO’s initiative portfolio is fully organized, trackable, and advancing on schedule. Nothing is lost or stalled because ownership or next steps were unclear. The co-CEOs and Board receive decision documents that are crisp, well-structured, and require minimal rework. The COO can focus on the highest-leverage decisions and relationships because this role has absorbed everything beneath that threshold. Partners and senior leaders across the firm recognize this role as a credible, senior operational counterpart. This role is designed for someone with ambitions beyond the mandate. High performance here creates a direct path to an operational role within CFGI. The Role CFGI is a PE-backed professional services firm with 30+ offices, strong year-over-year growth, and an expanding international footprint. The firm is in an active phase of building the infrastructure, people systems, and operating discipline needed to scale without sacrificing quality or culture. This role will report directly to CFGI’s Chief Operating Officer, a former McKinsey Partner. This role sits at the center of that buildout. The Chief of Staff / VP Operations is the COO’s most senior operational partner, responsible for driving the firmwide initiative portfolio, organizing and advancing large cross-functional programs, and ensuring that the Office of the COO functions at the highest level of execution. It is a leadership and coordination hybrid role that requires judgment, executive presence, and the ability to drive outcomes across a complex, Partner-led organization. It also sits at the forefront of how CFGI is building an AI-enabled firm; this role is the COO’s operational arm for how AI gets adopted, governed, and scaled across the business. What You Will Own Portfolio Execution Lead large, complex initiatives that span the enterprise and require senior engagement, including people architecture redesign (Partnership model, incentives, performance management), office operating model buildout, and AI governance and implementation. Drive accountability across initiative owners and Partners without direct line authority, triaging risks, blockers, and decisions that require COO attention or delegation, and influencing Partners and senior leaders to keep work moving. Serve as the COO’s proxy in working sessions, executive meetings, and cross-functional forums. Represent COO positions with clarity and confidence. Structure problems, build the analytical backbone for decisions, and develop the materials needed to take recommendations to the co-CEOs and Board. Close decisions independently within defined scope; escalate appropriately with a clear recommendation. Operating Rhythm and Executive Effectiveness Design and run the COO’s operating cadence: priorities, meeting rhythms, decision cycles, and stakeholder communications. Prepare executive briefings, Board materials, and co-CEO updates. Writing must be concise, direct, and ready for senior audiences without heavy editing. Manage the COO’s bandwidth: triage incoming demands, filter noise, and know when the COO needs to be in the room versus when decisions can move without them. Serve as the COO’s intelligence layer across the firm. Attend key meetings, synthesize what is being heard from Partners, practice leaders, and office staff, and surface patterns and sentiment the COO needs to know. Firm Operations Drive operational infrastructure improvements across the firm: standard operating procedures, reporting systems, process discipline, and governance frameworks. Partner with functional leads (CHRO, CCO, practice leaders, Office Managing Partners) to ensure operational alignment. Support the design and rollout of the firm’s office operating model, Partner performance systems, and pricing governance. Identify systemic operational gaps before they become risks and build the case for structural fixes. Champion the cultural agenda of the COO across the firm, identifying where culture is drifting from intent and supporting initiatives that reinforce the firm’s identity through a period of significant growth. AI and Innovation Lead on behalf of the COO in driving the firmwide AI agenda: track commitments, follow through on decisions, and ensure workstreams are moving with urgency and accountability. Help implement the AI governance framework operationally: data security policy, risk standards, human review protocols, and adoption accountability across the firm. Translate AI strategy into practice-level adoption. Work with practice leaders and Office Managing Partners to identify the highest-value use cases, sequence implementation, and build the internal capability to sustain it. Bring personal AI fluency to the role. You use AI tools daily, understand their application in a professional services context, and can credibly represent the firm’s AI agenda in senior conversations. Who You Are What we are looking for: 5+ years of total professional experience, including at least 3 years at McKinsey, Bain, or BCG or similar, with demonstrated ability to structure complex problems, operate in ambiguous environments, manage enterprise-level special projects and influence senior stakeholders. Experience working in or with professional services, financial services, or PE-backed firms is a strong advantage. Track record of managing multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously without losing quality or momentum. Proven ability to operate at both the strategic and execution level, from shaping a recommendation for the Board to following through on the operational detail. Ability to earn credibility in rooms full of senior Partners without relying on hierarchy. Awareness to know when to push and when to escalate. You do not sit on problems. Write well, concise, structured, and calibrated to a senior executive audience. Comfortable with ambiguity and build structure rather than waiting for it. Hold yourself and others to a high standard of follow-through. What Success Looks Like In year one, the COO’s initiative portfolio is fully organized, trackable, and advancing on schedule. Nothing is lost or stalled because ownership or next steps were unclear. The co-CEOs and Board receive decision documents that are crisp, well-structured, and require minimal rework. The COO can focus on the highest-leverage decisions and relationships because this role has absorbed everything beneath that threshold. Partners and senior leaders across the firm recognize this role as a credible, senior operational counterpart. This role is designed for someone with ambitions beyond the mandate. High performance here creates a direct path to an operational role within CFGI.