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Full-time operational leadership for 3-12 months. Leading turnarounds, restructuring, and covering critical leadership gaps when permanent solutions are not viable yet.
An Interim COO (Chief Operating Officer) is a senior operations executive hired on a temporary, full-time basis to lead an organisation's operations during periods of transformation, crisis, or leadership transition.
Unlike consultants or part-time advisors, Interim COOs are fully embedded members of the executive team, working 4-5 days per week exclusively for one organisation for a defined period—typically 3-12 months.
Interim COO roles are full-time, temporary positions. These executives work exclusively for your organisation during critical periods like operational turnarounds, restructuring programs, or while you search for a permanent COO. They are not part-time consultants—they are fully committed operational leaders.
Interim COOs typically step in when organisations face operational challenges too complex for consultants, too urgent for part-time support, or too risky to leave vacant while recruiting permanently.
Leading comprehensive operational restructuring when business performance has deteriorated. Focus on stabilising operations, cutting costs, improving processes, and restoring operational efficiency.
Common in distressed businesses, post-acquisition integration, or when operational metrics are failing.
Managing major organisational restructuring programs including process redesign, technology implementation, team reorganisation, and operational model changes.
Often follows strategic pivots, growth phases requiring operational scalability, or when existing operations are no longer fit for purpose.
Filling critical COO vacancy while permanent recruitment is underway. Maintaining operational stability, continuing strategic initiatives, and managing the executive team during the transition.
When a COO departs unexpectedly, during executive succession planning, or when the permanent search is taking longer than anticipated.
Providing urgent operational leadership during crises such as major system failures, supply chain collapse, regulatory investigations, or significant operational incidents.
Emergency situations requiring immediate, experienced operational leadership to stabilise and resolve critical issues.
Building operational infrastructure to support rapid growth. Establishing processes, systems, and teams needed to scale from startup to scale-up phase.
Post-funding rounds, market expansion, or when growth has outpaced operational capability.
Leading operational integration following mergers or acquisitions. Combining operations, harmonising processes, managing redundancies, and delivering synergies.
Post-deal completion when operational integration expertise is needed temporarily.
At £1,500/day for 4 days per week over 12 months, an Interim COO costs approximately £288,000—comparable to a permanent COO salary but with significantly more flexibility and immediate expertise.
While operational excellence is transferable, many interim COO roles require specific sector knowledge:
Most Interim COOs have spent 15-25+ years in operational leadership roles, including:
Executives typically move into interim COO work when they:
Successful Interim COOs typically:
This path is not suitable if you need employment security, want deep organisational relationships, prefer building long-term strategy over fixing immediate problems, or lack the resilience for constant change and political complexity.
Rapid operational diagnostic, stakeholder interviews, quick wins to build credibility, stabilising any immediate crises, and developing 90-day action plan.
Implementing priority initiatives, restructuring teams if needed, establishing performance metrics, fixing broken processes, and building operational cadence.
Driving major transformation initiatives, delivering measurable operational improvements, embedding new ways of working, coaching and developing teams.
Knowledge transfer to successor or internal team, ensuring sustainability of changes, documenting processes and learnings, structured handover.
| Feature | Interim COO | Fractional COO | Full-Time COO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment | Full-time (temporary) | 1-3 days/week | Full-time (permanent) |
| Duration | 3-12 months | Ongoing (6+ months typical) | Permanent |
| Cost | £8,000-£12,000/week | £3,000-£6,000/week | £150,000-£250,000/year + benefits |
| Focus | Gap-fill or transformation | Strategic + operational | All responsibilities |
| Flexibility | Fixed term contract | Scale up/down as needed | Limited flexibility |
| Best For | Leadership gaps, major transitions | Growing companies, specific expertise needs | Large orgs with full-time need |
Most assignments run 3-12 months. Vacancy cover tends to be shorter (3-6 months), while turnarounds and transformations typically require 6-12 months. Extensions are common if objectives have not been fully delivered.
Yes, this happens in 15-20% of cases. Many interim assignments include a "temp-to-perm" clause. However, most Interim COOs prefer to remain interim and wouldn't consider permanent roles.
Typically 4 weeks, though this is negotiable. Interim contracts usually allow early termination by either party with notice, providing flexibility for both sides.
Most Interim COOs can start within 2-4 weeks if available. Those finishing current assignments may need 4-8 weeks. Urgent crisis situations sometimes see starts within 1 week.
Typically organisations with £10m+ revenue, 50+ employees, or multi-site operations. Smaller organisations might consider part-time fractional COOs instead. PE-backed businesses of any size frequently use Interim COOs.
Either directly as contractors (via limited companies) or through interim management firms. Most work through their own limited company on day-rate contracts, invoicing monthly.
Whether you need operational turnaround expertise, restructuring leadership, or urgent vacancy cover, we can connect you with experienced Interim COOs.