When should a company hire its first Head of Corporate Development?

Most commonly when the company has either completed its first acquisition, is preparing for a platform-build strategy, or has reached scale where M&A becomes a repeatable discipline rather than an episode.

What is the difference between a Chief Strategy Officer and a Head of Corporate Development?

A CSO is a C-suite executive who owns enterprise strategy, including but not limited to M&A. A Head of Corp Dev is typically a senior VP focused on the M&A pipeline, diligence, and integration.

Does a PE-backed portfolio company need a Chief Strategy Officer?

Rarely. PE portfolio companies typically rely on the CEO, CFO, and the fund's operating team for strategy. CSOs become essential closer to IPO or in businesses where strategy is a continuous competitive discipline.

How long does a strategy or corporate development search take?

Our median Strategy function search closes in 100 days, the fastest function we cover, partly because the candidate pool is small and well-mapped.

What makes a great transformation leader?

Pattern recognition under pressure. The best transformation leaders have lived through more than one transformation (carve-outs, integrations, restructurings) and can move fast without breaking what shouldn't be broken.

Chief Operating Officer Executive Search

The COO who makes the business run

Partner-led search for Chief Operating Officers across PE-backed, growth-stage, and public companies. We find the COO who can hold the operating cadence, the cross-functional alignment, and the change agenda at the same time.

Start a Search Meet Our Partners

95% Referral Rate

85% Referral Rate

4.9 out of 5 rating

98% Placement Rate

The Role

Chief Operating Officer
executive search

The COO title covers three different jobs, and most failed COO hires trace back to picking the wrong job rather than the wrong person. A cadence-keeping operator in a public company, an integrator stitching a roll-up together, and a commercial operations leader in a growth-stage business share a title and almost nothing else.

All three are also getting harder: our 2026 research found 94% of senior leaders say their role is already changing because of AI, and operations feels it first through automation and agentic workflows. We name the mandate before the search opens, then build the spec and the slate around it.

Source: ON Partners Widening Gap Report 2026 | Bain & Company's Operations Reinvention Survey | McKinsey’s multi-sector COO benchmarks

The Roles We Place

Three jobs under one title

The COO title means three different jobs depending on the company and stage. Picking the wrong archetype is the most common failure mode in COO search. We name them so the spec gets built around the right one.

Holds the operating cadence across the business. Runs cross-functional alignment, performance management, and operational discipline. The traditional COO seat in larger and public companies.

Has held an operating cadence in a $500M+ company
Comfortable with cross-functional leadership
Strong performance management and metric discipline
Builds without disrupting what's already working

Hired into a PE-backed platform or roll-up to integrate operations across acquired businesses. Carries M&A integration experience and operational standardization instincts.

Has led at least three platform or roll-up integrations
Comfortable with post-acquisition cultural integration
Strong operational standardization instincts
Builds the operating model the platform actually needs

Hired into a growth-stage or B2B company where the seat carries GTM operations, customer success, and commercial alignment. The archetype most often rebuilding the revenue-operations stack around AI, where the automation mandate in a COO seat is most real today.

Has scaled commercial operations through 5x to 10x revenue growth
Comfortable owning sales operations, customer success, and pricing
Strong CRO and CFO partnership instincts
Builds without absorbing the CRO or CFO mandates

Sample of our work

In their words

What clients say after the placement.

1 / 4

“

They all did what they said they would do in a prompt, professional way. The entire team was top notch.

Transportation & Logistics

CEO

“

I appreciate the accessibility and communication that I had with the team. I felt a true partnership with Heidi, and Alexis. I look forward to working with them again.

Process Manufacturing

Chief Human Resource Officer

“

Excellent team and Kevin really knows the market. Highly responsive to all forms of communication and build excellent relationships with their candidates to ensure a smooth process

CPG - Packaging, Paper & Plastics

Chief People Officer

Ready when you are

Hire the COO who controls the operating engine.

Tell us about your stage, your operating complexity, and what the next 18 months of cross-functional work look like. A partner reads every inbound.

85% of clients search with us again

4.9 / 5 client satisfaction rating

Partner-led from kickoff to close

98% placement rate

Common Questions

What leaders may ask before a search

What is the difference between a COO and a President?

A COO usually has operational scope without P&L ownership. A President usually has full operational P&L. The titles get used interchangeably, but the seats are different. Picking the right title and scope is what we calibrate in the beginning.

How is a PE-backed COO different from a public-company COO?

A PE COO operates against the value-creation plan and the exit thesis. A public-co COO operates against board cadence and operational consistency. Both need cross-functional credibility. The optics requirements differ.

How is the corporate mandate for a modern Chief Operating Officer changing in 2026?

he traditional COO profile focused purely on static baseline efficiency is declining in favor of specialized, transformational leaders. The modern enterprise standard prioritizes COOs who act as architects of cross-functional integration, commercial operations, and predictive automation infrastructure rather than legacy general managers.

The COO who makes the business run

Chief Operating Officer
executive search

Three jobs under one title

The right COO starts with
the right spec

Meet the experts

What clients say after the placement.

Related searches for the same leadership teams

By Industry

By Role & Function

Other

Companies trust ON Partners

Leaders recently placed

DecisionHR Hires New Chief Revenue Officer

Power Integrations Appoints New Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Safe Software Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

Ready Rebound Appoints New President and Chief Revenue Officer

Wagepoint Names New Chief Commercial Officer

Diebold Nixdorf Appoints New Chief Information Officer

Hire the COO who controls the operating engine.

What leaders may ask before a search

The COO who makes the business run

Chief Operating Officer executive search

Three jobs under one title

The right COO starts withthe right spec

Meet the experts

What clients say after the placement.

Related searches for the same leadership teams

By Industry

By Role & Function

Other

Companies trust ON Partners

Leaders recently placed

DecisionHR Hires New Chief Revenue Officer

Power Integrations Appoints New Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Safe Software Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

Ready Rebound Appoints New President and Chief Revenue Officer

Wagepoint Names New Chief Commercial Officer

Diebold Nixdorf Appoints New Chief Information Officer

Hire the COO who controls the operating engine.

What leaders may ask before a search

Chief Operating Officer
executive search

The right COO starts with
the right spec