Chief of Staff to the COO

About the role

The is a high-impact leadership position designed for an operator who thrives in the intersection of strategy and execution. This individual will own the end-to-end management of large-scale, firm-wide initiatives that are critical to Cfgi's growth phase, ensuring that complex programs move from design to delivery without friction. The role demands exceptional judgment and executive presence, as the hire will be the primary operational arm of the Chief Operating Officer in driving outcomes across a Partner-led, matrixed environment. You will architect and manage the very infrastructure that allows the firm to scale while preserving its culture and quality standards. This is a hybrid role blending project leadership, organizational design, and change management, focused on making the COO more effective and the firm more cohesive. Success in this position will be defined by your ability to unblock priorities, synthesize ambiguity, and deliver tangible results for the leadership team. You will also be instrumental in shaping how AI is adopted, governed, and scaled, ensuring that technology investments translate into real business value.

Key facts

What you'll do

You will lead the end-to-end execution of large, complex enterprise initiatives that cut across practices, functions, and geographies, requiring senior stakeholder engagement and consensus building. You will drive accountability and momentum for initiative owners and Partners who lack direct line authority, triaging risks, resolving blockers, and securing decisions from the COO when necessary. You will serve as the COO's trusted proxy in executive meetings, working sessions, and cross-functional forums, representing the COO's positions with clarity, confidence, and precision. You will structure ambiguous problems, build the analytical frameworks that underpin major decisions, and synthesize the materials required to present recommendations to the co-CEOs and the Board. You will close decisions independently within a defined scope, escalating only when necessary with a clear recommendation and trade-off analysis. You will design, own, and refine the COO's operating cadence, including priorities, meeting rhythms, decision cycles, and stakeholder communications to ensure alignment and velocity. You will prepare concise, direct executive briefings, Board materials, and co-CEO updates that require minimal editing and convey critical insights efficiently. You will manage the COO's bandwidth by triaging incoming demands, filtering noise, and determining when the COO must be present versus when empowered teams can proceed without oversight. You will act as the COO's intelligence layer across the firm, attending key meetings, synthesizing input from Partners, practice leaders, and office staff, and surfacing patterns and sentiment that inform leadership decisions. You will drive operational infrastructure improvements across the firm, including standard operating procedures, reporting systems, process discipline, and governance frameworks that create a cohesive backbone for the business. You will partner closely with functional leaders such as the CHRO, CCO, practice leaders, and Office Managing Partners to ensure operational alignment on people, client, and delivery issues. You will support the design and rollout of the firm's office operating model, Partner performance systems, and pricing governance to create consistency and clarity across the network. You will identify systemic operational gaps before they become material risks and build the business case for structural fixes that protect the firm's long-term health. You will 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 during a period of significant growth and change. You will lead on behalf of the COO in driving the firmwide AI agenda, tracking commitments, following through on decisions, and ensuring that workstreams move with urgency and clear accountability. You will help implement the AI governance framework operationally, covering data security policy, risk standards, human review protocols, and adoption accountability across the business. You will translate AI strategy into practice-level adoption, working with practice leaders and Office Managing Partners to identify the highest-value use cases, sequence implementation, and build internal capability to sustain it over time. You will bring personal AI fluency to the role, using AI tools daily, understanding their application in a professional services context, and representing the firm's AI agenda credibly in senior conversations with confidence.

Requirements

You must have a minimum of 5 years of total professional experience, including at least 3 years at McKinsey, Bain, or BCG or a closely comparable firm, where you demonstrated the ability to structure complex problems and operate effectively in ambiguous environments. You must have experience working in or with professional services, financial services, or PE-backed firms, as this context is critical to understanding the firm's operating dynamics and client expectations. You must have a proven track record of managing multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously without losing quality, momentum, or clarity in the face of competing demands. You must demonstrate the ability to operate at both the strategic and execution level, comfortably moving from shaping a recommendation for the Board to following through on the granular operational detail that makes it real. You must be able to earn credibility in rooms full of senior Partners and leaders without relying on hierarchical authority, instead drawing on logic, preparation, and relationship capital. You must be comfortable working across a matrixed, Partner-led organization where influence is essential and direct control over resources is limited. You must possess strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into concise, actionable narratives for senior audiences. You must be highly organized, disciplined, and rigorous in your approach to managing information, timelines, and dependencies across large programs. You must be comfortable with a high degree of ownership and ambiguity, taking initiative to define the work when the path is not clearly prescribed by existing playbooks. You must be willing to travel domestically for work as required by client needs and program demands, understanding that this role operates within a national footprint that may require temporary relocation or extended stays.

Nice to have

Prior experience implementing AI governance, adoption frameworks, or change management programs at scale within a professional services environment.

Practical notes

This is a full-time position based in the United States. The role may require domestic travel depending on client and office needs. Visa sponsorship may be considered for exceptional candidates where legally permissible. This role reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer of Cfgi.