What is a Head of Operations?
A Head of Operations owns the systems, processes, and infrastructure that allow the company to scale. They're responsible for operational efficiency across the organization — identifying bottlenecks, building workflows, managing vendor relationships, and ensuring the company can grow headcount and revenue without proportional growth in operational overhead.
At what stage should you hire a Head of Operations?
Series A through Series B, when the company is growing faster than its informal operating systems can handle. The signal: things that used to work are breaking as the team scales — hiring is chaotic, vendor relationships are ad hoc, and leadership is spending time on operational firefighting instead of strategic work.
Common titles for this role
- Head of Operations
- VP of Operations
- Director of Operations
- COO (at very early stage)
- Operations Lead
- General Manager
What does a Head of Operations do at a startup?
- Build and optimize core operating processes: finance, legal, HR, IT, and facilities workflows
- Own vendor management: evaluate, negotiate, and manage key vendor relationships
- Drive headcount planning in partnership with Finance and People
- Implement operational tooling: ERP, HRIS, financial systems, project management
- Lead cross-functional process improvement initiatives
- Support fundraising and board prep from an operational data perspective
- Manage the company's physical operations (if applicable): office, events, travel
Key skills and qualifications
- 5–10 years of operations experience at a fast-growing startup or management consulting background
- Strong process design and project management skills
- Financial literacy: comfortable with budgets, headcount models, and operational metrics
- Vendor management experience: RFPs, contract negotiation, SLA management
- Systems thinker who can identify root causes of operational inefficiency
- Comfort building processes from scratch and iterating as the company scales
Why hire your Head of Operations through RFS?
- We place operations leaders who have built company infrastructure from the ground up — not just maintained existing systems
- 29-day average time to hire — operations roles are hard to backfill once things are breaking
- Pre-vetted for startup fit: candidates with consulting or high-growth startup backgrounds
- 300+ placements across operations, finance, and executive functions at VC-backed companies
- No upfront fees — contingency model aligns our incentives with finding the right fit
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