If you’re struggling to hire a COO right now, you’re not alone. Businesses, quite simply, are not getting to the right talent. Or worse, are repelling the right talent into the hands of their competitors.
Across most industries, 2025 is shaping up to be the toughest year for operational leadership hiring since 2015 – and arguably since 2009.
The dynamics driving this are structural, not temporary. And they’re reshaping what companies need to do differently to secure transformative operational talent this coming year.
Here are the reasons behind the bottleneck:
The post-Covid leadership gap has finally hit the COO role
Through 2021-2023, organisations replaced CEOs, CFOs and Chief Product/Technology leaders at a rapid pace. COO transitions, however, were often delayed because:
- They held the organisation together during Covid
- They stabilised supply chains, operations and customer experience
- They carried responsibility for remote/hybrid change
- Boards prioritised other leadership changes first
Now in 2025, this deferral has created a backlog:
“We need a new COO… yesterday.”
But the talent market hasn’t caught up.
The job has expanded faster than the talent pool
The 2025 COO remit is bigger than ever:
- Core operations
- Digital transformation (often including AI)
- Automation & AI integration
- Data
- Driving cost efficiencies & strong commercial management
- Regulatory compliance & risk (including regulatory reporting)
- ‘Customer Experience’, which often incorporates digital and marketing
- Business, culture & operating model transformation
- Supplier performance
- Customer service & fulfilment (including supply chain and logistics)
This is no longer a single role. This is a wide variety of disciplines previously split across 3-5 functions.
Yet few COOs have been able to grow through all these domains simultaneously.
Companies want a unicorn: “Strategic, digital and operational”
2025 COOs are expected to:
- Lead large scale transformation
- Fix underperforming operations
- Deliver automation and AI integration
- Improve end to end Customer Experience
- Run ‘day-to-day’ BAU operations
- Partner with CFOs on cost reduction and deliver against aggressive targets
- Partner with CTOs on delivery
- Partner with CEOs on strategy
This is an unrealistic blend in one person. Especially in a market where the COO has been neglected.
Budgets are tight and expectations are high
Most COOs won’t move right now unless:
- The equity story is compelling and realistic
- The transformation prospect is real
- The CEO is credible
- Compensation is competitive
- Technical capability can enable innovation and digital delivery
- The board is aligned on a clear mission and values
2025 leaders are more cautious because of:
- Ever changing global political agendas and drama
- High interest rates and cost of living crisis
- Uncertain economic growth
- Regulatory pressure
- High cost of capital
- Continued layoff cycles, particularly in tech and FS
- Instability in start-up/ scale-ups
They want more certainty than what’s on offer in the current climate.
Time-to-hire has doubled
In 2019, COO appointments typically concluded in 8–12 weeks.
In 2025, the average is now 18–28 weeks; if at all!
Why?
- Poor Candidate Experience and process management
- Top talent being screened out without even a conversation with a real person
- More stakeholder involvement
- More assessment layers
- Slower CFO/CEO sign-off
- Boards wanting “one more candidate”
- Leaders counteroffered aggressively or ‘nicked’ at last minute by a ‘surprise’ organisation who just so happens to move quicker
Even when the right candidate appears, organisations move too slowly to secure them.
Internal promotions are increasingly competing with external talent
Post-Covid, many organisations:
- Upskilled other operational ‘heads’
- Hired strong transformation leads and looped in BAU with their role responsibilities
- Created ‘Operational Excellence’ roles
- Added Chief of Staff or other COO-minus-1 roles
Now boards are asking:
“Why hire externally when we can promote internally on the cheap?”
This does not create a level playing field for COOs who are invited into a process to ‘race to the bottom’ on salary expectation. Again, creating stagnation, slow decision making, and a poor candidate experience.
AI and automation have changed the COO profile
A 2025 COO must understand:
- Intelligent Automation
- Machine learning impacts on processes
- Digital operations
- AI policy and ethics
- Regulatory implications of automation
- Most effective vendor ecosystems
- Data governance
- Employee Engagement & Customer Experience technology
A lot of these skills are ‘future-skillsets’ and so this excludes a large portion of otherwise strong operations leaders.
This ‘over-specification’ is creating gridlock.
What should organisations do differently in 2026?
Define the problem, not the job title
Most organisations write a job spec that tries to boil the ocean, that even they do not understand once the finished article is produced – I’ve seen this time and time again.
Instead. Focus on the one mission the COO must solve in the first 6-12 months; creating second and third priorities beyond that.
Then hire for those skills; in that priority order.
Split the role into two if needed
If you are struggling to hire, ask:
“Are we really hiring one role or two?” or “Can we take away some of the role requirements and put them elsewhere?”
For example:
- COO + Transformation Director
- COO + Director of AI (Enablement)
- COO + Chief Risk Officer
- COO + Head of CX
This sort of realistic flexibility wins talent and keeps business momentum – which is critical in these times of rapid change.
Move faster than your competitors
Top COOs are off the market in 14–21 days if they’re actively looking.
If your process is eight weeks long, with a low-ball offer at the end as a “Thanks, we really want you on the team!”, you’re losing the market’s best.
Attract with clarity, not just compensation
Money is no longer the main driver for top talent, and high-quality COOs want:
- A clear role definition
- Decision making capability
- A strong CEO partnership
- Board alignment
- A team they can build
- A transformation story they believe in and are able to deliver
- Realistic success metrics
Clarity and values are now way more valuable than cash.
Conclusion
2025 isn’t simply a ‘difficult’ hiring year.
It’s a structural shift in what a COO is, does, and needs to be successful.
The companies that win this year will be the ones that:
- Simplify the role requirements
- Have a strong Candidate Experience (appropriate for senior leaders)
- Are prepared to move fast and make quick decisions
- Have a strong mission and values proposition
- Offer clarity and accessibility
- Are realistic with remuneration packages and required performance outputs
Those who do will secure the highest performing operational transformation leaders, while the rest of the market falls behind.
You can connect with our founder and MD Hannah Cox, and contribute your own thoughts and see those of other senior business leaders on LinkedIn here
