The Modern COO Benchmark 2026
Is it just you, or is it the job? Now you can check.
Most operations leaders measure their role against a sample size of one: their own career. So we asked nearly 300 of them what the job actually involves.
The first Modern COO Benchmark is out: what operations leaders own, where their week goes, where they stand with the CEO and what they think AI should never touch.
Launch checklist
5 of 6 done
When nobody owns it, ops does.
That’s the headline. Here’s what’s behind it.
You’ve been asking | What nearly 300 operations leaders told us |
Is my remit normal? | There is no normal. The median operations leader owns 10 of 27 business functions, and the range runs from 1 to 23. |
Who picks up what nobody owns? | You do. When something important falls between teams, 74% say it lands on them. Not one said another function usually takes it. |
Did anyone plan this? | Mostly not. 71% grew into the role. Only 20% set out to build a career in operations. |
Where does my week actually go? | Firefighting. 67% name it among their top three time sinks. 72% want more time for strategic planning; only 11% say it’s one of the things filling their week. |
Where do I stand with the CEO? | The seat follows the title. 74% report straight to the CEO, but only 36% call it a true partnership. In companies under 51 people, COOs are nearly twice as likely as Heads of Operations to be partners (53% vs 28%). |
Should I own the AI? | It’s on the list, not in the work. Three in four put AI in their top three priorities or investments. 72% have no part of operations running mostly on it. |
Is there a stake in this for me? | The scheme is often there. 58% work somewhere that offers an employee share scheme. Whether they hold a stake themselves is on the list for 2027. |
When we say COO, we mean operations leaders broadly: COOs, Heads of Operations, Operations Directors, VPs of Operations and Chiefs of Staff.
Don’t just read it. Use it.
A benchmark earns its keep when it changes a conversation.
Three places to start, straight from the report.
→ Find your row. Count your functions against the 27 (14 or more puts you in the broadest quarter), find your title and company size in the report’s benchmark table, and take both to your next conversation about scope or title.
→ Make prevention visible. The fire gets noticed; the fire that never started doesn’t. Report the fires that didn’t start the way you’d report the ones that did.
→ Decide where the AI day goes before it arrives. The leaders already using AI told us the time went somewhere else.
Sales has benchmarks. Engineering has benchmarks. Ops has a group chat. Now it has both.
Launched ON 21 October
We launched the report in Farringdon, London, in a room full of the people it’s about. Thank you to everyone who came, to Work.Life for hosting, and to our panel for a properly good conversation: the founder, investor and operator views on the findings, with Ben Gateley moderating.
Missed it? The recording is coming soon. Subscribe to the newsletter and we’ll send it straight to you.
Built with Vestd
This benchmark exists because of Vestd, who analysed the data and produced the report. Thank you to the whole Vestd team for backing it from the first question to the last chart, and for their patience with all the back-and-forth.
Vestd is the share scheme and equity management platform helping startups and scaleups give their people a real stake in what they’re building.
Thinking about a share scheme for your team? Talk to Vestd.
With thanks
London COO Roundtable
The UK’s first community for COOs, founded by Divinia Knowles 15 years ago. The Roundtable shared the survey with its members and helped us reach more of the operations leaders in this benchmark.
Divinia Knowles
COO coach, Managing Partner at Daijo and founder of the London COO Roundtable. Her commentary runs alongside the findings, and each note ends with a question to take to your CEO.
Milly Barker
Founder of Pay As You Go COO. Milly wrote the commentary on the fractional view, including why feast-or-famine income is a packaging problem, not a demand problem.
“Hand most ops leaders an empty Tuesday and the fires would find it by lunchtime.” Divinia Knowles, in her commentary on Chapter 5
And to every operations leader who took the survey, and the 24 who joined our roundtables: this report exists because you did.
Good to know
Compare notes every week, not once a year
The benchmark is the annual snapshot. Operations Nation is where 800+ COOs, Heads of Operations and Chiefs of Staff across 40+ countries compare notes the rest of the time, through events and a members-only community.
Find more peers in the Ops Directory Join us at ONwrapped, 3 December