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Chief Operating Officer (COO) jobs: 429 open roles, pay, industries and skills

429 open Chief Operating Officer jobs (COO), taken from employers’ own career sites and checked to still be open. Also listed as Chief Operations Officer, Head of Operations. Listings that state pay show a median of $175,000 a year.

The market for Chief Operating Officer work

Every figure is counted from verified open listings. Pay is what the employer advertises for the job.

Verified open Chief Operating Officer jobs
429

Source: NextChapter, checked against employer career sites, last 7 days.

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Median pay in listings that state it
$175,000

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

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State with the most openings
California (47)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Industry hiring the most
Healthcare & Hospital Systems (31%)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Listings that are remote
25%

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

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Listings that ask for an AI skill
11%

Source: NextChapter verified openings, read in full.

What a COO does

C-suite role in Operations.

How the company runs day to day: operations, delivery, process and the cross-functional plan that turns strategy into output.

Usually reports to the CEO.

Other ways this role is written

  • COO
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Chief Operations Officer
  • Head of Operations

Listings under any of these titles are counted on this page. Assistant, associate, manager and staff titles are not.

Open Chief Operating Officer jobs

Verified against the employer’s own career site within the last week.

Showing the newest 15 of about 429 verified open jobs here. Search all jobs

Search all Chief Operating Officer jobs

COO salary

From 81 open listings that state pay. Annual, in US dollars, base pay only.

Lower quarter
$140,000
Median
$175,000
Upper quarter
$213,000

Leadership pay often includes bonus and equity that a listing does not state. Treat these figures as the floor of the conversation, not the whole package.

Best industries for COO jobs

Employers hiring the most, as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry. Median pay shown where at least 8 listings state it.

Where COO jobs are

States with the most open listings; median pay where at least 8 listings state it.

Skills COO jobs ask for

Named in the listings themselves, as a share of 97 Chief Operating Officer listings that name skills. Leadership listings name fewer skills than individual-contributor ones, so this is a signal, not a checklist.

Most named in COO listings

  1. 1. budgeting29%
  2. 2. supply chain29%
  3. 3. forecasting28%
  4. 4. strategic planning27%
  5. 5. lean26%
  6. 6. regulatory compliance24%
  7. 7. risk management22%
  8. 8. six sigma20%
  9. 9. procurement20%
  10. 10. logistics20%

Across all Operations openings

  1. 1. supply chain13%
  2. 2. procurement13%
  3. 3. logistics11%
  4. 4. project management9%
  5. 5. excel7%
  6. 6. onboarding4%
  7. 7. audit3%
  8. 8. inventory management3%
  9. 9. lean3%
  10. 10. risk management3%

AI skills for COO jobs

Specific AI skills named in the full posting text, such as prompt engineering, AI governance or an AI tool. A general mention of AI does not count.

11% of 102 open Chief Operating Officer listings ask for a specific AI skill, against 2% of all Operations openings.

AI skills named most often

  1. 1. AI tools in daily work5%
  2. 2. Model training and deep learning2%
  3. 3. LLM application engineering1%
  4. 4. AI workflow automation1%
  5. 5. AI adoption and change management1%
  6. 6. Leading AI teams1%

Do AI skills change chief operating officer pay?

For Operations roles in general, as of November 2, 2026. This is the function’s figure, not one for chief operating officer alone: one title rarely has enough listings on both sides.

Among Operations listings, those that ask for an AI skill advertise +24.8% (about $32.5k) compared with similar listings that do not, matched on level and industry.

Listings that ask for an AI skill
$160,000
median, from 523 paid listings
Listings that never mention AI
$111,500
median, from 2,344 paid listings

Advertised pay only: the midpoint of the range an employer posted, on live U.S. postings read from the full text. “Asks for an AI skill” means the posting names a specific AI skill; “no AI” means it never mentions AI. A difference in what is advertised is not a promise of what you would be paid, and it does not show that learning a skill causes a raise.

See the AI-skill pay table for every function · Check your own pay against these listings

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The Operations ladder

The same function at other levels: where this role comes from and where it leads.

All Operations jobs

Job titles under COO

The exact titles employers use, with their own job and salary pages.

Employers hiring for COO roles

  • Confidential 34
  • JRG Partners 20
  • World Business Lenders 6
  • Kimmel & Associates 5
  • VisionSpark 5
  • BridgePoint Associates 5
  • Mind Friend 5
  • DCS Asset Maintenance 4
  • Kimmel and Associates 4
  • Drg Talent Advisory Group 3
  • Viper Staffing Services 3
  • Suncap Technology 3

COO questions

What does a COO do?
How the company runs day to day: operations, delivery, process and the cross-functional plan that turns strategy into output. Usually reports to the CEO.
What does COO stand for?
COO stands for Chief Operating Officer. The same job is also written Chief Operations Officer, Head of Operations.
How many COO jobs are open?
429 verified open Chief Operating Officer jobs, each checked against the employer’s own career site within the last week.
How much does a COO make?
Among 81 open Chief Operating Officer listings that state pay, the median is $175,000 a year, and half of listings fall between $140,000 and $213,000. This is pay the employer advertises for the job, not total compensation such as bonus or equity.
Where are COO jobs?
California (47), Florida (41), New York (39), Texas (34) have the most open Chief Operating Officer listings. About 25% of listings that state a work arrangement are remote.
Which state pays a COO the most?
Of the states with enough listings that state pay, New York has the highest median at $201,500.
Which industries hire for COO roles?
Healthcare & Hospital Systems (31%), Nonprofit & Social Impact (12%), Financial Services & Banking (10%), Technology & Software (10%), as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry.
What skills do COO jobs ask for?
The skills named most often in open Chief Operating Officer listings are budgeting, supply chain, forecasting, strategic planning, lean.
Do COO jobs ask for AI skills?
11% of 102 open Chief Operating Officer listings read in full name a specific AI skill. The most common is AI tools in daily work.

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