Chief Operating Officer

All Private Wealth Office Locations will be considered

Position Overview

The Chief Operating Officer is a senior executive responsible for leading the operational and investment infrastructure of a growing, multi-billion-dollar Registered Investment Advisor. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the COO will translate the firm's strategic vision into scalable processes, systems, investment capabilities, and organizational execution.

This individual will have significant experience within the RIA, wealth management, or investment management industry and possess a strong understanding of both investment operations and enterprise operations . The successful candidate will be equally comfortable evaluating portfolio and investment-platform workflows, working with advisors and investment professionals, improving technology and custodial infrastructure, and building the operating systems necessary to support continued growth.

The COO will serve as a key member of the executive leadership team and will be expected to help scale the organization while maintaining a high standard of client service, investment execution, risk management, and operational discipline.

Key Responsibilities

Investment Platform & Investment Operations

• Provide executive leadership and oversight of the firm's investment operating platform, working closely with the CIO, investment team, advisors, and operations professionals.
• Maintain a strong working knowledge of portfolio management, trading, rebalancing, model portfolios, separately managed accounts, alternative investments, fixed income, cash management, and other investment solutions utilized by sophisticated wealth management clients.
• Ensure investment strategies approved by the investment function can be implemented efficiently and consistently across client accounts.
• Oversee investment-related workflows including account implementation, trading, rebalancing, restrictions, cash management, manager implementation, billing inputs, and portfolio reporting.
• Evaluate and improve the firm's investment technology stack and integration between portfolio management, trading, reporting, custodial, CRM, and financial planning systems.
• Partner with the CIO and investment leadership to improve the scalability of the firm's investment platform as AUM, advisors, offices, and investment complexity increase.
• Develop operational capabilities to support increasingly sophisticated HNW and UHNW client relationships.
• Maintain strong relationships with custodians, asset managers, SMA providers, alternative investment platforms, technology providers, and other strategic partners.

Enterprise Operations & Scalability

• Lead the firm's day-to-day operating infrastructure and establish scalable processes capable of supporting significant continued growth in AUM, revenue, clients, advisors, and locations.
• Translate strategic objectives established by the CEO and executive leadership team into measurable operating plans and execution.
• Establish clear operating procedures, service standards, accountability structures, and performance metrics across the organization.
• Identify operational bottlenecks, unnecessary complexity, capacity constraints, and key-person dependencies and develop solutions before they constrain growth.
• Create consistent operating standards across offices and advisory teams while preserving appropriate flexibility for client and advisor needs.
• Develop capacity planning and organizational infrastructure to support future growth.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives using data, workflow analysis, automation, and technology.

Advisor & Client Service Operations

• Ensure advisors and client service teams have the infrastructure, technology, processes, and resources necessary to deliver an exceptional client experience.
• Establish consistent standards for client onboarding, account opening, money movement, service requests, investment implementation, reporting, and other core workflows.
• Develop service models that allow advisors to spend more time advising clients and developing relationships while centralized teams and technology handle repeatable operational functions.
• Establish service-level expectations and metrics to measure operational quality, responsiveness, accuracy, and efficiency.
• Partner with advisory leadership to identify opportunities to improve advisor productivity and client capacity.

Technology, Data & Automation

• Own or provide executive oversight of the firm's operational technology strategy.
• Evaluate technology based on its ability to improve advisor productivity, client experience, investment execution, operational efficiency, data quality, and enterprise scalability.
• Drive integration across the firm's CRM, portfolio management, trading, financial planning, reporting, custodial, document management, workflow, and business intelligence platforms.
• Champion responsible implementation of automation and artificial intelligence where these technologies can meaningfully improve productivity or client service.
• Establish strong data governance and reporting capabilities that provide leadership with reliable information for decision-making.

Risk, Compliance & Controls

• Partner closely with the Chief Compliance Officer and other leaders to ensure operating processes support the firm's fiduciary and regulatory obligations.
• Maintain appropriate segregation of duties, supervisory controls, documentation, approval processes, and operational risk management.
• Identify operational risks associated with growth, technology, vendors, investment implementation, cybersecurity, business continuity, and organizational complexity.
• Support regulatory examinations, internal reviews, vendor due diligence, and enterprise risk-management initiatives.

Growth, Integration & Strategic Initiatives

• Build an operating platform capable of supporting both organic and inorganic growth.
• Participate in operational due diligence for acquisitions, advisor recruiting opportunities, strategic partnerships, and new business lines.
• Develop repeatable processes for onboarding and integrating new advisors, teams, offices, clients, assets, and acquired businesses.
• Evaluate the operational and investment implications of strategic initiatives before implementation.
• Partner with executive leadership on annual planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and long-term capacity planning.

Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead and develop high-performing operational and investment-support teams.
• Establish clear roles, decision rights, accountability, and performance expectations.
• Recruit and develop leaders capable of managing increasingly complex functions as the organization grows.
• Create a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration, and client service.
• Serve as a trusted partner to the CEO, CIO, CCO, advisors, and other members of executive leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience within an RIA, wealth management firm, investment management organization, family office, broker-dealer, or similar financial services organization.
• Significant experience within a Registered Investment Advisor environment strongly preferred .
• Demonstrated leadership experience supporting a large and/or rapidly growing wealth management organization.
• Strong knowledge of investment management and investment operations, including portfolio implementation, trading, rebalancing, investment vehicles, custodial platforms, and portfolio reporting.
• Strong understanding of RIA operations, including client onboarding, account administration, billing, money movement, custodial processes, advisor workflows, and client service.
• Demonstrated ability to build scalable processes and organizational infrastructure.
• Experience implementing or optimizing wealth-management technology platforms and workflow automation.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and developing senior leaders.
• Strong understanding of the regulatory and fiduciary environment applicable to SEC-registered investment advisers.
• Experience with M&A, advisor recruiting, office expansion, or integration of acquired advisory practices is highly desirable.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree and/or relevant professional designations preferred.

Leadership Profile

The ideal COO combines the mindset of an operator, investment professional, and enterprise leader .

This individual should be:

• Investment fluent: Able to engage credibly with CIOs, portfolio managers, advisors, asset managers, and sophisticated clients regarding investment implementation and platform capabilities.
• Operationally rigorous: Naturally focused on process, controls, efficiency, accountability, and measurable execution.
• Scalability oriented: Able to distinguish between processes that work at $3 billion and infrastructure capable of supporting a substantially larger organization.
• Technology forward: Comfortable challenging legacy processes and using technology, automation, data, and AI to improve the operating model.
• Advisor focused: Understands that operational infrastructure should increase advisor capacity rather than create administrative burden.
• Client centered: Recognizes that operational excellence ultimately exists to improve the client experience.
• Commercially minded: Understands the economics of an RIA and how operational decisions affect margins, growth, advisor productivity, and enterprise value.
• Collaborative: Able to operate effectively alongside strong executive leaders without creating unnecessary organizational silos.
• Execution oriented: Capable of moving from strategy to implementation and establishing accountability for results.