Executive recruitment for consumer brands
COO Executive Search
for DTC and Consumer Brands
Most COO searches start with a title and no mandate. We define what the role owns first, then introduce operators who have built operations teams and hit their numbers at consumer brands from $3M to $150M+.
First interviews in 10 business days. Retained model.
Successful placements at top ecommerce and consumer brands
COO vs. VP of operations vs. chief of staff
Similar scope on an org chart, three different hires. What separates them is which parts of the operating P&L move to this person and which stay with you.
Get it wrong and the search fails in one of two ways. You hire a chief of staff when you needed someone to own the operating P&L and the team, or you hire a COO when you needed someone to run the founder's operating cadence.
We settle the scope on the intake call, before we contact any candidates.
Why COO searches stall at consumer brands
Most COO searches stall because operations touches everything, so nobody defines what success looks like.
Six problems come up most often.
Title set before the mandate
You are hiring a COO, but the job description reads like a VP of operations, a head of supply chain, and a chief of staff combined. Without scope discipline you pay C-suite salaries for functional work.
Enterprise operations pedigree, no DTC P&L
The candidate ran operations at a national retailer. They speak fluently about network design and vendor management. They have never owned gross margin on a physical product with duty exposure, returns, and inventory sitting in three nodes.
No KPIs for the seat
Operations touches everything, so nobody writes the scorecard. Without KPIs for the COO and their team, you judge the hire on feel.
Founder keeps the decision rights
You hire a COO to own operations, then keep supplier relationships, pricing calls, and final approval on every 3PL decision. The role shrinks to project management and your new executive leaves inside 18 months.
No org chart under the seat
A COO needs supply chain, fulfillment, and CX leads, each with clear KPIs. If those seats are empty, year one goes to building them.
Scoped against the wrong compensation benchmark
Founders anchor on published COO salary data drawn from public companies, then either overpay for the wrong profile or lowball and screen out every operator worth talking to.
According to Crist Kolder Associates, 73% of COO departures at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies in 2024 left the seat vacant rather than refilled. At that level the role is often absorbed. At a $50M consumer brand it cannot be, because the work does not go away.
First interviews in days, not weeks
Which operations leadership tier does your brand need?
Revenue stage, the team the hire inherits, and what they answer for tell you more than the title does.
What a great DTC COO looks like
At this level, the job is the system: how the org chart is built, which KPIs each lead owns, and whether the team hits them. We vet for that record first and the title history second.
What separates a good COO from a great one at a consumer brand
How a COO strengthens the team you already have
A strong COO changes how the operators below them spend their week.
Your supply chain lead stops firefighting
Purchase decisions arrive with reasoning attached instead of getting relitigated every time a container is late.
CX stops absorbing operational failure
Fulfillment problems get fixed upstream, so support stops hearing about them first.
Finance gets a forecast it can use
Inventory commitments and landed cost assumptions reach your CFO before the money is spent, not after.
What a COO costs at a DTC or CPG brand
Most published COO salary data describes public companies.
For a $50M consumer brand, it points you at the wrong number.
A more useful reference point is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median wage for general and operations managers was $105,770 and the 90th percentile reached $346,810. Chief executives sat at a $213,990 median with the top 10% above $507,730. A DTC COO with genuine P&L scope belongs in the upper part of that first band and often above it, not at the median.
Geography moves the number more than most founders expect.
For a COO search, the 90th percentile column is the one that matters. At that level, New York pays $143,540 more than Salt Lake City. A brand in a lower-cost metro hiring New York talent should budget for that gap, and a remote or relocation-open search puts more operators in range. On a call, we share how base, bonus, and equity are split for consumer brand operations leaders at your stage.
Our COO executive search process
1 Client Intake Call
Our recruitment process starts with a structured intake that scopes the role before sourcing begins. That means settling which version of the seat you need: a head of operations running fulfillment directly, a VP of operations owning the function and the team, a COO carrying the operating P&L, or a president with a full business mandate. Then we get specific about what transfers with the title. Supplier relationships, pricing authority, budget, and hiring rights either move to this hire or stay with you, and the search changes completely depending on which.
We map your setup: revenue stage, 3PL and freight partners, manufacturing footprint, the operators already in seats, the planning systems they inherit, and the growth plan you are hiring against. You bring the business context. We architect the executive hiring profile around it, in writing, before a single candidate is contacted.
2 First Interviews in 5 Days
Within 10 business days we present a vetted shortlist of operations executives screened against the brief we agreed on. We evaluate each profile for earned P&L ownership and KPI attainment across the teams they led, over headcount managed, for the tier we scoped, and for a track record at a consumer brand at your stage.
We prioritize operators who have owned gross margin on a physical product. A playbook built in enterprise retail or B2B distribution rarely carries over. We source through our executive network. That is how we reach passive candidates: sitting COOs at recognized DTC and CPG brands who are employed and not looking.
3 Weekly Refinement
Executive searches move as your read on the role sharpens. We provide a shared portal to track candidates, feedback, and interview stages in one place, and run weekly calls to recalibrate rather than going quiet for a month and reappearing with a longlist.
Each week we tighten the profile based on what the interviews surfaced. Founders often discover in interview three that they scoped the role one tier too high or too low. That is a normal outcome, and catching it in week two costs far less than catching it after an offer.
4 White-Glove Talent Solutions
We schedule interviews across your leadership team and run structured reference checks with former direct reports as well as former bosses. Those direct-report calls test cultural fit better than a panel interview, because they show how the candidate leads when nobody senior is watching. The leadership assessment uses your own business problems. For a COO search, the candidate works through your network design and margin position.
We run compensation negotiation as an intermediary, so you and your incoming COO never haggle directly in the final week. We stay involved through onboarding so the hire ramps into the operations team instead of around it.
COO and operations leadership placements
Why consumer brands choose Constant Hire for executive recruitment
DTC, ecommerce, and CPG only
We recruit for DTC, ecommerce, and CPG brands only. Generalist firms fit consumer in around healthcare, financial services, and automotive.
Consumer brand operating depth
Our recruiting team works with 7-, 8-, and 9-figure consumer brands. We know the difference between a COO who scaled a Shopify brand through a tariff shock and an operations director from a national retailer.
The deepest executive network in consumer brands
We know sitting COOs and VPs of operations across DTC and CPG personally. Founders come to us for introductions they cannot make themselves.
Shortlist in 10 business days
We present a vetted shortlist within 10 business days of kickoff. Most placements close within 45 to 60 days. Generalist firms typically take 90 to 120 days.
How Constant Hire compares to other COO search options
Most COO recruiters fall into one of two camps:
large generalist firms or in-house talent teams stretched across every function.
Founders rarely hire an executive search firm for extra screening hours. They hire one for access. The COO you need is employed somewhere, outside your network, and not answering recruiter InMail. We have the deepest network in consumer brands executive search: 1,000+ senior operators we know personally, including sitting COOs and VPs of operations.
What DTC experts are saying about us.
If you're looking for a bad ass recruiter for roles like Head of Growth, Director of Performance Creative, Ops, he's your guy.
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What does a COO executive search firm do?
COO executive search is a retained recruiting service that helps consumer brands hire a chief operating officer by sourcing and vetting passive candidates: employed operators who are not applying to roles. A specialist firm also scopes the mandate first, defining what the COO owns before sourcing starts, which is where most searches are won or lost.
When should a DTC or CPG brand hire a COO?
Usually between $50M and $150M in revenue. The clearest trigger is a founder who still arbitrates between supply chain, CX, and finance every week. Below $50M, a VP of operations usually fits better, and below $15M a head of operations or fractional COO does.
Is a COO higher than a VP of operations?
Yes. A COO is a C-suite executive who sits alongside the CFO and CMO, owns the operating P&L, and has VPs or directors reporting to them. A VP of operations owns execution and the functional plan, and usually reports to the COO or the founder.
Is a chief of staff the same as a COO?
No. A chief of staff extends the founder's reach by running the operating cadence, tracking company KPIs, and preparing board materials, usually with few or no direct reports. A COO owns the operating P&L, designs the org chart, and manages the leaders who hit the KPIs. Many brands hire a chief of staff first and a COO later.
What is a typical COO salary at a consumer brand?
BLS data for May 2025 puts general and operations managers at a $105,770 national median and $346,810 at the 90th percentile, rising to $364,770 at the 90th percentile in New York. A DTC COO with real P&L ownership belongs in the upper part of that range. Public company benchmarks describe a different job.
How much does a COO executive search cost?
Executive search services are typically priced as a percentage of first-year compensation, paid in stages across the search. That structure is standard across the industry. What varies is how much scoping work happens before sourcing, and whether senior people stay involved after kickoff.
Who are the big 5 executive search firms?
Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Egon Zehnder. They are the right choice for a public company board search. For a $30M to $150M consumer brand they are usually the wrong fit: the fee assumes enterprise scale, and the consultant running your search is rarely someone who has placed into a DTC operating model.
How long does a COO executive search usually take?
Generalist firms typically take 90 to 120 days from kickoff to placement. We present a vetted shortlist within 10 business days, and most of our placements close within 45 to 60 days.
Should we hire a full-time, interim, or fractional COO?
Full-time when the operating model needs to be built and owned permanently. Interim when you have a gap during a transition or an acquisition. Fractional when the work is real but part-time, typically under $15M in revenue or when a founder needs structure without a C-suite salary.
What should companies look for in a COO during an executive search?
Look for a COO who has designed an org chart for the next revenue stage, set KPIs for every operations lead, and built a leadership team that hits them. Ask what they discontinued last year and what it did to gross margin. Enterprise operations experience alone rarely transfers to a DTC mandate.
What should I look for in a COO executive search firm?
Look for COO recruiters with category depth before firm size. Ask how many operations leadership roles they filled at consumer brands in the last 12 months, which tier they think you need and why, and whether the person who pitched you runs the search day to day.
Let's find the COO
your brand needs to scale
then put qualified operations executives on your calendar in 10 business days.
15-30 minutes • No Obligation • First interviews in 10 business days • Retained model