Chief Operating Officer

Company: Input Output
Location: Denver, US
Employment Type: Full-time

Job Purpose

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is the operational leader of Input Output (IO) and the CEO's peer on running the company. The role owns the business infrastructure that makes everything else possible, including how IO plans, decides, measures, delivers, and improves as an organisation. IO is moving from a centralised operating model to one where business units have greater autonomy, supported by shared enterprise infrastructure. The COO leads that transition, replacing informal, person-dependent processes with adaptive, AI-enabled systems that scale.

Key Responsibilities

Running the Company

• Own IO's operational model, including the structures, systems, and rhythms that keep the organisation coherent across business units and geographies
• Build the frameworks that enable functional autonomy while maintaining enterprise-wide alignment
• Serve as the primary operational decision-maker for the company, with a clear view of what is happening, what is stuck, and what needs to change
• Manage IO's Book of Work, including what is in flight, what is next, what is blocked, and what needs to stop
• Lead the Executive Committee, driving the operating cadence of the executive team, including agenda, decisions, and follow-through
• Set the meeting philosophy for the executive team: meetings exist to answer why IO is not hitting its KPIs, and what remedy needs to be installed
• Partner with the CEO to agree the internal communications strategy, including how change is explained and adopted across the company

Business Operating System

• Own the design and deployment of IO's business operating system, including the frameworks, workflows, metrics, and governance structures that enable the organisation to run at scale without person-dependency
• Partner with the Business Operating System Design team to ensure the operating model is built for adoption
• Lead the transition from informal processes to systematic, AI-enabled infrastructure, replacing individual expertise with scalable, institutional knowledge
• Ensure the operating system continuously adapts through feedback loops and AI-driven insights

Metrics, KPIs, and Performance Management

• Identify the metrics that matter for the survival and success of the business, and build the operating system tuned to those metrics
• Set the KPI framework across the organisation, including how KPIs are defined, cascaded, measured, and reviewed
• Ensure decisions are grounded in measurement, and hold executive peers and function leaders accountable for the metrics in their domain
• Drive continuous improvement through visible, quantitative signals rather than opinion or narrative

Supporting the Engineering and Delivery Rebuild

• Support the CTO in the rebuild of IO's engineering and delivery organisation, providing the operational scaffolding, governance, and enterprise services required
• Partner with the CTO to help import the operating disciplines of elite software companies, including delivery discipline, product-engineering collaboration, and technical hiring standards
• Partner with the CTO and the Chief People Officer on technical headcount strategy and workforce planning
• Support the integration of engineering velocity and delivery metrics into IO's performance management framework

Enterprise Services

• Drive the Enterprise Services model, ensuring People, ICT, Finance, and Legal operate as a coherent, SLA-driven internal service capability
• Set service standards and performance expectations across enterprise functions, and hold function leaders accountable for delivery
• Own contracts management, procurement, and vendor strategy at the enterprise level, including major supplier relationships
• Own enterprise facilities, workplace, and remote-first operations

AI-Native Operations

• Set IO's strategy for how AI is used across the business, partnering with the VP of AI and Data to build AI-first workflows across operations
• Own the workforce architecture model, including where AI agents operate, where humans direct, and how that balance evolves
• Apply cybernetic principles, including feedback loops, requisite variety, and distributed control, to real operational problems
• Champion IO as a demonstration case for what an AI-enabled organisation can achieve

People, Culture, and Talent

• Work with the Chief People Officer (CPO) to ensure IO attracts, develops, and retains the talent it needs to execute its mission
• Partner with the CEO and CPO on organisational design decisions
• Partner with the CPO to oversee compensation frameworks, performance management, and enterprise learning and development
• Drive a culture of accountability, psychological safety, and continuous improvement
• Champion leadership excellence across the functions in the COO's remit

Finance, Legal, and Risk Stewardship

• Hold group-level budget authority across the functions in the COO's remit, ensuring resources are always allocated to strategic priorities
• Partner with the CFO to deliver rigorous annual and quarterly planning and performance management