A chief operating officer runs the day-to-day operation of a home service business: scheduling, field crews, service quality, safety, and the numbers that show whether jobs get done well and on time. The COO turns the CEO's plan into the systems every branch and crew follows, and fixes the system when the same problem keeps coming back.
Chief Operating Officer · Any home service business · Word (.docx) · No email needed.
Chief Operating Officer job description template
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[Company name] · [City, State]
Chief Operating Officer
[Full-time / part-time] · [Base pay range and pay period] · Reports to [chief executive officer or owner]
Position summary
As chief operating officer of [Company name], you'll run the work: how calls are scheduled, how crews are staffed and trained, how finished jobs are checked, and how safely the field works. The managers who run [service, install and dispatch] report to you, and you build the systems and standards they follow every day.
What you’ll do
Lead the [service, install and dispatch] managers, and set the goals and standards each team works to.
Build and own the operating playbook: how jobs are booked, scheduled, completed, checked and closed in [your field service software].
Plan field capacity with the CEO and HR: how many technicians and crews each season needs, and when to hire and train them.
Set the operating budget with the Chief Financial Officer, and hold managers to labor, overtime, fleet and materials targets.
Own the safety program, including crew training, incident reviews and the reports regulators require after a serious injury.
Choose and roll out operating tools, such as scheduling, routing, fleet tracking and inventory systems.
Find the root cause when callbacks, complaints or missed appointments repeat, and change the process so they stop.
A typical day
Review yesterday's completed jobs, callbacks, open appointments and overtime by team.
Meet with the service, install and dispatch managers on staffing gaps and jobs at risk.
Ride along or visit job sites to check workmanship, safety and whether the playbook holds up.
Settle customer complaints and cross-team problems that a manager could not resolve.
Check next week's schedule against crew capacity, weather and parts on hand.
What you need
[8+] years of operations leadership in field service, construction or another multi-crew business, including [3+] years leading managers.
Has built schedules, staffing plans and procedures that more than one team or location used.
Runs the operation from data: completed jobs, callbacks, labor hours and customer ratings.
Working knowledge of workplace safety rules for field crews, including OSHA injury records and reporting.
Bachelor's degree in business, operations or a related field, or equal experience.
Nice to have
Experience as a COO, vice president of operations or general manager in a home service business.
Has rolled out field service, routing or fleet software across a company.
Has opened a new branch or brought a newly bought company onto shared systems.
Background as a technician, crew lead or service manager in [your trade].
Physical requirements
Walk job sites, shops and warehouses during visits, including outdoor sites in any weather.
Drive between branches and job sites [several days a week].
With or without reasonable accommodation.
Schedule and work environment
Based at [the main office or shop], with frequent time in the field.
Longer days during [your peak season], with some early mornings and weekends.
Part of the leadership on-call rotation for field emergencies, serious injuries and equipment failures.
Pay and benefits
Base pay: [range and hourly or salary basis]. Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when eligibility starts].
How to apply
Apply at [application link]. Our process is [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
How the chief operating officer role changes by industry
Every COO owns how the work gets done. What the work looks like changes by industry: crews and routes in pest control, insurance jobs in restoration, stores and a warehouse in retail, practices and a call center in dental. Each industry's Role Blueprint names the systems that COO has to build and run.
Keeps restoration projects on schedule, enforces local, state and federal compliance, and joins after-hours on-call support during major restoration events.
Runs everything behind the sale, including the warehouse, online fulfillment, store leases and core systems, while a store operations director runs the stores.
Choose the measures your managers can move, and base each target on your own job history and seasons.
Jobs completed on the scheduled day: [your target].
Callbacks or rework visits: [your target].
Labor cost against budget by team: [your target].
Customer review rating by branch or team: [your target].
Recordable injuries: [your target].
Technician and crew turnover: [your target].
Before you hire a chief operating officer
Draw the line with the CEO first. Write down who owns pricing, manager hires and spending above a set limit. When the CEO and COO both think a decision is theirs, managers get two answers.
Look for systems, not heroics. Ask finalists about a problem that kept coming back and what they changed so it stopped. A COO who fixes every fire in person becomes the new bottleneck.
Test them on a bad week. Hand finalists a sample schedule with two call-outs, a storm and an angry commercial customer. Ask what they would change today, and what they would change in the process afterward.
Let the field weigh in. Have a senior technician or crew lead sit in on one interview. Their read on whether the candidate understands the work is worth hearing.
Say which systems need work. Candidates want to know whether they will run your field service and routing software as it stands or replace it. Tell them which tools stay and which projects are already planned.
When applications come in, Iris interviews applicants by phone using your requirements. Your team reviews the answers and decides who to meet.
Chief Operating Officer job description FAQ
What does a chief operating officer do?
A COO runs the daily operation. In a home service business, that covers scheduling, crew staffing, service quality, safety, and the cost of labor, trucks and materials. The COO writes the procedures every team follows, leads the managers who carry them out, and reports operating results to the CEO.
When does a home service business need a COO?
Usually when the owner is still the person who settles every scheduling, crew and customer problem, and growth has stalled because of it. A COO takes over the day-to-day so the owner or CEO can work on strategy, money and the next market. With one location and a strong operations manager, you may not need one yet.
What is the difference between a COO and an operations manager?
An operations manager runs the work at one location or for one team, week to week. A COO owns the system across the company: the procedures, the operating budget, the software and the managers themselves. In smaller companies one person can do both, so your job description should say which job you're hiring for.
How much does a chief operating officer make?
BLS doesn't publish a separate pay figure for COOs; O*NET lists the title under chief executives. That group's U.S. median pay in May 2025 was $213,990 a year ($102.88 an hour), from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. It covers every industry, not only home service businesses.
What safety reports should a COO know about?
Under federal OSHA rules, an employer must report a work-related death within 8 hours, and a work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Crashes on public roads outside a construction work zone don't have to be reported, though they may still belong in your injury records. States that run their own OSHA plan can set their own reporting rules. The COO should make sure every field manager knows who makes that call and how.
What should a chief operating officer job description include?
Who the COO reports to and which managers report to the COO, how many locations, crews and trucks you run, and which systems are in place today. Add the operating goals for the first year, such as fewer callbacks or a new branch, plus travel, on-call duty, and how salary and bonus work.
Is the HireBus Role Blueprint free?
Yes. Copy the template from this page at no cost, or download the Word file without giving an email. If your trade has its own version listed here, it's a closer starting point.
HireBus Role Blueprints: 75 industry versions of the chief operating officer job description, reviewed for publication on October 20, 2026.
BLS pay and O*NET outlook figures cover the whole chief executives group, COOs included, in every industry, not only home service businesses. Chief operating officers fall under O*NET's chief executives group, which counted 291,600 workers in 2025 and expects average growth (3% to 4%) from 2025 to 2035, with an average of about 19,100 openings each year.
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