An excavation chief operating officer owns how the fleet and crews work on every site: how hard the machines run, how haul roads and cuts are set up, and what operators do before they climb in. They answer to the CEO for injuries, utility strikes and idle machine hours across the company.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, other specialty trade contractors · BLS, May 2025
The Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Excavation & Site Work will lead daily heavy equipment operations, drive operational excellence, and ensure top-tier safety standards. This role is key to maximizing efficiency, managing resources effectively, and steering the company towards growth and profitability within the home services industry.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Oversee day-to-day excavation and site work operations to ensure efficiency and quality.
Develop and implement operational policies, protocols, and best practices.
Ensure strict adherence to safety regulations and industry standards.
Collaborate with senior leadership to set strategic goals and monitor performance.
Optimize resource allocation, including personnel and heavy equipment, to meet project timelines.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Conduct morning briefings and daily operational reviews with field teams.
Monitor heavy equipment performance and schedule regular maintenance checks.
Liaise with project managers and site supervisors to resolve operational challenges.
Analyze operational data to identify trends and drive benefit-focused improvements.
Engage with clients on-site to ensure clear communication and satisfaction.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Equipment Utilization Rate: Achieve a minimum of 90% usage efficiency.
Safety Incident Rate: Maintain a safety incident rate below 2% per quarter.
Operational Efficiency: Increase productivity by at least 10% year-over-year.
Customer Satisfaction Rating: Sustain a client rating of 4.8 stars or higher.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Engineering, Construction Management, or related field.
Minimum of 8 years’ experience in operations management in a related field.
Strong leadership and decision-making skills with a focus on safety and efficiency.
Proficiency in project management tools and data analysis to support operational improvements.
6. Preferred Experience
Experience in heavy equipment operations within the excavation and site work industry.
Proven track record in scaling operations in fast-paced, growth-oriented environments.
Familiarity with regulatory compliance in construction and site services.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams in challenging operational contexts.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to occasionally lift up to 50 pounds.
Frequent exposure to outdoor and construction site environments.
Capacity to work in various weather conditions including hot, cold, and rainy environments.
Willingness to be present on active job sites for operational oversight.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Typical work hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
Occasional overtime and weekend work may be required based on project demands.
On-site visits to active excavation and construction sites are a core component of the role.
Minimal travel between job sites and the main office is expected on a weekly basis.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Competitive annual salary range of $130,000 – $170,000 USD, based on experience.
Performance-based bonus structure with quarterly incentives.
Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.
401(k) plan with company match.
Additional fringe benefits including paid time off, professional development, and relocation assistance if applicable.
10. Company Culture and Overview
At [INSERT COMPANY NAME HERE], we foster a culture of innovation, teamwork, and continuous improvement. We support our employees through mentorship programs, leadership development initiatives, and a collaborative work environment where open communication and respect are fundamental. Join us to be a pivotal part of modernizing our operations and propelling the home services industry forward.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Most of the money and most of the risk in a site work company sit in the seat of a machine. The COO's standards decide how both are handled on every job.
Rollover protection and the seat belt
OSHA requires rollover protective structures on dozers, loaders, crawler tractors, scrapers and graders used in construction, and on compactors and rubber-tired skid steers built after July 15, 2019. A structure taken off for any reason goes back on with bolts or welds at least as good as the originals. The COO makes buckling up a firm company rule, because the frame only protects an operator who stays inside it. Source: eCFR: Rollover protective structures, scope (29 CFR 1926.1000).
Haul roads are part of the job
On grading jobs, loaded trucks and scrapers run on temporary haul roads and ramps the crew builds. OSHA bars moving equipment over an access road or grade that wasn't built and kept up to carry it safely. Every emergency ramp and berm on the job has to be built to stop and control a runaway vehicle. The COO sets a company standard for haul road width, slope and upkeep. Source: eCFR: Material handling equipment, seat belts and access roadways (29 CFR 1926.602).
Utilization needs one definition
The template sets a very high target for equipment use, so the COO first decides what it means. Hours working against hours on a job? Against every hour the company owns the machine? A dozer parked on a builder's site waiting for the next lot costs money either way. With telematics, the COO finds the machines that sit and moves them to work.
Seasons shape the work plan
Frozen ground, spring thaw and wet weeks shape a site work year more than the calendar does. The COO plans which work runs in which season, such as clearing when the ground is firm enough to carry machines. The goal is to keep skilled operators busy all year instead of laying them off each winter.
How much excavation chief operating officers make
The closest BLS group for excavation chief operating officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for other specialty trade contractors earned a median of $151,900 a year ($73.03 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 490 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for other specialty trade contractors.
The template adds quarterly incentives to the salary. Tie them to measures the COO moves across every job, such as utility strikes, idle machine hours and site audit scores.
Other specialty trade contractors
$151,900$151,900 median Middle half $113,900–$319,020 10th–90th $83,500–$392,040
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Other specialty trade contractors
$83,500
$113,900
$151,900
$319,020
$392,040
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS doesn’t publish pay for excavation contractors on their own. These figures cover other specialty trade contractors, which include them. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has answered for the safety record and fleet hours of an excavation or utility company
Spots a bad haul road, a missing trench box or an unbelted operator on a site walk
Moves idle machines using telematics hours, not foremen's guesses
Has cut utility strikes or injuries at a past company and can show how
Has spent enough time in or around the seat to earn operators' respect
Teach these on the job
Which machines sit on which builders' sites today
Who builds and checks your machine control files today
Your builders' and developers' rules for site access and mud on roads
Your field apps for hours and daily logs
Your haul road and site setup standards
Expect the COO to live in the machine makers' telematics, the fleet maintenance system, a field app for daily logs and hours, and the GPS machine control setup. Ask finalists to name one standard they wrote at their last company and how they checked that crews kept it.
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Learning from near misses
A trench wall caves in on one of your jobs minutes after a worker climbed out. No one is hurt. What do you do in the next week?
A strong answer: Stops similar work, investigates why the trench was unprotected or the inspection missed it, fixes the system, retrains, and shares what happened across every crew.
Behavioral · Rolling out standards
Tell me about a time you rolled out a new operating standard to crews who were used to doing things their own way.
A strong answer: Got foremen's input first, explained why, trained and checked the work in the field, and followed through on crews who didn't adopt it.
Ask the COO to show the jobs behind each number. A utilization figure means little until you can see which machines earned it and which sat.
Equipment Utilization Rate
Pull engine hours on paying work from telematics and divide by the hours each machine could have worked. Decide once whether winter storage and planned service count, then keep that rule every month.
Safety Incident Rate
Recordable injuries per hours worked, from your OSHA 300 log. Track utility strikes, rollovers and near misses next to it, since they show where the next injury may come from.
Operational Efficiency
Cost per cubic yard moved and per foot of pipe laid, from job cost reports, set against the same season last year, so better output shows up as lower cost.
Customer Satisfaction Rating
Ratings from builders and developers at each phase closeout, read with the complaint log: mud on the road, a broken curb, a late crew, and the days each took to close.
Career path
Field supervisorRuns the crews on a subdivision or a string of builder lots.
Operations managerRuns the daily board for crews, machines and dump trucks.
Chief operating officerWrites the rules every site runs on, from haul roads to seat belts.
Why does a COO template list 50-pound lifts and all kinds of weather?
Those lines ship as the template wrote them. On the job, the COO walks active sites over loose fill and mud, climbs onto machines to check a cab or a seat belt, and may carry a laser, a tripod or a bundle of stakes. They also stand at an open cut with a foreman in summer heat and winter cold. Write those site tasks into the posting. If someone needs a change in how they're done, talk it through as a reasonable accommodation request.
How much does an excavation chief operating officer make?
Chief executives who work for other specialty trade contractors earned a median of $151,900 a year ($73.03 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $113,900 and $319,020 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
How does an excavation COO cut down on utility strikes?
Treat each strike like an injury. Log the crew, the machine, whether the ticket was valid, whether the marks were right, and how close to the mark the bucket went. Patterns show up fast: one crew skipping hand digging near marks, or one utility's marks often off. Fix the cause, then share what changed with every foreman.
Should we standardize on one brand of machine?
Often it helps. One brand means one dealer for parts and warranty, one telematics portal, and operators who move between machines without relearning the controls. The tradeoff is less room to bargain on price and fewer choices when that dealer can't deliver. One middle path: pick one or two brands for the big machines and stay open on small ones.
Who should build the 3D models for machine control?
Someone who answers to operations, not just whoever has time. A model built from an old plan sheet sends every GPS machine to the wrong grade. Decide whether a staff modeler or an outside surveyor builds them, who signs off that each file matches the current plan set, and how an update gets loaded on every machine on the job.
