Fractional COO

Fractional COO services for owner-led firms

A fractional COO is a senior operations executive who works with your company part time or for a defined project, without the cost of a full-time hire. At Opscale Partners, fractional COO work is delivered as a 90-day implementation: we install the operating rhythm, systems and AI tools your firm needs, coach your leaders, and hand it off.

What does a fractional COO do?

Signs your firm needs one

Fractional COO vs full-time COO

Fractional COO with OpscaleFull-time COO
Commitment90-day implementation, optional support afterPermanent executive hire
FocusInstall systems and hand them to your teamRun operations day to day
Best forOwner-led firms of about 10 to 150 peopleLarger companies that need a permanent operations leader

Founded and led by Ron James

Ron ran more than 300 H&R Block offices across seven states with a $90 million P&L, and as SVP of Operations helped scale Innovation Refunds past $1 billion in revenue. Earlier roles at Walmart and Best Buy.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is a Fractional COO?
A Fractional COO is a senior operations leader who partners with your business part-time or on a project basis providing executive-level guidance without the cost of a full-time hire. At Opscale Partners, we serve as your strategic partner to bring clarity, structure, and scalability to your operations.
If you’re a founder who feels stuck in the weeds, constantly firefighting, or unsure how to scale without breaking your business, then you’ll benefit from fractional COO support. We help founder led companies that are generating revenue but lack the operational systems, leadership structure, or bandwidth to grow effectively.
We start with a deep-dive into your business goals, challenges, and current operations. From there, we create a 90-day roadmap to align your leadership, processes, and priorities. Engagements typically include weekly leadership meetings, direct support to managers, and structured operational improvements. We work embedded with your team, not just advising from the sidelines.

Yes. A core part of what we do is helping founders move from being involved in every decision to leading through a high-performing team. We support both hiring and internal team development based on your business stage, budget, and growth goals.

That includes:

  • Defining the right roles needed to support scale (not just filling seats)
  • Writing role profiles and scopes that align with your strategic needs
  • Participating in the hiring process including sourcing, vetting, and interviewing candidates
  • Developing onboarding plans and accountability structures so new hires integrate quickly
  • Coaching internal team members to step into new leadership roles
  • Advising on organizational design from reporting structures to communication cadences

Whether you’re building your first layer of leadership or reorganizing a fast-growing team, we help you make the right people decisions and put systems in place to ensure those decisions stick. The goal is to create a team you trust, so you can focus on leading the business, not running it day to day.

Yes. In addition to ongoing fractional COO engagements, we offer focused, one-time projects
designed to solve specific operational challenges or unlock near-term growth. These engagements typically last 4 to 12 weeks and are tailored to your business stage and goals.

Common project types include:

  • Designing an operational framework to support a new product or service launch
  • Conducting an organizational review and delivering a roadmap for scaling effectively
  • Maximizing profitability by identifying cost efficiencies and margin improvement opportunities
  • Building out documented SOPs, workflows, and process maps for delivery or back-office functions
  • Developing a talent strategy, including org design, role clarity, and performance systems

Each project is designed to create clarity, reduce friction, and help you scale with confidence, without requiring a long-term commitment.

Ready to talk about your operations?