Chief Operations Officer

Who We Are 

CPM Educational Program’s mission is to empower mathematics students and teachers through exemplary curriculum, professional development, and leadership. Our teacher-supporting, student-centered, problem-based classroom solutions for grades 6–12 foster engagement and equity in the classroom, while we strive to cultivate these same values within our workplace culture.

Your Role at a Glance

The Chief Operations Officer is a full-time, exempt executive role reporting to the Executive Director.

The COO is accountable for converting CPM’s strategy and mission into sustainable organizational performance. This role leads the operational and commercial functions of the organization and ensures that operating capacity, technology, and financial resources work together to achieve measurable organizational goals.

The COO leads across customer service, technology, inventory and fulfillment, production, and other operational functions assigned to the role.

The COO is expected to build strong cross-functional relationships and trust, but the purpose of that collaboration is execution and performance. Success in this role is ultimately measured by the organization’s ability to achieve its customer, operating, and financial goals.

Your Role Job Level 

In our Competency Model, this role sits at the Senior Executive Leadership level.

The role requires two related capabilities:

1. Driving organizational performance. The COO establishes clear operating expectations, translates strategy into measurable goals, identifies performance gaps early, and ensures corrective action occurs when results are off track.
2. Leading cross-functionally. The COO builds trust among departmental leaders, resolves competing priorities, and creates clear accountability across functions that must work together to achieve organizational goals.

Competing priorities should be resolved based on CPM’s strategy, customer impact, financial impact, capacity, risk, and urgency. The COO is expected to make those decisions thoughtfully and respectfully while maintaining clarity about the result CPM needs to achieve.

The COO owns execution against agreed organizational goals and adjusts the approach when circumstances change. Changes in tactics will not de facto change accountability for the underlying result.

Reporting & Collaboration 

• Reports to: Executive Director
• Direct Reports: Leaders responsible for:
  • Technology and Business Systems
  • Customer Support
  • Inventory, Fulfillment, and Production
  • Other operational functions as assigned
• Executive Leadership: The COO is an active member of the Executive Leadership Team and participates directly in organizational strategy, resource allocation, annual planning, and major operating decisions.
• Key Collaborators: The COO works closely with other Chief-level leaders and functional executives where academic, product, people, financial, or operating priorities intersect.

Autonomy & Decision Making 

• Decide and Loop People In: 
  • Within approved organizational strategy and budget, the COO has authority to make operating decisions across the functions reporting to the role.
  • This includes establishing performance expectations, operating processes, reporting requirements, resource priorities, and corrective actions necessary to achieve agreed goals.
  • The COO must be transparent, keeping the Executive Director and other affected executives informed of material decisions without requiring approval for routine operating decisions within the COO’s area of responsibility.
• Elevate, Align, and Drive: 
  • The COO brings decisions to the Executive Director or Executive Leadership Team when they:
    • materially change organizational strategy or mission;
    • create significant unbudgeted financial commitments;
    • require tradeoffs between major organizational priorities;
    • affect areas owned by another Chief-level executive;
    • create material organizational, customer, financial, or reputational risk; or
    • cannot reasonably be resolved within established executive decision rights.
  • Disagreement between departments is not, by itself, a reason to escalate a decision. Resolving normal cross-functional conflicts is part of the COO’s responsibility.

Your Day-to-Day Contributions 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

Business Performance & Financial Sustainability

The COO is accountable for ensuring that the organization has the operating discipline necessary to achieve its financial and strategic goals.

Responsibilities include:

• Translate CPM’s strategic plan into measurable annual and quarterly operating goals.
• Establish clear ownership and measures for the performance of the functions reporting to the COO.
• Track performance against productivity, expense, and operational goals.
• Identify performance gaps early and ensure corrective action is taken.
• Partner with Finance and the Executive Director on annual planning, budgeting, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
• Evaluate significant investments based on expected organizational and financial return.
• Ensure staffing, technology, operating capacity, and spending are aligned with CPM’s revenue outlook and strategic priorities.
• Provide the Executive Leadership Team with clear, regular visibility into organizational performance, risks, and corrective actions.

Customer Service, Fulfillment & Operational Delivery

The COO ensures CPM delivers consistently and effectively to its customers.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish service, fulfillment, quality, and customer-experience standards.
• Hold functional leaders accountable for meeting those standards.
• Ensure order intake and fulfillment processes are efficient, scalable, and measurable.
• Ensure inventory planning supports expected customer demand while appropriately managing cost and risk.
• Monitor key measures such as response time, order accuracy, fulfillment time, customer satisfaction, inventory levels, and operational cost.
• Identify recurring operational problems and ensure their root causes are addressed.

Technology & Business Systems

The COO ensures CPM’s technology and business systems support scalable, measurable operations.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish technology priorities based on organizational strategy and business requirements.
• Ensure systems support sales, customer success, service delivery, analytics, reporting, finance, HR, and other key operating functions.
• Ensure CPM has reliable data and reporting necessary to manage organizational performance.
• Oversee major system integrations and technology investments.
• Partner with Technology leadership on data security, uptime, scalability, and business continuity.
• Evaluate technology investments with Finance based on business need, risk, cost, and expected return.
• Ensure technology improves organizational capability and productivity rather than unnecessarily adding cost or complexity.

Cross-Functional / General Operations Leadership

The COO serves as CPM’s primary executive leader for organizational execution across the functions assigned to the role.

Responsibilities include:

• Translate organizational strategy into clear priorities, measures, ownership, and operating plans.
• Establish an operating cadence for reviewing organizational performance.
• Create visibility into operations.
• Resolve cross-functional barriers that prevent teams from achieving agreed goals.
• Ensure decisions are implemented consistently once made.
• Hold functional leaders accountable for commitments and results.
• Develop managers and leaders who can operate their functions effectively without unnecessary executive intervention.
• Build a culture in which data informs decisions, expectations are clear, and performance problems are addressed rather than deferred.
• Partner with the Executive Director on execution of CPM’s strategic priorities and the applicable elements of the Shoreline Consulting Framework.

Measures of Success

The specific targets will change annually, but success in the COO role should be evaluated using objective measures such as:

• Customer satisfaction/experience (NPS)
• Customer service response and resolution performance
• Operational productivity and cost
• Inventory and fulfillment performance
• Technology/system effectiveness
• Execution of major organizational priorities
• Performance against approved budget and financial plan

Leadership Expectations

The COO is expected to:

• Make decisions using evidence, organizational strategy, customer needs, financial impact, and risk.
• Communicate difficult decisions clearly and respectfully.
• Build trust without avoiding accountability or necessary conflict.
• Encourage productive disagreement before decisions are made and alignment after decisions are made.
• Hold leaders accountable for commitments, behaviors, and results.
• Address performance issues directly and promptly.
• Balance CPM’s mission with the financial and operational requirements necessary to sustain it.
• Develop leaders rather than unnecessarily taking over the work of their functions.

Additional responsibilities aligned with the needs of the organization may be added.

To thrive in this role, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Education and/or Experience: Bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, operations management, or a related field. 8+ years in business operations, finance, or administrative leadership.
  • What We’re Looking For
    • Demonstrated experience overseeing business operations, budgeting, or systems infrastructure at scale, strong judgment navigating ambiguity across departments, and skill coordinating across operations functions without formal authority.
    • Strong coaching competencies for leading leaders. 
  • Nice to Have
    • Experience with publishing in digital and print.
    • Familiarity with strategic planning frameworks, finance systems, compliance functions, or experience in an education nonprofit.