Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Climate Finance Solutions (via Climate People)
About Climate Finance Solutions
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS) is a mission-driven global consultancy that helps climate tech companies unlock large-scale, non-dilutive public funding. Since 2020, CFS has secured over $1.6 billion in public funding for clients across the climate sector, accelerating the deployment of breakthrough technologies and infrastructure. CFS has built a market-leading brand in the global climate funding ecosystem, with a strong presence across North America, Europe, and other key regions.
CFS is a profitable, founder-led services firm that is actively evolving into a more tech-enabled platform. The company is focused on strengthening its operational backbone and positioning for its next phase of growth: scaling efficiently while continuing global expansion of its consulting footprint and advancing proprietary software products.
About the Role
CFS is hiring a Chief Operating Officer (COO) to serve as the company’s senior operational and financial leader and a long-term strategic partner to the CEO.
This is a critical leadership role with both near-term execution responsibilities and long-term strategic scope. The COO will step immediately into a hands-on role, owning core business operations and financial oversight, while building the systems and capabilities required to scale CFS sustainably. The COO will directly manage a full-time Operations Associate and a small team of contractors and lead the expansion of the operations team as the company grows.
In parallel, the COO will play a senior role in advancing CFS’s Grant Monitoring Service (GMS)—a software product developed within CFS—following its recent spin-out into a separately incorporated, but closely held, entity that remains tightly integrated with CFS operations and business development.
Core Responsibilities
Company Operations and Execution
• Oversee core operational infrastructure, including financial operations (e.g., billing, payments, contracting), HR processes, and internal systems, and cross-functional workflows
• Lead continuous improvement of revenue operations to strengthen profitability, predictability, and scalability
• Manage and develop experienced team members responsible for core operational functions
• Ensure operational continuity, risk management, and internal controls through leadership transition and scaling phases
Financial Leadership and Business Performance
• Own operational finance, including oversight of bookkeeping partners, billing processes, and financial reporting
• Develop and maintain business dashboards, KPIs, and forecasting tools to support planning and decision-making
• Partner closely with the CEO on unit economics, pricing, margin optimization, and long-term financial strategy
• Lead annual planning, budgeting, and multi-year financial outlooks
• Ensure sound financial controls, approval structures, and stewardship of company resources
Team Leadership and Organizational Management
• Lead and support a lean, distributed global team of full-time employees and contractors
• Define and evolve roles, performance standards, and operating norms as the organization scales
• Maintain the company’s high-trust, high-performance culture grounded in collaboration and mission alignment
• Oversee core people systems, including benefits (e.g., 401k), and maintain access and approval controls for sensitive systems and data
Systems Design, Scale Readiness, and Operating Cadence
• Design and optimize operational systems to enable scale across client delivery, internal workflows, and core business functions
• Lead resolution of operational bottlenecks and structural risks by driving system-level improvements
• Upgrade core tools and workflows, improving usage and integration across CRM, project management, financial systems, and internal knowledge infrastructure
• Establish clear operating rhythms, decision-making norms, and executive reporting to support alignment and execution at scale
Strategic Leadership and Growth Enablement
• Act as a strategic thought partner to the CEO, helping shape company direction and organizational design
• Translate priorities into actionable operating plans, with clear resource alignment and execution timelines
• Pressure-test assumptions, surface execution risks, and drive disciplined, high-quality decision-making
• Advance growth initiatives across both consulting and software-enabled services
GMS Platform and Go-to-Market Leadership
• Provide senior operational and strategic leadership for the commercialization and scale-up of the Grant Monitoring Service (GMS) software platform
• Partner with the CEO to shape and execute GMS go-to-market strategy, including pricing, customer segmentation, and integration with CFS consulting services
• Define and evolve the operating and governance model between CFS and the new GMS entity, and lead executive decisions on post-spin-out sequencing, resourcing, and execution priorities
• Orchestrate coordinated execution between CFS teams and external partners, ensuring clear delivery ownership across business development and platform buildout
Qualifications
Required
• Senior operational leadership experience in a startup or scaleup environment, including COO or COO-adjacent roles
• Proven ability to design and scale operational systems within a services-based business
• Demonstrated success driving growth through go-to-market execution, scaled service delivery, and commercial expansion
• Strong operational finance acumen, including oversight of billing, accounting partnerships, and performance metrics
• Experience leading distributed, multi-level teams, including contractors and cross-functional staff
• Comfort operating as a player-coach, balancing strategic oversight with hands-on execution
• Demonstrated integrity and sound judgment in high-trust, high-responsibility environments
Preferred
• Extensive experience in professional services, consulting, or agency-based business models
• Experience scaling organizations through multi-phase growth
• Experience supporting software commercialization or go-to-market strategy, ideally within or spun out of a services-led or hybrid organization
• Familiarity with software product development or platform-enabled business models
• Exposure to climate tech, clean energy, sustainability, or adjacent sectors
• Experience working with international teams, in particular Europe-based contexts
• Familiarity with grants, public funding programs, or complex multi-stakeholder funding environments
Working Style and Culture Fit
• Deep alignment with CFS’s climate mission and values
• Collaborative, grounded, and human-centered leadership style
• Ability to operate with autonomy in a fast-paced, high-trust environment
• Skilled at navigating ambiguity, cross-functional complexity, and evolving organizational boundaries
• Willing to engage beyond a strict 9-to-5 structure while valuing sustainable team practices
• Motivated by ownership, impact, and building durable systems and organizations
Employment and Compensation
• Location: Remote (work hours must overlap with Pacific Time)
• Employment Type: Full time
• Compensation: Base salary target $175K–200K + meaningful equity participation
• Benefits: Healthcare (QSEHRA), PTO, 401(k) with employer match
