CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER (COO)

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER (COO) / FUTURE CEO

Trade Mastermind Group

Location
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Package
£150,000 – £200,000 basic salary with a performance bonus, executive benefits, EMI share options and a potential future pathway to CEO.

The Opportunity

This is not a traditional COO role. It is an opportunity for a proven executive leader to help scale one of the UK’s fastest-growing business education and consulting groups.

We are seeking a commercially minded operator who has already worked at executive level within a business generating more than £20 million in annual revenue, and who has both the ambition and capability to progress into a future CEO role.

The successful candidate will work directly alongside founder and entrepreneur Joseph Valente. You will take responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the business while helping to build the infrastructure, systems, leadership team and governance required for its next stage of growth.

The ambition is clear: to build the UK’s leading business growth platform for trades, construction and service-based business owners. This role is designed for someone who wants to build a business, not simply manage one.

About Trade Mastermind

Trade Mastermind is one of the UK’s leading business education and consulting companies for trades and construction business owners. Through coaching, training, events, marketing services, recruitment solutions, funding support and technology, the company helps ambitious business owners scale faster, increase profitability and build more valuable businesses.

The group operates across multiple brands and serves business owners across the UK. With ambitious plans for continued growth, investment and expansion, the company is now seeking an exceptional operator to help build the next chapter.

The Mission

The mission is simple: to build a business that can scale without the founder being involved in every operational decision.

You will become the leader of the leadership team and ultimately the person responsible for ensuring the business executes at the highest possible level. Success in this role will mean a fully accountable leadership team, clearly measured and managed KPIs, a strong operating rhythm throughout the organisation, and a world-class customer experience. It also includes strong financial discipline, the recruitment and development of exceptional talent, consistent operational excellence and a founder who is free to focus on vision, growth, acquisitions and partnerships.

The Role

You will lead the senior leadership team and hold department heads accountable for targets, KPIs and objectives while driving a high-performance culture throughout the organisation. You will ensure company priorities are executed on time and to the required standard, create alignment between all departments and build leadership capability across the business.

A key part of the role involves designing and implementing scalable operating systems that improve efficiency, productivity and accountability. You will build governance, reporting and management frameworks and create the operational infrastructure needed to support significant growth. Continuous improvement across the organisation will be central to your approach.

You will play a major role in scaling the business toward £100 million in revenue by supporting acquisitions, integrations and expansion. At the same time, you will help prepare the business for institutional investment and future enterprise value creation.

Building and strengthening the team will also be essential. You will recruit senior leaders, develop managers into high-performing leaders and create strong succession plans across key functions. Culture, standards and accountability will be driven consistently across the organisation.

Working closely with the CFO and executive team, you will improve operational profitability, increase efficiency and EBITDA, and ensure financial performance is driven through robust data, reporting and accountability.

Experience Required

Applicants must demonstrate prior experience in a COO, CEO, Managing Director or Divisional Director role within a business generating at least £20 million in annual revenue. You must have held full P&L responsibility and have led multi-disciplinary teams across sales, marketing, operations, finance and customer success.

You should have extensive experience managing and developing senior leadership teams and a proven track record of scaling businesses through significant growth phases. Strong commercial and financial acumen is essential, alongside experience implementing KPI, reporting and accountability frameworks. The ability to operate effectively as second-in-command within a founder-led business is critical.

Highly desirable experience includes leading a business generating more than £50 million in revenue, working within a private equity-backed environment, preparing businesses for investment or exit, and operating in education, consulting, professional services, construction or service-based industries. Experience with acquisitions, integrations and supporting founders transitioning to visionary leadership roles is also advantageous.

Personal Characteristics

The ideal candidate will demonstrate high energy, exceptional leadership capability and a strong commercial mindset. You will be a decisive, results-driven individual with high standards who is highly organised and execution-focused. You must be comfortable both being held accountable and holding others accountable, while maintaining ambition, resilience and credibility with senior leaders.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 12 months, the leadership team will be operating at a significantly higher level with KPI management embedded across the organisation. Clear management and accountability structures will be in place, operational efficiency and profitability will have improved, customer experience and retention will be stronger, and the founder will be spending significantly less time on day-to-day operations.

Within three to five years, there is a potential progression into a Group CEO role, with responsibility for leading a substantially larger organisation. This includes the opportunity to play a key role in enterprise value creation and to help build one of the UK’s most influential business growth companies.

Important

This role is not suitable for candidates whose largest leadership experience has been within a small business environment. Applicants must have operated at executive level within a business generating at least £20 million annually and be comfortable leading large teams through rapid growth. This is a role for a proven business leader, not simply an operations manager.

Why Join

Most COO roles involve maintaining a business. This role involves helping to build one.

You will work directly with an ambitious founder who is focused on growth, expansion and long-term value creation, while being given the autonomy and responsibility to make a genuine impact. This is an opportunity for an ambitious operator who wants to scale a high-growth company, lead an executive team and potentially progress to CEO.

How to Apply

Please submit your CV along with a covering letter outlining the largest business you have helped lead, the revenue size of that organisation, the number of people you managed and the growth journey you supported. You should also include examples of operational improvements you implemented and explain why you believe you are the right person to help scale Trade Mastermind into its next chapter.

Applications without this information may not be considered.

If you want, I can also sharpen this for LinkedIn, convert it into a high-converting recruiter brief, or tailor it for a headhunter outreach.