Chief Operating Officer

Eaton Construction Services

Knoxville (TN)

On-site

USD 130,000 - 180,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

A growing construction firm in Knoxville, TN is seeking an experienced COO to oversee operations and drive significant growth. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in commercial construction, strategic planning, and operational excellence. Responsibilities include ensuring safety compliance and developing systems to enhance productivity across multiple projects. Proven experience in scaling operations and leading teams is essential. This role supports a fast-paced environment focused on achieving ambitious business objectives.

Qualifications

Experience as a working COO in a project-based organization.
Proven track record in scaling operations in construction companies.
Strong expertise in safety compliance and risk management.

Responsibilities

Oversee company operations to sustain high growth.
Drive sales and market expansion while managing operations.
Ensure accountability and execution discipline across teams.

Skills

Operational Excellence

Sales and Market Expansion

Strategic Planning

Construction Management

Tools

Procore

Autodesk

Job description

This is NOT a job offering for the typical applicant. This is for those accustomed to a start-up environment, willing to give maximum dedication of time and effort over the next 5 years, and open to a high pressure–high reward environment to push the company to 10x growth in 5 years. Leadership by example, comfort in duplicating the culture driven by the founder, a high level of professionalism, and an extensive understanding of and experience in the commercial construction industry must all be qualities you champion and/or skills you obtain. Eaton Construction Services needs an intrapreneur looking to help build something special, driven by purpose, and ready to reap the rewards of growing a company 10x in 5 years with the team. If this still interests you, see below:

What You Must Uniquely Deliver as COO?

The COO must possess the capability and experience to enhance and oversee company operations, enabling the CEO to focus his efforts on the areas most critical to sustaining high growth and achieving the company’s strategic objectives. These areas include:

Driving Sales and Market Expansion
Advancing Strategy for Company Valuation and EBITDA Growth
Building Tailored Software Solutions to Improve Company Productivity

As COO, you will be measured by your ability to deliver results that keep the CEO focused on these high-value lanes — free from the distractions of daily operational issues, oversight demands, and implementation challenges.

Additionally, this role requires setting and enforcing a high-expectation standard across all construction operations, including safety, estimating, project management, and project closeout.

How To Do It?

Must be a working COO, not a presiding one.
Comfortable collaborating with a highly inquisitive CEO who has a bias toward details, discussion, and continuous improvement.
Ready and motivated to mirror the CEO’s priorities in performance, standards, outputs, and company culture.
Able to translate CEO objectives into key results, ensuring each initiative drives measurable outcomes.
Create operational clarity across departments through defined metrics, consistent reporting cadence, and clear lines of accountability.
Lead implementation of new technologies developed by internal or partner software teams, ensuring seamless adoption into daily field and office operations, while maintaining a feedback loop that informs continual improvement.
Build and optimize systems that enhance efficiency, communication, and decision-making speed company-wide.
Ensure execution discipline, holding teams accountable to commitments and maintaining momentum through rapid growth.
Translate strategy into scalable systems, ensuring every initiative ties directly to revenue, margin, or long-term scalability outcomes.
Obsession of profitability, efficiency, and productivity leading decision making.
Establish and uphold best-in-class operational standards across safety compliance, estimating processes, project management execution, administrative systems, and project closeout procedures.

Where You Need to Have Experience

Proven experience as a working operator in a construction or project-based organization, ideally within commercial, industrial, or tenant improvement markets.

Held a senior operations role in a construction company with at least $65M–$75M in annual revenue.
Demonstrated ability to scale operations from $25M–$100M+, building the structure, systems, and leadership needed to sustain rapid growth.
Led operations, hiring, and compliance across multiple states or regions.
Thrived in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment where priorities evolve quickly and execution speed is critical.
Key contributor in developing and executing operational strategy aligned to company goals.
Skilled in identifying key metrics, tracking performance, and building dashboards that provide a clear view into operational health.
Deep familiarity with financial and operational analytics, including budgeting, job cost forecasting, and KPI dashboards tied to profitability.
Proven success in driving accountability through scorecards, reporting cadence, and systematized leadership practices.
Experienced in technology adoption and change management, ensuring new platforms and processes are embedded into daily operations.
Hands‑on background implementing or integrating advanced construction management systems (e.g., Procore, Autodesk, or similar) and ensuring maximum utilization across field and office teams.
Strong foundation in strategic planning, organizational design, and people development to support multi-state and regional expansion.
Understands how to lead, motivate, and elevate people, bringing out their highest and best performance.
Deep understanding of project delivery, field operations, and preconstruction processes — from estimating and procurement through closeout and billing.
Safety compliance and risk management.
Overseeing estimating and bid strategy.
Full-cycle project management and project closeout.
Administrative and operational systems within construction organizations.