Chief Operating Officer

Alpha Square Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 320,000 - 520,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

CEO partnership & long-term incentives

High-impact role

Job summary

Alpha Square Group (ASG), a New York-based, SEC-registered investment firm, seeks a Chief Operating Officer to anchor the organization, transform the CEO’s vision into scalable growth, and align structure with scale across multiple funds and strategies.

As COO, you will design governance, systems, and playbooks, build scalable processes, and drive long-term platform health. This is a senior, cross-functional role reporting to the CEO with high impact across the enterprise.

Qualifications

Responsibilities

• Design governance boundaries and KCAs across Investment, Finance & Risk, and Platform with formal policy documentation.
• Lead annual and quarterly operating cadences, ensuring escalation paths and accountability mechanisms are in place.
• Build modular infrastructure with clear ownership, KPIs, and hiring roadmaps; partner with HR on headcount planning.

Job description

ASG is a New York–headquartered, SEC-registered investment firm with approximately $1.8 billion in assets under management. The firm invests in global innovation across public and private markets, applying institutional-grade rigor, disciplined underwriting, and proprietary data intelligence to identify and invest in category-defining companies.

Role Summary

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is the firm’s organizational anchor. This role most deeply embedded across every function, and the force that transforms the CEO’s vision into a platform capable of sustained, compounding growth.

As AUM scales, organizational complexity is inevitable. The COO’s core mandate is to ensure that structure is always ahead of scale: that governance is codified rather than assumed, that systems are more reliable than any individual, and that the platform is architected to support multiple funds and strategies over the long term.

The COO is accountable for three interconnected layers of value creation:

• Designing the organizational and governance architecture that enables the firm to grow without losing cohesion;
• Building the systems and process infrastructure that turns institutional experience into repeatable, scalable capability; and
• Laying the platform foundation that gives the firm compounding structural advantages as it expands.

The COO is the firm’s connective tissue. The stronger and more integrated that tissue, the more efficiently the entire organization performs.

Core Responsibilities

I. Organizational Governance & Structural Design

1. Three-Engine Clarity: Investment | Finance & Risk | Platform

• Define authority boundaries, accountability frameworks, and KPIs across Investment, Finance & Risk, and Platform, formally documented in policy and performance structures.
• Maintain clean ownership separation while enabling structured cross-engine coordination.
• Audit engine effectiveness as the firm grows and adjust governance design proactively.

2. Layered Decision Architecture

• Own and optimize the firm's formal governance bodies (IC, Portfolio Review, Operating Committee, Risk & Valuation Committee), ensuring each addresses the right decision tier.
• Design escalation paths, pre-meeting preparation standards, and post-meeting accountability mechanisms.
• Establish the firm's weekly, monthly, and quarterly operating cadence as a structured rhythm.

3. Modular Organizational Build-Out

• Build functional infrastructure around scoped modules (Fund Ops, IR Ops, Portfolio Ops, Operational Systems, Risk & Compliance), each with defined ownership, deliverables, KPIs, and hiring roadmap.
• Partner with HR on headcount planning, role design, and leadership development.
• Reinforce firm-wide performance management and accountability norms.

II. Systems, Process & Institutional Infrastructure

1. Single Source of Truth

• Lead unification of CRM, Portfolio Management, Fund Administration, and Document Management into a consistent operational data layer.
• Establish data governance standards; eliminate version conflicts and shadow tracking.
• Select and manage technology vendors against defined SLAs.

2. Risk Control Embedded in Process

• Design risk controls into workflows as structural safeguards, not compliance afterthoughts.
• Implement access permissions, information barriers, vendor risk management, and key-person mitigation.
• Ensure Risk & Compliance has codified integration points within Investment, Finance, and IR workflows.

3. Standardized Playbooks & Institutional Memory

• Develop replicable playbooks for core workflows (investment process, QBR, LP DD, LP engagement, crisis management).
• Capture institutional knowledge in transferable, maintained systems.
• stablish documentation standards; treat playbooks as living documents.

4. Critical Path Optimization & Automation

• Eliminate friction in high-frequency workflows (legal execution, KYC, fund administration, capital calls) through SOP redesign, tooling, or restructured ownership.
• Prioritize automation to compress cycle times and reduce manual handoffs.
• Track cycle time reduction as a core performance metric.

III. Platform Scalability & Long-Term Capability

1. Modular Platform Expansion

• Ensure each operational module has defined objectives, measurable outputs, KPIs, and a dedicated budget.
• Build shared infrastructure to be strategy-agnostic (VC, Growth, PE, Credit) while investment decision-making remains independent.
• Resource operational capacity ahead of AUM growth and fund launch milestones.

2. Budget as Capability Investment

• Evaluate infrastructure and vendor investments through an explicit ROI framework focused on long-term capability gain.
• Set clear boundaries between self-build, licensed software, and outsourced service models.
• Maintain a multi-year operational investment roadmap.

3. Multi-Strategy Shared Platform

• Architect the platform so new fund vintages, asset classes, or geographies add incremental, not exponential, operational complexity.
• Maintain separation between the platform layer and the investment decision layer.
• Build integration standards so new strategies can be onboarded with speed and consistency.

4. Incentive Structure & Long-Term Alignment

• Collaborate with the CEO and HR on a compensation framework tied to long-term platform health.
• Structure incentive triggers around organizational, system, AUM, and operational efficiency milestones rather than solely deal outcomes.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in operations, infrastructure, or general management at SEC-registered investment firms, asset managers, hedge funds, institutional financial services firms, or high-growth companies.
• Demonstrated track record of building or scaling operational platforms, systems, and teams through periods of rapid growth.
• Familiarity with the operational infrastructure supporting investment firms, including fund administration, portfolio management systems, CRM platforms, document management, and risk infrastructure, or demonstrated ability to build comparable systems in another context.
• Working knowledge of SEC, RIA, and broader regulatory frameworks applicable to U.S. investment advisers.
• Proven experience designing governance structures, decision forums, and operating cadences in growing organizations.
• Strong systems thinking, ability to translate strategy into documented, scalable processes.
• Sound judgment in vendor selection, technology investment, and build-vs-buy decisions.
• Outstanding written communication and documentation discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a founder, CEO, or COO of a startup or high-growth company, particularly those who have built operating structure, systems, and teams from an early stage.
• Prior COO, Head of Operations, or Chief of Staff experience at an investment firm with AUM growth across multiple fund vintages.
• Exposure to both public and private market investment operations.
• MBA, JD, CPA, or equivalent advanced credential.
• Experience supporting multi-jurisdictional operations (including Asia).

Reporting & Scope

• Reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer.
• Operates as a senior individual contributor and firm-wide platform architect, working through governance forums, functional partnerships, and CEO-delegated authority. The role does not have direct reports at this time; team build-out under the COO’s scope will be considered as the firm scales.
• Sits on or chairs the firm’s principal governance committees as designed.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to architect the operational foundation of a growing, SEC-registered investment platform.
• High-impact role with direct CEO partnership and meaningful influence across firm strategy.
• Competitive compensation, including base, performance bonus, and long-term incentive structure tied to platform health.

ASG is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.