Chief Operating Officer

Are you seeking a rare opportunity to transform a 37 year, top 500 accounting firm into an advisory focused, multi service line professional services firm scaling to 5X its current size in the next 3 to 5 years? If so, read on to see what your future holds.

About DRDA

DRDA is a growing CPA and Advisory firm serving businesses with 250 employees or less. Our Mission is to empower businesses and ourselves to achieve a sustainable future through high-integrity advisory, tax, accounting, and people-focused leadership. Our Brand Promise is working to improve your future — not just account for your past.

Today, DRDA operates at approximately $10 million in annual revenue with 50 team members, and we are intentionally scaling to $50 million and 200 employees over the next three to five years. This next stage of growth requires strong operational leadership, disciplined execution, and scalable systems — which is why the Chief Operating Officer role is mission-critical.

Role Summary

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a calm, disciplined, values-aligned integrator who turns vision into execution, builds accountable leaders, and scales people, systems, and culture without losing the soul of the Firm.

This role owns the day-to-day operations of the Firm. The COO is responsible for ensuring that all departments of the Firm operate as an integrated, collaborative organization rather than independent functions. As DRDA continues to expand its service offerings, the COO will guide each service line through its respective stage of maturity—establishing consistency, scalability, and operational discipline.

This role requires strong change management capability, as DRDA continues its intentional transition from a traditional engagement-based CPA firm model to an advisory-led firm built on proactive planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term client relationships. The COO plays a central role in operationalizing this evolution.

The COO frees Firm leadership to focus on vision, strategy, growth, and advisory excellence, while ensuring the operational engine of DRDA consistently delivers for clients and team members.

Core Accountabilities

Firm Operations & Execution

• Own and optimize all Firm-wide operating systems and workflows
• Ensure consistent execution of DRDA's strategic plan, annual priorities, and quarterly goals
• Translate strategic objectives into clear operational plans with owners, timelines, and metrics
• Eliminate operational bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and execution risk as the Firm scales
• Raise level of Client Experience so that it exceeds their expectations
• Ensure service lines share tools, data, and processes to deliver a seamless and consistent client experience
• Partner with service line leaders to guide each practice toward operational maturity appropriate to its growth stage

People, Structure & Accountability

• Reinforce DRDA's culture of people development, with a clear preference to grow and promote leaders from within the Firm whenever possible
• Design and evolve the Firm's organizational structure to support growth from 50 to 200 employees
• Ensure clear roles, responsibilities, and accountability across leadership and management teams
• Partner with HR leadership on talent planning, career pathing, talent growth, leadership development, performance management, and succession readiness
• Build and maintain a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and operational excellence

Financial & Operational Performance

• Partner with Finance and Firm leadership to create and monitor KPIs, dashboards, and financial performance to ensure targets are met and exceeded across the entire organization
• Ensure budget discipline is aligned with strategic priorities
• Improve margin performance, capacity management, talent utilization, and cash flow

Client Service & Delivery Excellence

• Ensure DRDA consistently delivers an exceptional client experience at scale
• Ensure that service lines are designed to complement and reinforce one another, enabling cross-service collaboration and cross-promotion
• Partner with service line leaders to improve workflow management, quality control, timeliness, and consistency
• Ensure operational infrastructure supports DRDA's advisory-first brand promise

Systems, Technology & Process Improvement

• Oversee selection, implementation, integration, and optimization of Firm-wide systems and tools that delivers an integrated experience to clients
• Drive process documentation, standardization, and continuous improvement
• Ensure technology enables scale, visibility, and accountability — not complexity

Leadership Team Integration

• Serve as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team
• Act as a trusted thought partner to the Managing Partner/CEO
• Facilitate cross-functional planning and execution to ensure Firm initiatives are executed consistently across all departments
• Lead operational cadence including weekly, monthly, and quarterly execution rhythms

Leadership Style & Expectations

The successful COO at DRDA will:

• Be a servant leader with strong executive presence
• Balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Be comfortable driving difficult decisions and holding leaders accountable
• Lead with integrity, humility, and alignment with DRDA's values
• Be respected across the organization as a builder, stabilizer, and problem-solver
• Protect the Firm's culture during times of rapid growth
• Create clarity and stability during change while maintaining momentum and engagement

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Senior operational leadership experience in professional services, or advisory environments 7+ years strongly preferred
• Proven experience scaling an organization through significant growth
• Strong operational and financial acumen
• Demonstrated success building scalable teams, systems, and processes
• Bachelor's degree required; MBA, CGMA, PMP or advanced business education a plus

What Success Looks Like

First 12 Months

• Gain an in-depth understanding of the culture and people to determine right people in the right role; Make sure roles are clear and organizational chart is outlined for growth success
• Utilization rate and gross margin contribution targets are achieved across all departments
• Clear operational cadence and accountability rhythm in place
• Improved visibility into Firm performance via dashboards and KPIs
• Strengthened leadership alignment and execution consistency
• Reduced operational friction across departments
• Organizational structure aligned with the 3–5 year growth plan

3–5 Years

• DRDA operating efficiently and predictably at $50M+ revenue
• Scalable systems supporting 200 employees and thousands of clients
• Strong leadership bench and management maturity
• High client satisfaction and employee engagement
• Firm leadership freed to focus on vision, growth, and advisory excellence

Why This Role Matters

This role is not a back-office administrator. It is a critical growth engine for DRDA.

The right COO will help shape the Firm's future, the careers of hundreds of professionals, and the impact DRDA has on thousands of clients and their families for decades to come.