Chief Operating Officer

About the company and role

Strata Financial is a rapidly expanding, full-service accountancy group with a clear ambition to join Ireland’s Top 10 accounting firms by 2028. The business operates from six offices across the North East/South East Corridor of Ireland and is growing through both organic expansion and the acquisition of other firms.

The group is looking for a practical, hands-on Chief Operating Officer who can design and run the operating engine that keeps every office, team and newly acquired practice working in a consistent way. This role is centred on execution: standardising operations, improving processes, integrating acquisitions and building the systems and controls needed for profitable growth.

What you will do

• Develop and implement a unified operating model across compliance, audit, accounting, tax, advisory, bookkeeping, payroll and client onboarding.
• Set up dependable workflows, file structures, review checkpoints, service-level expectations, quality controls, KPIs, dashboards and regular management cadences across all offices and service lines.
• Strengthen utilisation, recovery, work-in-progress, lock-up, write-offs, client throughput and wider operational performance through stronger ownership and better reporting.
• Eliminate duplicated effort, manual work and operational inefficiencies in both legacy and acquired offices, replacing them with improved processes, shared services and technology.
• Oversee and streamline the practice technology environment, covering practice management, document management, workflow, time and billing, payroll, ID and AML, and client portal tools.
• Lead acquisition integration through a repeatable 30/60/90/180-day plan addressing systems, people, clients, processes, premises and brand.
• Run systems migrations from start to finish, including scoping, vendor coordination, data migration, parallel running, cutover, user adoption and retirement of old systems without disrupting service.
• Collaborate with HR, IT, Finance, Marketing, technical and risk teams to align contracts, roles, benefits, performance frameworks, working practices, cultural matters and regulatory standards across ICAEW, ACCA, AAT and related requirements.
• Monitor integration progress, cost-to-serve improvements, system savings and synergy delivery, and report clearly to the CEO, CFO and board.
• Support M&A due diligence by reviewing systems debt, process maturity, staffing reliance, client concentration, operational risk and realistic integration costs.
• Chair integration governance and advise senior leadership on capacity, pricing, service-line expansion and capital allocation.

What the business is looking for

• Proven background as a COO, Operations Director, Head of Integration, Head of Transformation or in a similar leadership role within accountancy, professional services, legal, consulting, wealth management or another fee-generating environment.
• Direct experience of buy-and-build or roll-up activity, ideally in a private equity-backed setting, with hands-on involvement in at least three completed integrations.
• Strong understanding of accountancy practice operations, including compliance workflows, advisory delivery, work-in-progress, lock-up, recovery, utilisation and partner economics.
• Confidence using platforms such as Drive, CCH, IRIS, Karbon, Xero, Sage, Dext, BrightPay, Senta, Inflo, FYI, Virtual Cabinet or comparable systems.
• Demonstrated success in delivering system migrations, operational KPIs, dashboards and governance in a partnership or partner-led environment.
• A relevant third-level qualification would be helpful, although credibility with partners and principals from acquired firms is more important.
• A commercially minded, delivery-focused, analytical, politically aware, resilient, practical and highly organised approach under pressure.

Additional information

This is not a strategy-only role, a deputy CEO position or a position in a fully polished operating environment. Strata Financial is still building, with working but developing systems and processes and many further transactions ahead. The objective is to fix the current setup, scale it and make each future integration smoother and stronger than the one before.

Remuneration

A highly competitive salary and benefits package is on offer.

Application requirements

Applicants should include a CV and a short cover note explaining: (i) two integrations they have personally led, (ii) the operational KPI they are most proud of improving, and (iii) their view on the most common reason accountancy firm integrations fail to meet their deal model.

Contact

For an initial enquiry or to submit an application, contact Yvonne McNulty, Senior Partner, at Brightwater Executive.