How to Hire an Operations Manager — The Hard Lessons From 1,000+ Placements

“But, I know where all the documents are. The structure makes sense to ME.”

Those were the words my Operations Manager said to me. And the moment she said them, I knew we had a problem.

Here’s what had happened:

We were growing. Fast. New hires coming in. New processes needed. She said she was on it. Building SOPs. Organizing documents. Creating systems.

Except…nobody could find anything.

I’d ask for something and get sent on a treasure hunt through 4 different folders, 3 Google Drives, and an Airtable base with 34 different tabs.

She wasn’t building systems for the company.

She’d built a gate — and she had the only key.

Every question had to go through her. Every document required her to navigate. Every process needed her to explain.

She had made herself indispensable by making everything else incomprehensible.

When she left, I took every single one of her documents and moved them into a folder called Z_Archive. Removed everyone’s access. I suspect I will never look at that folder again.

Not because the documents didn’t exist. But because they were organized in a way that only made sense in her head.

That was the day I learned what a bad Operations Manager actually looks like. And it taught me more about how to hire an Operations Manager than any article or interview guide ever could.

We’ve now placed hundreds of people in operations and administrative roles through my company HireUA.

We’ve seen what great looks like — an ops hire that helped scale a company from $1 million to over $25 million.

And we’ve seen what bad looks like — the moats, the bloat, the “problem narrators” who tell you what’s wrong without ever fixing anything.

This is the article I wish I’d had before I made that first hire. This is how you hire an Operations Manager. A real one.

Last Updated: February 18th, 2026

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What an Operations Manager Actually Does

Most articles will tell you an Operations Manager “oversees systems, processes, and people that keep everything moving forward.”

Which tells you absolutely nothing.

Here’s the real answer:

When a client comes to me and says, “I need an Operations Manager,” the first question I ask is, “Great — what’s broken?”

Because that’s what an Operations Manager is for. Something is broken, messy, or about to collapse, and you need someone to walk in, diagnose it, and fix it. Not just organize it. Not just document it. Fix it.

And here’s where most founders go wrong:

There are do-ers.

And there are figure-it-out-ers.

As you might suspect, the second one tends to be more expensive. And usually, “the boss” doesn’t want to pay that person what they’re worth. Or worse — they hire a do-er and expect them to be a figure-it-out-er.

An Operations Manager is a figure-it-out-er.

This is a strategic role. If you still have to spell out every single thing you want improved in your operational processes, you don’t have an Operations Manager. You have someone following instructions.

The difference?

A do-er hears, “Our client onboarding is messy,” and waits for you to tell them what to fix.

A figure-it-out-er hears the same thing and comes back with,

“I audited the whole onboarding flow. Steps 3 and 5 are redundant. The handoff between sales and delivery has no owner. Here’s what I’d change, here’s why, and here’s the timeline.”

That’s the hire you’re looking for. That’s what it means to hire an Operations Manager who actually moves the needle.

This is exactly what happened with one of our clients, Max, who runs an e-commerce email marketing agency. He came to us looking for a copywriter. I told him he didn’t need a copywriter — he needed a Project Manager with a marketing background.

He wasn’t sure. He was torn between Anastasia — who had great personality and was easy to work with — and another candidate who was more technically qualified but, in his words, “personality-wise, kind of just boring.”

I told him, “Honestly, I wouldn’t underrate the culture fit aspect.”

He went with Anastasia. She didn’t come out of the box ready to go — most of the specific platform skills were trainable. But the instincts — the proactivity, the communication, the ownership — those you can’t train.

One year later, she was a “10 out of 10 perfect employee.” His agency grew to $40,000 a month. He’d signed over 200 clients. And three to five other agencies have since come to us and said, “We want someone like Max has.”

That’s the figure-it-out-er in action.

Project Manager vs. Operations Manager — Does It Matter?

These two roles are incredibly interchangeable. And most articles online will give you a textbook distinction that doesn’t apply to real businesses.

Here’s the practical difference:

Project Managers tend to work in IT or software — long-term sprints, JIRA boards, defined deliverables with clear deadlines. They’re managing the work.

Operations Managers are usually more client-facing or people-facing. They have direct reports. They own processes end-to-end. They’re managing the business.

If there’s any client management, any customer touchpoint, any human element beyond internal project delivery — that’s an Operations Manager. If it’s purely internal execution of a defined scope — that’s a Project Manager.

But in practice? Especially at companies doing under $10 million a year?

These roles blur constantly. We’ve placed Project Managers who became Operations Managers within months. We’ve placed Operations Managers whose day-to-day looked exactly like a PM. The title matters less than what’s actually broken.

The EA-to-Operations Pipeline

Here’s something most people don’t realize:

A really good Executive Assistant can handle light operations and project management work — depending on how much else is on their plate. Scheduling, vendor management, basic process coordination, keeping the trains running.

And if they’re great at it, the natural career path is EA → Operations Manager → Chief of Staff or even President.

This is exactly what happened with Slava at LIFT Enrichment. She started as an Operations Manager at $2,000 a month. Today, she’s essentially running the company.

It’s also what happened with one of our other placements — Sophia, who was placed as an EA for a solopreneur running a Twitter marketing agency. Within a year and a half, she’d been promoted to Operations Manager. She now runs client success, onboarding, and the operational backbone of the company.

If you already have an EA who’s showing operational instincts — proactively improving processes, suggesting systems, taking ownership beyond their defined tasks — you might not need to hire an Operations Manager from scratch. You might just need to promote the person who’s already doing the work.

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How Bad Operations Managers Kill Companies

I wrote an internal doc called “The Communist Factory” after watching this happen in my own company. And I’ve since seen the same pattern destroy dozens of businesses I’ve worked with.

Here’s how it works:

1. A company grows.
2. The founder is overwhelmed.
3. So they hire middle management — Operations Managers, Account Managers, Project Coordinators, Client Success leads.

These people aren’t cheap — $60K-$120K in US-equivalent salary.

And they start doing what middle managers do:

They coordinate. They align. They update. They create documents nobody reads. They manage…other managers.

I’ve since dubbed this MMMD — Managers Managing Managers Disease.

Here’s what happened in my own company:

Our senior person was busy. She promoted one of our best recruiters to Head of Recruiting. That recruiter stopped doing the thing that made her valuable. She became “Head of Recruiting,” which meant coordinating, aligning, making documents nobody read.

So we had to backfill her old role with someone cheaper.

Before I knew it:

The Operations Manager was “managing the recruiting function.” The Head of Recruiting was “managing the recruiting team.” And juniors were doing all the actual recruiting.

What did I do?

I removed the Operations Manager. I removed the Head of Recruiting. I kept the juniors who were actually doing the work.

And here’s what most people won’t tell you:

We got more efficient. Success rates went up. Speed multiplied. And I cut a fortune in costs.

Because suddenly there was no “managing the managers” nonsense. Just people doing.

But here’s what most people miss:

The real test is this — if that person disappeared tomorrow, what would actually break?

Not what would feel chaotic. What would actually break?

When my Operations Manager left, nothing broke. When my Head of Recruiting left, nothing broke. Four senior people departed in 100 days — and the company didn’t miss a beat.

I 86’d the entire OM’s task list. Threw it in the garbage. Nothing on that list mattered.

And…nothing happened.

Literally.

Not a beat was missed.

That told me everything.

When you hire an Operations Manager, you need someone who tears stuff down and improves it — not someone who builds their own.

The Glorified Forwarder Test

Here’s the moment that crystallized the problem for me.

I saw an Account Manager message a Recruiter: “Hey, can you pass this to the candidate?”

It was a simple scheduling question.

She could have messaged the candidate directly. 10 seconds. Done.

Instead, she forwarded it to the Recruiter to forward to the candidate to get an answer to forward back to her to forward to the client.

Count the steps there.

1. Client had a question
2. Account Manager received
3. AM forwarded it to the Recruiter
4. To forward to the candidate
5. To get an answer from the candidate
6. The Recruiter would forward back to the AM
7. The AM would then forward to the client

7 steps, when 3 would have sufficed (Client – AM – Candidate and back). We were literally 2x’ing the amount of work, time, and steps.

“That’s not my role” had become “That’s not my problem.”

Everyone stayed in their lane. And nothing moved.

A good Operations Manager sees this and kills this shit on day one. New rule: If you can solve it in one message, you solve it. Period.

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How to Screen an Operations Manager (Before You Waste 3 Months)

Most hiring advice will tell you to “look for leadership skills” and “evaluate cultural fit.” Useless.

Here’s how to actually screen for this role.

Read the Resume Like a Founder, Not an HR Person

Most Operations Manager resumes are filled with the same corporate fluff:

• “Led cross-functional teams to achieve organizational alignment”
• “Managed stakeholder relationships across multiple business units”
• “Drove operational excellence initiatives”

These phrases mean nothing. They’re filler. And if a resume is loaded with them, that’s your first red flag — this person is better at writing resumes than running operations.

Here’s what you look for instead:

Tangible, measurable outcomes.

• “Reduced client response SLA from 1 hour to 30 minutes”
• “Cut onboarding time by 40% by rebuilding the intake process”
• “Improved sales close rate by 23% through CRM automation”

Numbers. Results. Specifics.

“Led cross-functional collaboration” is a coordinator. “Cut cost per acquisition by 31%” is an operator.

Hire the second person. Every time.

Now, an important note:

Just because a resume is full of corporate fluff doesn’t mean you skip the interview entirely. AI has made resumes worse across the board — everyone’s running their CV through ChatGPT, and it spits out the same buzzwords for every candidate.

The resume gets them in the door.

The interview is where you find the truth.

If you see “Led cross-functional teams to achieve organizational alignment” on the CV, you don’t pass — you grill them.

In the interview, you say,

“So, you ‘led cross-functional teams and achieved alignment…what the fuck does that actually mean? What result did the alignment bring? What number improved? What percentage? What was the before and after?”

If they can give you specifics — great, the resume was just poorly written. If they fumble — the resume was the best version of what they did, and the reality is worse.

Brad, one of our clients in IT consulting, had hired domestically for years before coming to us. His take on the state of US talent was blunt: “US work ethic has only gone down significantly. Even when you pay premium rates, you can’t attract self-motivated candidates.”

We placed Nina from Ukraine as his Project Manager. His assessment after working with her: “Her work ethic is better than anyone else on my team’s, barring myself.” And this: “I’m having to work harder myself to keep up with her rate of getting through things.”

She was doing research on things she didn’t know — without being prompted. That’s the signal. That’s what you’re screening for.

The Interview Questions That Actually Work

Stop asking, “What’s your biggest weakness?”

The most useless question in hiring. Because what answers are you going to get?

“I’m a perfectionist.”

“I work too hard.”

“I care too much.”

Instead, ask these:

“Tell me about a time you completely failed at something important. What happened, and whose fault was it?”

Most people will try to spin a failure into a humble-brag. Push back. “No, I’m asking about a real failure. Where you screwed up and it cost someone something.”

If they can’t give you a real answer, either they’ve never tried anything difficult — or they can’t take responsibility. Both are massive problems for someone you’re trusting to run your operations.

“Walk me through your last month at your previous job. What were you actually doing day-to-day?”

This exposes exaggerated resumes instantly. If someone says they “led strategy” but can’t explain what that actually meant in terms of daily execution, they weren’t leading anything. You want specifics.

“Tell me about a time a project was stuck, and you had to get it unstuck. What did you do?”

Here’s what separates a coordinator from an operator:

Coordinator answer: “I scheduled a meeting with all stakeholders to align on next steps. We had a productive conversation and identified some blockers. I followed up with everyone individually to make sure we were all on the same page.”

Translation: They coordinated. They didn’t force anything.

Operator answer: “Client couldn’t decide between two options. I told them we needed a decision by Friday or we were losing both. I made a recommendation. They picked it. Done within a week.”

Translation: They forced a decision.

That distinction — coordinator vs. operator — is the entire ballgame when you hire an Operations Manager.

Spotting “The Weasel” in an Interview

I have a concept I call “The Weasel.” It’s the employee who narrates problems back to you instead of solving them.

They say things like, “I would need to understand what you are currently doing,” and then weasel their way out of actually having an opinion.

A good Operations Manager does the opposite. They grill you in the interview. They ask things like:

• “Can you explain this process to me? Why are you doing it this way?”
• “What are the KPIs you hold the team to? What will mine be?”
• “What does efficiency improvement look like to you — what percentage are you expecting, and over what timeline?”

If the candidate is asking better questions than you during the interview, you’ve probably found your person.

If they’re nodding along and saying, “I would need to learn more about the business before I could offer any insights” — that’s a Weasel. Pass.

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Define Concrete Results Before You Hire an Operations Manager

This is where most founders set themselves — and their Operations Manager — up to fail.

They say things like:

• “Make our processes better”
• “Improve efficiency”
• “Get things more organized”

What does “better” mean? What does “more efficient” mean? More efficient than what? By how much? Measured how?

If you can’t define what success looks like before you hire someone, nobody will ever succeed in the role. That’s not their failure — it’s yours.

Here’s what concrete results actually look like for an Operations Manager:

Process:

• “Client onboarding currently takes 14 days. Get it to 7”
• “We have 6 handoff points between sales and delivery. Reduce to 3”
• “Our team uses 4 different tools to track projects. Consolidate to 1”

Speed:

• “Internal issue resolution currently takes 2-3 business days. Get it under 24 hours”
• “Candidate submissions to clients take 5 days from intake. Get it to 3”

Cost:

• “We’re spending $X/month on tools we don’t fully use. Audit and cut by 30%”
• “Current team has 3 coordinators doing 1 person’s output. Fix the structure”

Systems:

• “A new team member should be able to find any document within 60 seconds. Right now it takes a Slack message and a 10-minute wait”
• “Build a weekly reporting cadence that I can read in under 5 minutes”

Notice the pattern:

Every single one has a before, an after, and a way to measure it.

This is the Definition of Done for the role itself. Without it, your Operations Manager is swimming in ambiguity — and you’re going to be frustrated that “things aren’t improving” while they’re frustrated that they don’t know what improving even means.

Write these down before you post the job. Share them in the interview. Make them part of the scorecard from day one.

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What a Great Operations Manager Does in the First 90 Days

People underestimate how long real change takes. An Operations Manager isn’t going to right a ship that’s sinking in 14 days. If someone promises you that, they’re selling you something.

Here’s what the first 90 days should actually look like:

Days 1-30: The Audit

They should be deep-diving into everything. Processes. Systems. Workflows. Tools. Team structure. Asking “why” at every step.

If X happens, then what? When Y happens, we go to Z — why? How could it be improved?

They should come out of the first month with a list of suggested improvements, ranked by impact. Not a list of problems — anyone can spot problems. A list of solutions with reasoning.

Days 31-60: The First Fixes

Start implementing the highest-impact changes. Quick wins first — things that show the team and the founder that this person can execute, not just diagnose.

This is where the do-er vs. figure-it-out-er distinction becomes obvious. A do-er will ask you which things to fix first. A figure-it-out-er already knows and has started.

Days 61-90: The System

By day 90, they should have built or rebuilt at least one critical system from scratch. Something that didn’t exist before — or something that existed but only worked when one person was around to explain it.

And here’s the test:

Could someone brand new walk in and understand the system in 60 seconds? If yes — you’ve got a real operator. If no — if it “makes sense to them” but nobody else — you’ve got another moat-builder.

The McDonald’s test applies here.

McDonald’s needs a 16-year-old kid off the street who immediately understands how to operate the fry machine. Your operations should be the same. Not because your work is as simple as frying — but because your systems should be that clear.

If only a genius can run your operations, you don’t have a system. You have a dependency.

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The W5 Framework: What Your Operations Manager Should Build for Your Company

Most articles about hiring an Operations Manager stop at “find someone with leadership skills and cross-functional experience.”

Which is about as useful as telling someone to “find a good restaurant.”

Here’s what actually makes an operations hire succeed or fail:

Whether they build systems that enforce accountability without a human standing over everyone’s shoulder.

I built something called the W5 Framework after years of watching Operations Managers fail — not because they were bad people, but because the companies they joined had no system for holding anyone accountable.

And here’s the key reframe:

The W5 isn’t something you use ON your Operations Manager. It’s the tool your Operations Manager uses to fix YOUR company.

Why Human Accountability Fails

People don’t truly understand what systems are. They think a system is a library of documents. A shared Google Drive. A Notion workspace.

Wrong.

A real system outthinks human nature. It forces behavior.

Here’s the human problem:

You want to be liked. You make more money than your staff. You don’t want to be the bad guy. So you let things slide.

Someone has a bad day, a sick kid, a personal crisis. You’re human — you give them a pass. Every time.

These aren’t flaws. They’re human nature. And that’s exactly why humans can’t be the enforcement mechanism.

Here’s how standards decay when humans are the judge:

• “My kid had a 39° fever.” Exception granted.
• “My kid had a 38.7° fever.” Close enough — exception.
• “My kid wasn’t feeling well.” Sure, we understand.
• “I had a rough morning.” Okay, just this once.
• Three hours late is the new normal. Nobody even notices.

You never get your head chopped off. You bleed out slowly — and nobody sees it happening.

The W5: A Diagnostic Your Operations Manager Should Run on Every Process

When you hire an Operations Manager, hand them this framework and say, “Audit every process in this company. For each one, answer these five questions. Where you can’t answer #4 or #5 — that’s where we’re bleeding.”

1. WHAT needs to happen?
2. WHEN does it need to happen by?
3. WHY does it need to happen?
4. WHAT happens if it doesn’t? (The consequence)
5. WHERE does the truth live? (The proof)

Most companies can answer the first three. Almost none can answer four and five.

And four and five are where accountability lives.

Mousetrap Theory: What a Good OM Builds

I call this Mousetrap Theory. Instead of relying on managers to enforce rules, a great Operations Manager builds systems that enforce themselves.

Instead of: “You need to follow up with leads within 24 hours.”

→ The system sends an alert at 23 hours if no follow-up is logged, escalates to the manager at 25 hours, and marks it as a miss in their performance review.

Instead of: “Everyone needs to log their time.”

→ Payroll doesn’t process unless time is logged. No exceptions.

Instead of: “We need to hit our weekly goals.”

→ The week cannot be marked as complete in the system until goals are hit or explicitly marked as missed with explanation.

The system doesn’t care about excuses. That’s the point.

A great Operations Manager designs these mousetraps for every critical process in your company. They remove the human from enforcement. They make accountability automatic.

This matters double for remote teams. You have two human elements — the person being held accountable and the person doing the holding — with zero hallway check-ins. Drift happens faster. Mousetraps stop it.

When you interview an Operations Manager, ask them: “How would you ensure a team follows a process without having to remind them?”

If their answer involves “regular check-ins” and “holding people accountable in meetings” — they’re going to be the enforcer, not the architect. And enforcers don’t work long term, as outlined above.

If their answer involves building automated consequences into the workflow itself — they get it.

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What Does It Cost to Hire an Operations Manager?

In the US, a solid Operations Manager runs $150,000 or more per year. In major metros with experience in scaling operations, you’re looking at $175K-$250K when you add benefits, taxes, and overhead.

Through overseas hiring — specifically Eastern Europe and Latin America — you can find Operations Managers with the same skill set, fluent English, and real management experience for $2,000-$3,000 per month. That’s $24K-$36K per year.

The savings are significant. But there’s an important nuance for this role that’s different from hiring a Virtual Assistant or a Social Media Manager:

You need time zone overlap.

An Operations Manager isn’t someone you want working fully asynchronously. This is a role that needs real-time communication with your team, your clients, and you. They’re managing people. They’re solving problems live. They need to be online when things are happening.

Eastern Europe overlaps well with US East Coast — 4-6 hours of shared working time. Latin America is even better — most of LatAm is within 1-3 hours of US time zones, which means near-complete overlap.

This is not a freelance role. It cannot be done at 10 hours a week. You’re looking at either 20 hours or 40 hours a week — and most companies that are serious about fixing their operations go full-time.

And here’s an insider note:

The tools don’t matter as much as people think. Everyone asks, “Do they know Asana? Monday? ClickUp? Notion?”

They’re all the same. If someone knows their way around one project management tool, they can learn any of them. We place people who aren’t potatoes. If they can use Monday, they can learn Asana. If they know ClickUp, Basecamp is simple.

What actually matters is whether they understand automations and workflow design — Zapier, Make, building triggers and escalations. Can they think in systems? That’s the real question. Not which buttons they know how to click.

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When You Hire an Operations Manager Who Delivers: Real Case Studies

I can talk theory all day. But here’s what actually happens when you make the right hire.

LIFT Enrichment — From $1 Million to $25 Million

Eric ran LIFT Enrichment, an education and enrichment services company. He was stuck in every part of the business — recruiting, admin, account management, and operations. He needed someone to take operations off his plate entirely.

We placed Slava.

She was 22 years old. And she’d been one of the most popular restaurants in Kyiv, Ukraine. Line out the door constantly.

I pushed hard for her. My client wasn’t sure — she was young, she had no experience in his industry. But I knew something:

If a 22-year-old can manage a packed restaurant in one of the biggest cities in Eastern Europe — the chaos, the staff, the customers, the inventory, the pace — she can manage operations for a US company.

That was 2022. She was hired at $2,000 a month.

LIFT Enrichment scaled from $1 million to over $25 million in annual revenue. The team grew from roughly 75 instructors and 10 internal staff to over 210 instructors and 25 internal team members.

Eric’s words, on camera: “One person — Slava — runs my entire operation department. I can be on the other side of the world in Dubai and she did absolutely everything with a huge amount of success.”

And this: “I’m saving over 70% and getting the same result.”

Now, for the kicker that may surprise you:

“All my friends who run businesses, they have operations people. But honestly, I feel like mine — with that Ukrainian mindset, problem solving, and ability to adapt to problems — she takes things and solves them the way that I would.”

That last part is what every founder is looking for. Not just competence. Someone who thinks like you.

That’s not something you find on a job board. That’s the kind of placement that happens when a recruiter understands work ethic, transferable skills, and what actually matters in a hire — not just what’s on the resume.

You can hire an Operations Manager like Slava. Book a call with our team →

Brad — The IT Consulting CEO Who Saved $55,000/Year

Brad had already been quoted earlier in this article, but the full story is worth telling.

He runs an IT consulting and business process management company. He’d spent years hiring domestically and was done with the experience. We placed Nina from Ukraine as his Project Manager.

She freed up 15-18 hours of Brad’s week. She was researching things on her own, taking ownership of delivery, and keeping up a pace that pushed Brad to work harder himself.

Annual savings compared to a domestic PM hire: Over $55,000.

His take on working with us: “Y’all got me five candidates faster than I’ve ever gotten even one candidate from a US firm.”

Skyro Digital — The Full Story

Max’s placement was mentioned earlier, but here’s the part that matters for anyone looking to hire an Operations Manager:

We redirected him from the wrong hire to the right one. He wanted a copywriter. We told him he needed a PM with marketing instincts. He went with the candidate we recommended based on personality and culture fit over raw technical skills.

One year later?

His words:

“I feel like a modern day kind of factory owner where I just walk into the factory and see all the people creating stuff. And I didn’t even touch it.”

That’s the outcome every founder wants. And it started with a recruiter saying, “You don’t need what you think you need.”

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The Vacation Test: A Quick Gut Check

Here’s a simple way to evaluate your current Operations Manager — or anyone on your team.

Send them on vacation for two weeks.

If nothing breaks, either you have amazing systems (congratulations) — or that person wasn’t doing much.

Elon Musk famously did this with an assistant of 10-12 years. She asked for a raise. He told her to go on vacation for two weeks first. She came back and no longer had a job.

Brutal? Sure.

But I’ve experienced this firsthand. My Operations Manager went on vacation, and it was kind of just…“Hmm. I don’t think anything missed, really.”

That was a sign.

Compare that to my current assistant. When she told me she had a trip planned at week seven, I was dreading it. Because I was going to miss what she takes off my plate.

That is a good sign.

If you’re not dreading their vacation — you have a problem.

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10 FAQs About Hiring an Operations Manager

1. How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Operations Manager?

In the US, expect $150K+ annually for someone with real experience. Through overseas hiring in Eastern Europe or Latin America, expect $2,000-$3,000 per month ($24K-$36K/year) for comparable quality. The savings are 70%+ without sacrificing skill level.

2. What’s the Difference Between a Project Manager and an Operations Manager?

Project Managers focus on defined scopes — sprints, deliverables, timelines. Operations Managers are broader — they own processes end-to-end, often manage people directly, and usually have client or customer touchpoints. In practice, these roles overlap heavily, especially at companies under $10M in revenue.

3. How Do I Know if I Need an Operations Manager?

If you’re the one solving every operational problem, approving every process change, and fielding every internal question — you needed one yesterday. The clearest signal is when growth is limited by your personal bandwidth, not by market demand.

4. Should I Hire an Operations Manager Full-Time or Part-Time?

This is not a freelance role. You need a minimum of 20 hours per week, and most companies serious about fixing operations go full-time at 40 hours. An Operations Manager needs to be embedded in your team, not dipping in and out.

5. What Tools Should an Operations Manager Know?

PM tools (Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Basecamp), automation platforms (Zapier, Make), CRM basics, and Google Workspace or equivalent. But the tools matter far less than the thinking. If they know one PM tool, they can learn any of them. What matters is whether they can design systems and automations, not which specific software they’ve used.

6. How Long Before an Operations Manager Shows Results?

Expect the first 30 days to be an audit. Real fixes start in months 2-3. If someone promises to “right the ship” in two weeks, they’re selling you something. Genuine operational change takes 90 days minimum.

7. Can I Hire an Operations Manager Remotely?

Yes — but time zone overlap is critical for this role. You need real-time communication, not async updates once a day. Eastern Europe (4-6 hours overlap with US East Coast) and Latin America (1-3 hours difference) are the strongest regions for this.

8. What’s the Biggest Mistake Founders Make When Hiring an Operations Manager?

Two things. First: Hiring a do-er when they need a strategist. If your Operations Manager needs you to tell them what to fix, you’ve hired a task executor. Second: Not defining concrete results before the hire starts. “Make things better” is not a target. “Reduce onboarding time from 14 days to 7” is.

9. Can an Executive Assistant Grow Into an Operations Manager?

Absolutely. A great EA who shows operational instincts — proactively improving processes, suggesting systems, taking ownership beyond their tasks — is a natural candidate for the OM role. The career path of EA → Operations Manager → Chief of Staff is one of the most effective progressions we’ve seen. One of our EA placements was promoted to Operations Manager within 18 months and now runs the operational backbone of a million-dollar agency.

10. How Long Does It Take to Hire an Operations Manager Through HireUA?

We typically present vetted candidates within 5-7 business days. Most clients complete interviews and make a hire within 2-3 weeks of engaging us. We source from Eastern Europe and Latin America with full-time dedicated talent — not freelancers, not gig workers.

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Hire an Operations Manager Who Builds the Company — Not a Moat Around Their Job

If you’ve read this far, you already know this isn’t just about “finding someone with leadership skills.”

It’s about finding someone who can walk into your business, diagnose what’s broken, build systems that enforce themselves, and drive real, measurable outcomes.

That’s what we do at HireUA.

We’ve placed Operations Managers who’ve helped scale companies from $1 million to $25 million. We’ve placed Project Managers who’ve saved founders 15-20 hours a week. We’ve redirected founders away from the wrong hire toward the right one — and watched it transform their business.

Every placement comes with real onboarding support and a team that actually understands what makes an operations hire succeed or fail.

Because we’ve been on both sides. We’ve made the bad hire. We’ve fired the Operations Manager. We’ve cleaned up the mess. And we built something better.

Book a call with our team →