COO Jobs in Wisconsin
COO jobs in Wisconsin are consistently active, with demand concentrated in manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and agricultural technology, drawing candidates from entry-level operations leadership through seasoned C-suite executives. Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay anchor most of the hiring, with major employers such as Kohler Co., Aurora Health Care, and Johnson Controls maintaining deep operational leadership needs across the state. The most sought-after specialties include supply chain optimization, multi-site operations management, and healthcare system administration. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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Showing 5 of 73+ COO jobs
Location: Eau Claire, WI
Compensation: $170,000–$200,000 Base Salary + Performance-Based Incentive
Employment Type: Full-Time
About the Opportunity
Pathway Talent Partners is partnering with a growing, entrepreneurial comany to identify an experienced Chief Operating Officer with a strong background in supply chain management, operational leadership, and business scalability.
Our client is an innovative, founder-led organization experiencing an exciting period of growth and market expansion. As the business continues to evolve, they are seeking a strategic, hands-on operational leader who can build the infrastructure, processes, and supply chain capabilities necessary to support its next stage of growth.
This is a unique opportunity for an experienced operations executive who enjoys building businesses, solving complex challenges, and working closely with ownership to turn an entrepreneurial growth story into a scalable, profitable organization.
The ideal candidate will combine deep supply chain expertise with strong financial acumen, commercial awareness, and the ability to move seamlessly between strategic leadership and day-to-day execution.
Position Overview
Reporting directly to the company's founder, the Chief Operating Officer will serve as a key strategic and operational partner, responsible for translating the organization's growth strategy into disciplined execution.
A significant focus of this position will be building and optimizing the company's end-to-end supply chain, including demand forecasting, sourcing, production planning, inventory management, co-manufacturing relationships, logistics, fulfillment, and cost management.
Beyond supply chain, the COO will establish the operating structure, financial visibility, and organizational processes needed to support continued expansion while maintaining product quality, customer service, and profitability.
This is not a traditional corporate COO position. The successful candidate will be comfortable developing long-term strategy while remaining actively involved in supplier negotiations, inventory planning, operational problem-solving, financial analysis, and execution.
Key Responsibilities
Supply Chain Strategy & Production Management
- Lead the development and execution of the company's end-to-end supply chain strategy.
- Establish effective demand forecasting, production planning, purchasing, and inventory management processes.
- Translate sales forecasts, customer opportunities, and promotional activity into actionable production and supply plans.
- Develop and manage relationships with suppliers, co-manufacturers, packaging vendors, logistics providers, and other strategic partners.
- Establish appropriate inventory levels, reorder points, safety stock requirements, production schedules, and lead-time expectations.
- Identify potential supply chain constraints and proactively develop solutions to minimize business disruption.
- Evaluate additional suppliers, manufacturing partners, and production capabilities to support continued growth.
- Develop contingency plans to mitigate supply chain risks and ensure operational continuity.
Inventory, Logistics & Fulfillment
- Build disciplined inventory management practices that improve accuracy, visibility, and efficiency.
- Establish reporting and controls across raw materials, packaging, work-in-process, and finished goods.
- Monitor inventory turns, aging inventory, stockouts, fulfillment performance, and customer service levels.
- Optimize warehousing, freight, distribution, and customer fulfillment processes.
- Partner with sales and commercial leadership to support new customer launches, promotions, and changes in demand.
- Balance product availability and customer service expectations with inventory investment and working capital requirements.
Financial Performance & Margin Management
- Develop strong financial visibility into cost of goods sold, gross margins, inventory, and operating expenses.
- Analyze product, customer, and distribution channel profitability to support strategic decision-making.
- Monitor and manage ingredient, packaging, production, storage, freight, and fulfillment costs.
- Identify opportunities to improve margins through strategic sourcing, vendor negotiations, production efficiencies, and operational improvements.
- Partner with accounting and leadership on budgeting, forecasting, inventory valuation, and cash flow planning.
- Evaluate the operational and financial implications of new products, customer opportunities, promotional initiatives, and distribution expansion.
Operational Leadership & Business Infrastructure
- Design and implement scalable operating processes capable of supporting significant organizational growth.
- Establish meaningful key performance indicators and reporting dashboards across supply chain, production, inventory, fulfillment, and financial performance.
- Develop consistent operating rhythms around forecasting, purchasing, production planning, inventory management, and business performance.
- Evaluate and implement systems, technology, and tools that improve operational visibility and efficiency.
- Establish clear responsibilities, workflows, communication practices, and accountability across the organization.
- Identify operational challenges, develop solutions, and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
- Build, develop, and lead operational teams as the organization continues to expand.
Strategic Leadership & Commercial Partnership
- Serve as a trusted strategic partner to the founder in shaping and executing the company's long-term growth strategy.
- Collaborate closely with sales and commercial teams to align operational capabilities with customer demand and growth opportunities.
- Evaluate the operational requirements associated with expanding into new customers, retailers, distributors, markets, and sales channels.
- Support new product development and SKU decisions through analysis of sourcing, production complexity, costs, margins, and scalability.
- Ensure operational capacity, infrastructure, and resources evolve alongside commercial growth.
- Provide leadership with meaningful data, financial insights, and recommendations to support major business decisions.
Quality, Food Safety & Compliance
- Partner with suppliers, manufacturing partners, and external resources to maintain strong product quality and food safety standards.
- Establish appropriate traceability, documentation, and operational controls throughout the supply chain.
- Support compliance with applicable food production regulations, customer requirements, and industry standards.
- Ensure operational processes and infrastructure can support the increased expectations associated with larger retail and distribution relationships.
Qualifications & Experience
Required Qualifications
- Approximately 8–15+ years of progressive experience in operations, supply chain management, manufacturing, or related leadership positions.
- Demonstrated experience leading and improving complex supply chain and operational functions.
- Strong expertise across several of the following areas:
- Supply chain strategy and management
- Demand forecasting and production planning
- Procurement and strategic sourcing
- Inventory management and optimization
- Co-manufacturing and vendor management
- Warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment
- Freight and logistics
- COGS analysis and margin management
- Strong financial acumen, including an understanding of inventory, working capital, gross margins, operating expenses, and cash flow.
- Demonstrated ability to establish processes, implement KPIs, improve reporting, and build operational discipline.
- Strong negotiation, vendor management, and relationship-building skills.
- Ability to analyze complex operational and financial information and translate insights into actionable business decisions.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive accountability throughout an organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Leadership experience within food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, meat/protein, food manufacturing, agriculture, or a related consumer products industry.
- Experience helping scale a founder-led, privately held, entrepreneurial, or rapidly growing organization.
- Familiarity with outsourced manufacturing models and managing third-party production partners.
- Experience supporting retail, wholesale, distributor, or national account expansion.
- Background in building operational infrastructure within an organization experiencing significant growth.
- Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain management, operations, finance, engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
Location: Eau Claire, WI
Compensation: $170,000–$200,000 Base Salary + Performance-Based Incentive
Employment Type: Full-Time
About the Opportunity
Pathway Talent Partners is partnering with a growing, entrepreneurial comany to identify an experienced Chief Operating Officer with a strong background in supply chain management, operational leadership, and business scalability.
Our client is an innovative, founder-led organization experiencing an exciting period of growth and market expansion. As the business continues to evolve, they are seeking a strategic, hands-on operational leader who can build the infrastructure, processes, and supply chain capabilities necessary to support its next stage of growth.
This is a unique opportunity for an experienced operations executive who enjoys building businesses, solving complex challenges, and working closely with ownership to turn an entrepreneurial growth story into a scalable, profitable organization.
The ideal candidate will combine deep supply chain expertise with strong financial acumen, commercial awareness, and the ability to move seamlessly between strategic leadership and day-to-day execution.
Position Overview
Reporting directly to the company's founder, the Chief Operating Officer will serve as a key strategic and operational partner, responsible for translating the organization's growth strategy into disciplined execution.
A significant focus of this position will be building and optimizing the company's end-to-end supply chain, including demand forecasting, sourcing, production planning, inventory management, co-manufacturing relationships, logistics, fulfillment, and cost management.
Beyond supply chain, the COO will establish the operating structure, financial visibility, and organizational processes needed to support continued expansion while maintaining product quality, customer service, and profitability.
This is not a traditional corporate COO position. The successful candidate will be comfortable developing long-term strategy while remaining actively involved in supplier negotiations, inventory planning, operational problem-solving, financial analysis, and execution.
Key Responsibilities
Supply Chain Strategy & Production Management
- Lead the development and execution of the company's end-to-end supply chain strategy.
- Establish effective demand forecasting, production planning, purchasing, and inventory management processes.
- Translate sales forecasts, customer opportunities, and promotional activity into actionable production and supply plans.
- Develop and manage relationships with suppliers, co-manufacturers, packaging vendors, logistics providers, and other strategic partners.
- Establish appropriate inventory levels, reorder points, safety stock requirements, production schedules, and lead-time expectations.
- Identify potential supply chain constraints and proactively develop solutions to minimize business disruption.
- Evaluate additional suppliers, manufacturing partners, and production capabilities to support continued growth.
- Develop contingency plans to mitigate supply chain risks and ensure operational continuity.
Inventory, Logistics & Fulfillment
- Build disciplined inventory management practices that improve accuracy, visibility, and efficiency.
- Establish reporting and controls across raw materials, packaging, work-in-process, and finished goods.
- Monitor inventory turns, aging inventory, stockouts, fulfillment performance, and customer service levels.
- Optimize warehousing, freight, distribution, and customer fulfillment processes.
- Partner with sales and commercial leadership to support new customer launches, promotions, and changes in demand.
- Balance product availability and customer service expectations with inventory investment and working capital requirements.
Financial Performance & Margin Management
- Develop strong financial visibility into cost of goods sold, gross margins, inventory, and operating expenses.
- Analyze product, customer, and distribution channel profitability to support strategic decision-making.
- Monitor and manage ingredient, packaging, production, storage, freight, and fulfillment costs.
- Identify opportunities to improve margins through strategic sourcing, vendor negotiations, production efficiencies, and operational improvements.
- Partner with accounting and leadership on budgeting, forecasting, inventory valuation, and cash flow planning.
- Evaluate the operational and financial implications of new products, customer opportunities, promotional initiatives, and distribution expansion.
Operational Leadership & Business Infrastructure
- Design and implement scalable operating processes capable of supporting significant organizational growth.
- Establish meaningful key performance indicators and reporting dashboards across supply chain, production, inventory, fulfillment, and financial performance.
- Develop consistent operating rhythms around forecasting, purchasing, production planning, inventory management, and business performance.
- Evaluate and implement systems, technology, and tools that improve operational visibility and efficiency.
- Establish clear responsibilities, workflows, communication practices, and accountability across the organization.
- Identify operational challenges, develop solutions, and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
- Build, develop, and lead operational teams as the organization continues to expand.
Strategic Leadership & Commercial Partnership
- Serve as a trusted strategic partner to the founder in shaping and executing the company's long-term growth strategy.
- Collaborate closely with sales and commercial teams to align operational capabilities with customer demand and growth opportunities.
- Evaluate the operational requirements associated with expanding into new customers, retailers, distributors, markets, and sales channels.
- Support new product development and SKU decisions through analysis of sourcing, production complexity, costs, margins, and scalability.
- Ensure operational capacity, infrastructure, and resources evolve alongside commercial growth.
- Provide leadership with meaningful data, financial insights, and recommendations to support major business decisions.
Quality, Food Safety & Compliance
- Partner with suppliers, manufacturing partners, and external resources to maintain strong product quality and food safety standards.
- Establish appropriate traceability, documentation, and operational controls throughout the supply chain.
- Support compliance with applicable food production regulations, customer requirements, and industry standards.
- Ensure operational processes and infrastructure can support the increased expectations associated with larger retail and distribution relationships.
Qualifications & Experience
Required Qualifications
- Approximately 8–15+ years of progressive experience in operations, supply chain management, manufacturing, or related leadership positions.
- Demonstrated experience leading and improving complex supply chain and operational functions.
- Strong expertise across several of the following areas:
- Supply chain strategy and management
- Demand forecasting and production planning
- Procurement and strategic sourcing
- Inventory management and optimization
- Co-manufacturing and vendor management
- Warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment
- Freight and logistics
- COGS analysis and margin management
- Strong financial acumen, including an understanding of inventory, working capital, gross margins, operating expenses, and cash flow.
- Demonstrated ability to establish processes, implement KPIs, improve reporting, and build operational discipline.
- Strong negotiation, vendor management, and relationship-building skills.
- Ability to analyze complex operational and financial information and translate insights into actionable business decisions.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and drive accountability throughout an organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Leadership experience within food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, meat/protein, food manufacturing, agriculture, or a related consumer products industry.
- Experience helping scale a founder-led, privately held, entrepreneurial, or rapidly growing organization.
- Familiarity with outsourced manufacturing models and managing third-party production partners.
- Experience supporting retail, wholesale, distributor, or national account expansion.
- Background in building operational infrastructure within an organization experiencing significant growth.
- Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain management, operations, finance, engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
See All 73 COO Jobs in Wisconsin
Find roles in Wisconsin that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find COO JobsCOO Jobs by City in Wisconsin
Where Wisconsin roles are concentrated, by current openings.
COO Job Market in Wisconsin
A snapshot from current Wisconsin openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Healthcare & Medical Services
What Wisconsin Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in COO jobs across Wisconsin.
- Bachelor's degree in business administration, operations management, or a related field required
- Ten or more years of progressive leadership experience in operations or a related function
- Demonstrated experience managing P&L responsibility across multiple business units or facilities
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams of fifty or more employees through organizational change
- Experience in Wisconsin's dominant sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, or financial services preferred
- Strong background in operational strategy, process improvement methodologies like Lean or Six Sigma
COO Jobs in Wisconsin: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a coo in Wisconsin?
There is no state-issued license required to work as a coo in Wisconsin. Most employers expect a bachelor's degree in business, operations, or a related discipline, with an MBA preferred for larger organizations. Candidates typically build toward the role through progressive leadership positions in Wisconsin's manufacturing, healthcare, or financial services sectors, often starting as a director of operations or vice president before stepping into the coo role.
Which companies hire coos in Wisconsin?
Employers hiring coos in Wisconsin right now include Wissota Chophouse - De Pere, Ascension, and Generac Power Systems, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Wisconsin's concentration of large manufacturers, regional hospital systems, and financial institutions means demand for operations leadership remains steady across both the Milwaukee metro and secondary markets like Madison and Green Bay.
Which Wisconsin cities have the most coo jobs?
Milwaukee, Appleton, and Fond du Lac account for the most coo openings in Wisconsin. Milwaukee leads because it is home to the state's largest corporate headquarters and hospital networks, while Madison's concentration of university-affiliated health systems and state government contractors drives steady demand, and Green Bay's manufacturing and food production base supports consistent hiring for senior operations roles.
Are there remote coo jobs in Wisconsin?
Yes, but they are uncommon. About 35% of coo openings tied to Wisconsin are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, which reflects how the role typically requires on-site presence to oversee facilities, staff, and day-to-day operations. Strategy-focused or portfolio-company coo roles are the most likely to allow hybrid or remote arrangements.
How can I get hired as a coo in Wisconsin with little or no experience?
The most realistic path is moving into an operations manager or director of operations role first, then building toward coo over several years. Large Wisconsin employers such as Aurora Health Care, Oshkosh Corporation, and Advocate Health run formal leadership development programs that recruit candidates from within and from recent MBA graduates. Earning a Lean or Six Sigma certification adds a concrete credential that Wisconsin manufacturing and healthcare employers consistently prioritize when evaluating candidates without a full coo tenure.
Where can I find and apply to coo jobs in Wisconsin?
You can find and apply to coo jobs in Wisconsin on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings across the state. Search the roles available, find the ones that match your background and target industry, and apply directly to the ones that fit.
See All 73 COO Jobs in Wisconsin
Find roles in Wisconsin that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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