Chief of staff vs operations director

The differences between chiefs of staff and operations directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes More than 10 years to become a chief of staff, becoming an operations director takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a chief of staff has an average salary of $130,835, which is higher than the $104,050 average annual salary of an operations director.

The top three skills for a chief of staff include PET, team support and project management. The most important skills for an operations director are customer service, continuous improvement, and oversight.

Chief of staff vs operations director overview

	Chief Of Staff	Operations Director
Yearly salary	$130,835	$104,050
Hourly rate	$62.90	$50.02
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	124,272	114,993
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	52	44
Years of experience	-	6

What does a chief of staff do?

A chief of staff primarily supports an executive through performing various administrative tasks. Most of their responsibilities revolve around collaborating with other executive support personnel to devise strategies that will help the company, responding to inquiries and correspondence, approving communications letters, managing schedules, setting appointments, and serving as an advisor to the executive. Furthermore, when it comes to issues and disputes, the chief of staff must be quick to conduct research and perform damage control to help the executive and the company rise from the occasion.

What does an operations director do?

Operations directors oversee all company operations. They have the power to set the direction, change the course of the organization, and reform strategies to ensure efficiency in how the company operates. Operations directors manage business operations effectively by constantly analyzing company data and by anticipating any challenge that may come their way. As such, they make sound business decisions and recommendations that will help strengthen the organization. Operations directors oversee finances, quality control, and even human resources. They ensure that all aspects of the business are considered in making business operations decisions.

Chief of staff vs operations director salary

Chiefs of staff and operations directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Chief Of Staff	Operations Director
Average salary	$130,835	$104,050
Salary range	Between $85,000 And $200,000	Between $65,000 And $164,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Lyft	Airbnb
Best paying industry	Start-up	Finance

Differences between chief of staff and operations director education

There are a few differences between a chief of staff and an operations director in terms of educational background:

	Chief Of Staff	Operations Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Chief of staff vs operations director demographics

Here are the differences between chiefs of staff' and operations directors' demographics:

	Chief Of Staff	Operations Director
Average age	52	44
Gender ratio	Male, 62.0% Female, 38.0%	Male, 70.6% Female, 29.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 7.8% White, 76.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 14.9% Asian, 6.3% White, 67.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	12%	10%

Differences between chief of staff and operations director duties and responsibilities

Chief of staff example responsibilities.

Lead headquarters (HQ) operations staff.
Manage the G3's fiscal year budget planning, formulation, and execution.
Supervise the G2 administrative section and maintain and manage the G2 budget and material resources.
Manage the predeployment training and the deployment process to receiving commands, and subsequent redeployment and deactivation.
Manage budgets of $75,000 to $22 million paying keen attention to cost containment and ROI.
Credit for managing and improving the HAZMAT program, which serve as a benchmark example for the base community.

Operations director example responsibilities.

Manage KPI reports from all warranty companies to ensure increasing sales and productivity.
Spearhead governance, security and compliance initiatives to achieve SOX and PCI compliance.
Manage a PMO style team to implement any changes across the global contact centers.
Develop all marketing strategies and materials as well as personally managing key OEM and national accounts.
Manage multiple vendor relationships for RFP development and review, contract negotiation, contract terms management, and accounts payable review.
Provide leadership to manufacturing organization by aligning overall KPIs to achieve near term and long term business objectives.

Chief of staff vs operations director skills

Common chief of staff skills

PET, 15%
Team Support, 11%
Project Management, 8%
Oversight, 7%
Direct Reports, 6%
Marketing Campaigns, 6%

Common operations director skills

Customer Service, 12%
Continuous Improvement, 7%
Oversight, 7%
Patients, 6%
Project Management, 5%
Human Resources, 4%

Chief Of Staff vs. similar jobs

Chief Of Staff related careers

Chief Of Staff related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Executive Management Industry
Chief Of Staff
Chief Of Staff vs Operations Director

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse executive management jobs