How To Become A Co-Founder/Director Of Operations: What It Is and Career Path

What is a co-founder/director of operations and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a co-founder/director of operations. For example, did you know that they make an average of $51.05 an hour? That's $106,192 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 189,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCo-Founder/Director Of OperationsUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $106,192

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.6

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 6.38%

Black or African American 6.19%

Hispanic or Latino 15.23%

Unknown 4.34%

White 67.39%

Gender

female 29.53%

male 70.47%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

9.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.6

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a co-founder/director of operations

Explore co-founder/director of operations education requirements

Most common co-founder/director of operations degrees

Bachelor's

75.6 %

Master's

15.3 %

Associate

5.1 %

Start to develop specific co-founder/director of operations skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Management	16.82%
Logistics	9.84%
Business Plan	9.79%
Non-Profit Organization	8.25%
Business Development	5.67%

Complete relevant co-founder/director of operations training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New co-founder/directors of operations learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a co-founder/director of operations based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real co-founder/director of operations resumes.

Research co-founder/director of operations duties and responsibilities

Co-Found this start-up company to produce wiring devices for the stage and movie studio lighting markets; manage all daily operations.
Manage day-to-day operations and company accounts via QuickBooks
Manage delivery of home medical equipment to customer's homes while adhering to all Medicare and accreditation policy and procedures.
Lead design for all media (photoshop css).

Get co-founder/director of operations experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a co-founder/director of operations. The most common roles before becoming a co-founder/director of operations include operations manager, internship team lead and operations director.

Apply for co-founder/director of operations jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a co-founder/director of operations job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do co-founder/directors of operations rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Co-founder/director of operations reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

I enjoy being able to use my creative experience along with my social and cultural Anthropology background to help other businesses and start ups with their goals and objectives to create a successful company or product. I also like having the freedom to work for myself and have a better carrer direction and flexible scheduling.

Cons

It can be difficult to navigate through the ever changing market and competition as an independently owned business. I also have to spend a lot of time learning/teaching myself things that I need to know but could be spending my time on what i do best if I worked for another company such as web development and coding.