Chief Operating Officer at a Boutique RIA Firm (COO)

Chief Operating Officer (COO): A Leadership Opportunity for a Boutique RIA Firm to Build and Scale

The Firm & The Mandate

Chemistry Wealth is a boutique Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) known for comprehensive wealth management, exceptional client care, and delivering impactful financial value. Based in downtown New York City, our founder-led firm has spent more than 25 years serving high-net-worth families with dedication and integrity.

With over $1 billion in assets under management and a growing, talented team, we’re entering an important next chapter. Our organic growth has been strong, and we’re now focused on scaling our people, our systems, and our processes for the future. This is a unique opportunity to help build something meaningful within a firm that cares deeply about our clients and about each other.

We are seeking an experienced Chief Operating Officer (COO) to take ownership of the firm’s non-client-facing operations and talent infrastructure. This is a mandate for strategic vision, execution and operational excellence, designed to create a scalable, resilient, and professional firm environment. The ideal candidate is both a builder and a doer, a leader with the vision to design scalable systems and build upon a high performing team with the energy and motivation to drive tangible results.

Your success will be measured by your ability to transform the firm into a long-term, self-sustaining business engine, allowing the CEO to shift more time and focus from client engagement to firm strategy and investment management.

The 5 Outcomes: Measurable Success Criteria

This role requires a leader who achieves quantifiable results. We expect the COO - Director of Business Operations - to deliver the following key outcomes within 3 years:

1. CEO Leverage & Efficiency: Advance operational efficiency and team development to maximize the CEO’s impact on strategic priorities, including investment oversight and firm growth. The goal is to create a scalable structure that supports the CEO’s focus on high-impact initiatives.
2. Career Infrastructure & Incentive Alignment: Establish a clear organizational framework that fosters long-term career development for the team. Design and implement a clear and alignedincentive system that rationally links individual job performance to compensation and professional development.
3. Talent Development, Acquisition & Team Leadership: Successfully identify organizational gaps, develop existing talent, and acquire and integrate new top talent required for organizational growth and sustainable success.
4. External Liaison & Strategic Knowledge Acquisition: Establish and maintain strategic relationships with key vendors, networks, other RIAs, and industry leaders. Actively share and acquire operational best practices and maintain an open pipeline for future growth opportunities and talent acquisition.
5. Firm Culture & Stability: Foster and enhance a culture of accountability, integrity, and exceptional performance, further positioning the firm as a desirable, multi-decade career destination for top talent.

Essential Experience and Competencies

Candidates must possess significant operational leadership experience within RIA, wealth management, or financial services sector.

Role-Based Competencies

• Execution & Effectiveness: Proven ability to create and execute repeatable, high-quality processes that drive business results (Organized, Effective).
• Accountability & Ownership: Demonstrated capacity to own complex business outcomes and hold others accountable to high standards (Accountable) with effective high support (Management & Leadership).

• Team Development:Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust, influence audiences, and deliver clear, actionable plans. Proven expertise in developing, hiring, mentoring, and leading professional teams, specifically in the areas of relationship consulting, financial planning, and client service (Emotional IQ & Talent Builder).

Cultural Competencies

• Rational Pragmatism: Focuses on results; makes decisions based on objective data and what works (Rational – does what works).
• High Integrity & Emotional Intelligence: Maintains unwavering ethics and confidentiality (Honest / integrity), approaches management and problem-solving with high emotional intelligence and humility (Emotionally intelligent, Humble). Focused on building an admirable culture one would want their family to be a part of.

• Giver, Growth & Team Mindset: Deep commitment to a team and client first philosophy. Believer in a continuous improvement and growth-oriented mindset. Confident and decisive, yet collaborative and aligned with the firm’s long-term mission above personal recognition.
• Proactivity: Possesses a positive work energy and proactively anticipates challenges and implements solutions before crises develop (Positive work energy / proactive).