Interim Chief of Staff​/Operating Partner

Why This Role Exists

Taking Root is looking for an experienced operator to step in as an Interim Chief of Staff / Operating Partner during our COO’s parental leave.

This role exists for one reason:
to keep internal execution, coordination, and decision prep from flowing to the CEO
, so he can stay focused on investment, offtake, and senior external relationships during a critical growth period.

This is not a traditional “Chief of Staff” role. It is a hands‑on operating role for someone who has been close to the center of a growing organization before.

You will run the day‑to‑day operating cadence of the company and act as the connective tissue across teams.

In practice, this includes:

• Providing execution + process and people‑management to Directors (while CEO provides strategic‑management)
• Join bi‑monthly CEO meetings 1:1 with Directors—focused on strategic decisions, major projects for the CEO to give direction and guidance
• Hold all other regular 1:1s (weekly) to unblock issues, manage capacity / priorities, discuss management and people‑related decisions, and prep decisions/updates for the CEO to provide input/management
• Ensure issues get resolved without escalating everything upward
• Run the weekly leadership meeting, including but not limited to: surfacing progress, dependencies, and risks; clarifying what needs a decision vs. what just needs doing; capturing owners and deadlines and following up during the week
• Being the “glue” across functions
• Coordinate work that cuts across Ops, Tech, Commercial, Finance, and People. Keeping all informed of different objectives, priorities, risks, and workplans across the teams, particularly issues that are impactful cross‑team
• Facilitate decisions across the leadership team, especially in areas of ambiguity and uncertainty. Support the team in getting unstuck on decisions
• Turn leadership direction into clear plans and next steps
• Plan leadership offsites, key meetings, and trips
• Supporting team health and organizational clarity
• Surface capacity or people risks early
• Support workload balancing and role clarity
• Coordinate people‑related processes (with support from the CEO)
• Acting as the CEO’s internal manager
• Weekly synthesis: what’s on track, what’s not, what decisions are coming
• Helping the CEO stay out of follow‑ups and internal coordination by ensuring that there is internal decision‑making happening across the leadership team that doesn’t need the CEO
• Align the leadership team with the CEO and vice‑versa
• Providing strategic finance and investment support (as have bandwidth + skills)
• Scenario analysis and investment modelling (high‑level, decision‑focused)
• Helping frame trade‑offs for the CEO to make decisions

• Not an executive assistant
• Not a project manager
• Not an extra layer between the CEO and decisions. This role exists to reduce complexity
  , not add it.

By the end of the contract:

• The CEO has stayed focused on investors, offtake, and senior relationships
• Directors are clear on priorities, owners, and timelines
• Fewer issues are “stuck” due to coordination gaps
• Decisions are made with the right inputs, at the right level
• The organization stays stable and focused during a period of stretch

This role is a good fit for someone who has:

Experience
:

• Experience as a Chief of Staff, COO, Managing Director or similar
• Proven ability to provide leverage to a CEO and comfort doing so
• Worked in a small or mid‑stage, founder‑led organization
• Experience with finance, strategy, or people management is important
• Experience in climate, nature‑based solutions, or multi‑country operations is a plus, not a requirement

Strong communication and facilitation skills:

• Strong facilitation skills—especially in driving clarity with the team
• The ability to turn direction into execution quickly with team buy‑in
• A great coach, communicator and people‑leader for Directors
• Strong operating and management judgment and comfort with ambiguity and ability to translate that to the team

Hands‑on, low ego, and execution bias:

• Enjoys and able to work in fast‑paced and very hands‑on environments. We all do work— from details to the execution
• Low ego,…