Fractional COO / Director of Operations

Fractional COO
Build Your Private Practice | Remote, Canada (Eastern Timezone) | 5 to 10 hours a week | Monthly retainer | Starts mid-October 2026
About Us
I'm Liane, the owner of Build Your Private Practice (BYPP). I spent twenty-five years building insurance brokerages before I retrained as a psychotherapist and opened a private practice. When I went to grow it, I joined Build Your Private Practice as a client. When it came up for sale in 2023, I bought it. Today BYPP is a ten-year-old company helping Canadian therapists build practices that are sustainable and their own, with a small team, three programs, and a community I care about a great deal.
A word about how I work, because it is the reason this role exists. I set direction with conviction. I research an opportunity thoroughly, decide, and move, and that is a strength this company was built on. A founder who moves decisively needs an operator who holds the plan, protects the team's capacity, and is comfortable saying "not this quarter" with the numbers to back it up. I am looking for someone who will do that consistently, and I have structured the role so they can.
What you will own
You are the person I hand the plan to, and the person the team answers to. I set the direction. You make it happen.
The plan. You run our quarterly planning with me, turn it into three to five priorities with owners and dates, and hold that list. The 2027 plan is your first big project, and we’ll tackle it together.
Capacity and sequence. When I bring a new idea, partnership, or commitment, you check it against capacity and give me a straight answer: now, next quarter, or no. The merits will usually have been researched already; what you own is whether we have room, what moves to make room, and whether the timing holds.
The single channel. I communicate to the team through you. The team escalates to me through you. When something goes around you, you catch it and redirect it.
The team. You run the weekly team meeting, set and review each person's priorities, give feedback, and flag people problems early. Your first hire to run is my executive assistant, in your first 30 days.
Systems that hold. Every recurring piece of work gets an owner, a written process, and a home in our project and task management software, ClickUp. Nothing new goes to members without a review and a process behind it.
Status in one place. You know where every priority stands without asking me, you see slippage before it lands on me, and I read one weekly update instead of chasing.
What is not yours
My inbox, calendar, and rebooking belong to the executive assistant. Selling, pricing, and what we offer are mine. Coaching and program delivery belong to the coaches. You own the machinery around sales and delivery, not the calls and not the coaching.
How decisions work here
Yours, without asking me: sequence and timing of work we have already agreed on, who on the team does what, how processes are designed, how meetings run, vendor and tool choices inside budget, and how something I have decided actually gets executed.
Mine, always: pricing and discounts, what we sell, partnerships, anything signed, hiring and pay, funding, what BYPP says publicly and anything carrying my name or my licence, the bursary and other values calls, and where the company is going over the next three to five years.
You recommend, I decide: hires and role changes, spend above the agreed threshold, retiring or changing how a program is delivered, and anything that changes the member experience at scale.
My commitment to you
This role only works if I route through it, and I intend to. Direction, priorities, and new commitments go from me to you, and from you to the team. There are two standing exceptions, and you will know them from day one. My husband Dan is my business partner and a coach here; ownership and direction are partner conversations, and his coaching work routes through you like everyone else's. And the same-day handoff from my sales calls to our outbound coordinator stays direct, because a day's delay costs enrolments. You own that process, the tracker, and the numbers.
When you need to tell me no, tell me live or in writing, whichever suits the moment. I will not need an answer on the spot and I will not ask you for one. Raise it, give me room to think, and we settle it at the next check-in.
What success in this role looks like at 90 days
You know the Q4 priorities, their owners and dates, and report on them weekly without being asked.
You run the weekly team meeting on a fixed agenda: same day, same structure, and the team brings issues there first.
The executive assistant is hired and onboarded.
Every recurring process has an owner and a written SOP in ClickUp (our AI-powered agents in ClickUp make this very efficient).
The single channel is holding: requests that used to go direct now come through you.
The 2027 plan is built with me, not for me, and I can say I spent less time in the weeds than the quarter before. That last one is the real test.
You will succeed in this role if
You finish what you start, and what other people start.
You would rather build the checklist than be the hero.
You can tell a founder no and have the confidence to stand behind it.
You have been the operational second to a founder before, in a company of under fifteen people, and you held the plan together.
You have run a quarterly and weekly rhythm (EOS, Traction, or your own version) and can tell me what broke.
You see process as how excellence gets repeated, not as a floor.
You are at home in ClickUp and comfortable using AI tools to draft, summarize and build systems. You are comfortable and competent with both ClickUp and agentic AI (the creation and use of AI agents to own aspects of operating systems and processes).
You have room in your life for this. It is not a full time role, but it is an owner's seat, not an advisory seat.
This is not for you if
Your energy is in the idea. If you want to set the strategy, you will end up competing with me instead of executing for me.
You need agreement more than you need clarity.
You cannot describe a system you built that outlasted you.
Details of the role
Independent contractor, month to month, paid in CAD on a flat monthly retainer set by experience. Typical week is 5 to 7 hours, up to 10 in planning weeks and during your first 60 days, with room for growth. Fixed weekly rhythm: the team meeting, a standing check-in with me, and reachable between. Canadian time zones or Eastern overlap for the working morning. Start mid to late October 2026. The team you inherit is small, remote, all contractors, and several of them have been here for years.
How to apply
Include a cover letter and attach your résumé. Email christine@buildyourprivatepractice.ca with the subject line "Fractional COO" and three things:
Your Kolbe A result if you have one. If not, one line on what you do first when a project is messy.
Under 200 words: On Monday the founder tells the team she has committed the company to a new partnership. She has researched it thoroughly and is convinced it is right. Nobody has capacity for it this quarter. What do you do that week?
One system you built that outlasted you, and how you know it did.
Reply by October 2, 2026. If it is a fit, the first conversation is with Christine Hakkola, our outgoing interim COO, the second is with me, and the third is a reference call with a founder you have worked for.

Work arrangement
Yes