An Operations Architect, what the industry typically calls a fractional COO, is a senior operator embedded part-time inside a company to architect the operating system the business runs on: install operating discipline, fix process bloat, and document the playbooks your team will run on after the engagement ends. The role replaces $15,000 to $25,000/month in operational overhead (software spend plus the hidden labor of managing tools nobody fully understands) at a fraction of full-time COO compensation.
Obsidian Axis Group runs Operations Architect engagements at $7,500 to $12,500 per month on a 90-day arc, entered through a $10,000 Operational Diagnostic. Embedded, structured around a clean exit. Cedric Corbett is the principal: a decade inside Amazon, International Paper, Spirit Halloween, Maersk, and Levi Strauss operations, now compressed into a process any $3M to $100M operator can run.
If you already have a COO, this engagement is not a threat to the role. We architect the system; your COO (or future COO) runs it. The hand-off is the deliverable, and the engagement ends.
When an Operations Architect actually fits.
An Operations Architect engagement is not a generic alternative to a full-time hire. The strongest fits are post-acquisition and lower-middle-market, where the operating gap is acute and the methodology earns its full scope. The role also fits two broader operator situations that are easier to overlook.
01 / Post-acquisition
The seller-operator leaves at close. The new owner inherits a business that runs on tribal knowledge, undocumented, in one person's head. An Operations Architect installs the documented operating system in 90 days, before the muscle memory walks out the door.
02 / Founder bottleneck
You're a $10M to $50M operator. Every decision routes through you. You can feel it in your calendar. An Operations Architect un-routes the decisions, identifies which ones need to come back to you and which never should have, and installs the SOPs that let the team execute without your sign-off.
03 / Sponsor-led ops install
Private-equity portfolio company. The sponsor wants documented operating discipline before the next round, before the auditor asks for it, before the strategic acquirer does diligence. An Operations Architect produces the operating system the next investor will want to see, and gets out before the next holding-period reset.
04 / Operational due diligence pre-sale
You're 12 to 18 months from selling. The buyer's diligence team will pull every SOP, every KPI definition, every decision flow. An Operations Architect writes them properly before the data room opens, instead of frantically during it.
05 / The right-sized senior-ops need
You know operations needs senior attention. You also know a full-time COO is the wrong shape. Either the comp band ($250K+ base, equity, severance risk) is wrong for your stage, or there isn't 40 hours a week of actual COO work, or both. An Operations Architect engagement scopes to the operating gap, not to a job description. You get the same operating discipline for $23K to $38K over a 90-day arc instead of $250K+ a year, with a clean exit when the work is done. Most fits in this bucket are $5M to $30M operators where the founder is doing the COO work in their spare time and it is showing.
06 / The diagnosis-first engagement
The process feels leaky. Decisions take too long. Growth isn't translating into operational capacity. You know it could be running better but you can't name the specific problem yet. The Diagnose phase of an Operations Architect engagement names the gap with numbers, in writing, in four weeks. You decide whether to keep going from there. No long-term commitment is required to get the diagnosis itself, and most operators leave that phase with a specific list of things that are costing them, even if they choose to fix it themselves from there.
The Axis Method. Five stages.
Every Operations Architect engagement at Obsidian Axis Group runs through the same five-stage methodology. Each stage has explicit deliverables and explicit exit criteria. Read the full methodology at /axis-method.
| Stage | Duration | What gets delivered |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Diagnose | Weeks 1 to 4 | Operational map · waste inventory · decision-routing graph |
| 02 Stabilize | Weeks 4 to 10 | Highest-leverage broken process fixed · interim SOPs in use |
| 03 Document | Weeks 10 to 16 | Permanent SOPs, KPIs, decision trees · the operating system in writing |
| 04 Hand-off | Weeks 16 to 22 | In-house team runs the system · we verify and step back |
| 05 Compound | Quarterly | Optional check-ins to verify the discipline persists |
One front door. Then the engagement.
Every engagement starts with the fixed-fee Operational Diagnostic. The engagement fee varies with depth and embed time per week.
| Scope | Fee | Embed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operational Diagnostic | $10,000 fixed | Two weeks, onsite or remote | Every engagement starts here; credits 100% toward month one |
| Standard | $7,500/month | ~2 days/week equivalent | $3M to $25M, single high-leverage problem or post-acquisition install |
| Deep | $10,000 to $12,500/month | ~3 days/week equivalent | $25M to $100M, sponsor-led portfolio install |
The math: an engagement at $7.5K to $12.5K/month replaces $15K to $25K/month in operational overhead, software your team rents but doesn't fully use, plus the hidden labor of the people managing it. You're not hiring another person. You're retiring the bloat that was costing you silently.
Beyond SOPs. The full operating discipline.
Most consultants will hand you a binder of SOPs and call the engagement complete. That is not what installs operational excellence. The actual install layers four dimensions, sequenced so each one supports the next.
01 / Process discipline
The Lean and Six Sigma traditions, applied without the ceremony. Value-stream mapping during Diagnose. Variation reduction at the highest-cost hand-offs during Stabilize. Standard work documentation during Document. Visual management and pull-based flow during Hand-off. Continuous-improvement cadence baked into the daily standup, so improvement compounds after we leave. Read more in the Lean Six Sigma glossary and the post on what to keep at LMM scale.
02 / Team performance
Tuckman's stages and Edmondson's safety-accountability framework, used as diagnostic and intervention. Most LMM teams are stuck at Norming-via-suppression and the leader thinks that is success. The Stabilize and Document phases install the practices that move a team into the Learning zone (high safety AND high accountability), where the operating system actually compounds. See the practitioner post and the psychological-safety glossary entry.
03 / Decision routing
Mapping every recurring decision and assigning it to the lowest level it can responsibly live at. Founder-bottleneck count drops by half in the first 90 days because most decisions had been routing to the principal by default, not by design.
04 / Measurement and cadence
Three to five KPIs that matter, defined precisely (formula, data source, owner, refresh cadence). Reviewed on a weekly cadence. Connected to specific decisions. Reports nobody reads do not count.
The four together produce operational excellence: the persistent state of running the business without the founder being the operating system.
Operations Architect (Fractional COO) vs full-time COO.
| Operations Architect | Full-time COO | |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Architect the operating system, then hand back | Run the operating function indefinitely |
| Cost | $23K to $38K per 90-day arc | $250K+ base + equity |
| Time to impact | 2 to 4 weeks | 3 to 6 months ramp |
| Exit cost | None, engagement ends | Severance, search, replacement ramp |
| Best when | Operating system needs architecture; scope is bounded | The role itself is needed permanently |
| If you already have a COO | Complements the role (we architect, COO runs) | Replaces the role |
Built on the floor. Not in a classroom.
Cedric Corbett runs every engagement personally. A decade of enterprise operations across Amazon, International Paper, Spirit Halloween, Maersk, and Levi Strauss, $3B+ in operational impact, now compressed into a methodology any $10M to $100M operator can run.
The Axis Method was stress-tested inside DefaultFail, the operator community where every system was proven by real business owners before it became a consulting engagement.
Questions worth answering before we talk.
What is an Operations Architect (also called a fractional COO)?
An Operations Architect, what the industry typically calls a fractional COO, is a senior operator embedded part-time inside a company to architect the operating system the business runs on: install operating discipline, fix process bloat, and document the playbooks your team will run on after the engagement ends. We don't replace your operating function; we architect the system it runs on, then hand it back, documented, in 90 days. The role is retained on a multi-month basis at a fraction of full-time COO compensation.
How is an Operations Architect different from a management consultant?
Consultants deliver decks. An Operations Architect does the work. The difference is operational accountability: sitting in your standups, owning hand-offs, getting paged when production breaks, and leaving documented systems behind. We are operators, not advisors.
How much does an Operations Architect engagement cost?
Engagements at Obsidian Axis Group run $7,500 to $12,500 per month on a 90-day arc, depending on scope and embed depth. The entry point is a $10,000 fixed-fee Operational Diagnostic that credits 100% toward the engagement. A typical engagement replaces $15,000 to $25,000/month in operational overhead: software spend plus the hidden labor cost of managing tools nobody fully understands.
How long does a typical engagement run?
Three to nine months. The Axis Method is structured around a clean exit: diagnose, stabilize, document, hand-off, compound. We are explicitly not trying to embed indefinitely. If we are still essential at month twelve, we did our job wrong.
When should a company hire an Operations Architect instead of a full-time COO?
When the operational gap is real but doesn't justify $250K/year + equity. Common situations: post-acquisition (the seller-COO leaves, the new owner needs operating discipline installed), a $10M to $50M company where the founder is the bottleneck, or a portfolio company where the sponsor wants documented ops before the next round. If you already have a COO, an Operations Architect engagement complements the role. We architect the system; your COO runs it.
What does an Operations Architect actually do day-to-day?
In month one: operational due diligence, waste audit, decision-routing map. Months two through four: stabilizing the highest-leverage broken process. Months four through six: writing the SOPs, KPIs, and playbooks the company will run on after we leave. Final months: training the in-house team to run it without us.
Is an Operations Architect engagement a fit for a private-equity portfolio company?
Yes, particularly post-acquisition. The Axis Method was built for sponsor-led ops installs. We coordinate with the deal team on reporting cadence, integrate with whatever PortCo monitoring already exists, and produce the documented operating system the next investor will want to see in due diligence.
Do you work remotely or on-site?
Both. The diagnose phase usually requires 1 to 2 on-site weeks for shadowing, after which the engagement is mostly remote with monthly on-site days. We are headquartered in Charlotte, NC and serve the Southeast (Greenville/Spartanburg, Atlanta) plus remote across the United States.
What industries does Obsidian Axis Group work with?
We come out of enterprise distribution, fulfillment, and manufacturing, Cedric's decade is in those verticals. We work best with operations-heavy businesses: manufacturing, distribution, logistics, e-commerce fulfillment, services with field teams. We are not a fit for pre-revenue SaaS or pure professional services.
What happens after the hand-off?
The documented operating system stays. The team runs it. We are available for quarterly check-ins or a re-engagement if you acquire and need to install discipline at a new portfolio company, but the deliberate design is that you don't need us anymore.
Thirty minutes. No pitch deck.
We'll review your operational situation, name the biggest bloat, and tell you honestly which scope fits where you are. If neither does, we'll tell you that too.