Chief Operating Officer (Section 151 Officer)

Salary: £135,406-£171,760

Thank you for your interest in this exciting and pivotal role at Cornwall Council as our next Chief Operating Officer and Section 151 Officer.

As one of the largest councils in the country, Cornwall Council has ambitious plans for the future, shaped by our natural resources and strong sense of place and community. We have an almost unique array of new opportunities for growth and development ranging from critical minerals, marine renewables and aerospace which together with our core industries have meant that Cornwall has benefitted from stronger growth in GVA than the UK average over the past 20 years. 

Whilst there are levels of vulnerability in some areas and a rapidly ageing population, we are proud to be an ambitious Council for our communities. We are constantly challenging and transforming our services to give the best service to our communities, encouraging innovation with a strong focus on digital solutions alongside building the homes that we need and driving growth through our investment portfolio and strong partnership structures.

A ‘Team Cornwall’ approach is central to how we work. We have a strong culture of partnership and innovation in Cornwall – whether it is working closely with our residents, elected Members, stakeholders or with Government to ensure Cornwall gains even greater devolved autonomy in line with the recognition of the Cornish as a protected national minority.

We are now seeking a Chief Operating Officer and Section 151 Officer who will help us build on these strengths – ensuring that we have the sustainable financial strategy, systems and culture needed to deliver our priorities. This is both a strategic and enabling leadership role: responsible for stewardship of the Council’s £1.5bn revenue budget and £1.9bn capital programme; for leading a diverse corporate services directorate of around 1,000 people; and for ensuring our resources, governance, and digital capability are fully aligned with our ambitions for Cornwall.

You will lead the Council’s organisational engine room – ensuring that our business support services fully enable the delivery of political priorities. That means translating strategy into action, defining and establishing the programmes and projects that will deliver our four-year Business Plan. It also means developing a high-performing team – bringing together newly-recruited individuals, to create a shared sense of purpose, and enable them to perform at pace.

Your focus will include driving productivity and effectiveness, reviewing services to ensure they are operating optimally, and addressing any bottlenecks that slow progress. You will also strengthen partnerships across sectors, ensuring that our services are easy to do business with and that we can work at pace with investors, developers and delivery partners. Through digital innovation, service redesign and a commercial mindset, you will ensure our organisation is continually learning, improving and delivering outstanding value for money.

This is an exciting opportunity for an existing COO seeking a fresh challenge at scale, or for a high performing finance leader motivated by the purpose of local government at its best.

In Cornwall, we proudly put our communities front and centre of everything that we do both for today and for tomorrow. Our work is guided by our priority outcomes underpinned by a focus on Our People, Our Planet and Our Pounds. The successful candidate will have the foresight, drive, energy and expertise as our Chief Operating Officer to embed our priority outcomes into the way the Council works, through citizen centred design and a relentless focus on securing value for money for the Cornwall Council taxpayer.  

I am so proud of this organisation, and I am seeking an exceptional candidate to share my passion for Cornwall and for making sure that Cornwall Council is a leading trailblazer local authority which can clearly demonstrate the benefits of being an established, mature, large unitary council.

Kate Kennally - Chief Executive, Cornwall Council

For further information about us and the role, please refer to the documents linked below:

·       Candidate Briefing Pack

·       About Cornwall Council

·       About Cornwall

For a confidential conversation about this role, please contact our retained consultant at Penna:

Andrew Tromans on 07805 226301 or email: andrew.tromans@penna.com

Closing Date: 11:59pm, 9^th November 2025

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