Where the Good Operators Went in 2026
The strongest operating leaders did not leave the market. They moved across it — and the pattern of where they landed says a great deal about what they were actually looking for.
The best operator for the job may not be the person who has already had it.
For years, senior hiring followed a fairly predictable formula. Need a CEO? Find someone who has been a CEO. Need a president? Find someone who has already run a business of roughly the same size. Need a COO? Find someone with COO at the top of the résumé. Experience became shorthand for reduced risk.
But as we look at the leadership market in 2026, some of the most interesting executive moves of the last two years point to a different kind of bet. Not on inexperience. On trajectory.
Companies are looking at executives whose responsibilities have grown faster than their titles. People who have repeatedly been handed bigger businesses, harder problems and broader mandates.
The good operators have not disappeared. Some of them simply have not been given the biggest title yet.
Experience matters. So does trajectory.
There will always be situations where the person who has done the exact job before is the right hire. But "been there, done that" is only one kind of experience. There is another kind that can be easy to miss when a search starts with titles instead of capability.
Their résumé may technically say they have never done the job. Their career may be telling you they are already doing much of it.
Retail: the operator whose scope keeps expanding
Kecia Steelman's path at Ulta Beauty is a useful example. Steelman joined Ulta in 2014 as Senior Vice President of Store Operations. She became Chief Store Operations Officer, then COO, then President and COO and, in January 2025, President and CEO. Along the way, her remit expanded well beyond stores to include strategy, technology, supply chain, transformation and other enterprise responsibilities.
Her résumé did not suddenly become CEO ready on the day she was appointed CEO. The progression had been happening for years. That is the signal worth paying attention to. What does this person keep getting trusted with?
"Sometimes the best predictor of the next job is not the title someone currently holds. It is the distance their responsibilities have already traveled beyond it."
Media and technology: when the functional leader gets the business
Disney made an interesting move in 2026. Adam Smith joined Disney in 2024 after a long career at Google and YouTube to lead product and technology across Disney Entertainment and ESPN. Two years later, Disney expanded his mandate to lead its direct to consumer streaming business. His responsibilities now reach far beyond technology into the broader operation of Disney’s streaming platforms.
That is considerably more than a bigger technology job. It is a business. And it illustrates something we think matters increasingly in senior hiring: the strongest functional executives often stop being purely functional long before their titles reflect it.
They start understanding the customer. They learn the economics. They influence strategy. They develop judgment outside their lane. Eventually, the organization realizes the lane has become too small for them.
AI: the operator who helped build the next chapter gets asked to lead it
At Domino Data Lab, Thomas Robinson spent roughly a decade helping build partnerships, investments, the executive team and solutions strategy before becoming COO. In 2026, Domino appointed him CEO as the company moved further into enterprise AI solutions.
There is an important distinction here. AI companies obviously need extraordinary technical talent. But as the market matures, building extraordinary technology and building an extraordinary business around that technology become two different challenges. Someone has to connect product to customers, investment to return, innovation to adoption and strategy to execution.
That person may not always be the obvious CEO candidate on paper. They may be the operator who has spent years making everything around the technology actually work.
Technology: watch what keeps getting added to the job
Magic Leap offers another version. Scott Carden was Senior Vice President of Display Engineering and Manufacturing. In 2026, he was promoted to COO. His new remit includes the company's operating plan as well as engineering and manufacturing operations as Magic Leap works to scale its technology for AI display devices.
That is the kind of move we find particularly interesting. A technical leader becomes responsible for more than the technical function, because leadership has seen evidence that the person can operate beyond it. There is a lesson in that for hiring leaders. Do not look only at what someone owns today. Look at what keeps getting added.
Growth companies: sometimes the job grows around the person
At legal technology company Clio, Ronnie Gurion joined as COO in 2021. In 2026, the company promoted him to President and COO after a period of significant growth and expansion. His mandate now reaches across global operations, go to market strategy, customer experience and acquisition integration.
That progression is another form of trajectory. Sometimes someone is not promoted because a box opened on an organization chart. The organization itself becomes larger and more complicated, and the executive keeps proving capable of carrying more of it. Eventually, the title catches up.
The number two becoming number one
There is another profile we think companies should pay considerably more attention to. The number two. The COO sitting beside the CEO. The president underneath the founder. The divisional leader running a business inside a much larger company.
These executives can be difficult to evaluate through conventional title matching because their actual authority varies enormously from organization to organization. One COO may run almost nothing. Another may effectively run the company. One divisional president may own a narrow operation. Another may carry a P&L, thousands of employees, customer relationships, transformation initiatives and some of the most difficult operational problems in the business.
Two résumés can contain the same title and represent completely different levels of readiness. That is why understanding scope matters more than simply matching titles.
Construction may understand this better than most industries
Commercial construction has always had a practical relationship with leadership. The work eventually exposes whether someone can operate. You can have the right education, the right employers and increasingly senior titles. But at some point someone has to manage the client, understand the field, protect the economics, anticipate risk, lead people and deliver the project.
The strongest future leaders are often visible before they reach the top of the organization. They are the people repeatedly handed the difficult project. Then the difficult client. Then the struggling team. Then the region. Then the business.
The promotion is not what made them capable. The promotion recognized what they had already become.
Experience tells you where they have been. Trajectory tells you where they can go.
Experience matters. So does trajectory. The strongest senior hires often have both. They bring the judgment that comes from having operated through difficult situations, but their careers also show momentum. Their scope keeps expanding. The problems get bigger. The business keeps asking more of them.
When we look at a senior candidate, we want to understand both sides. What have they done? And what does the pattern of their career suggest they are capable of doing next?
Because experience without trajectory can tell you what someone was capable of doing. Trajectory without enough experience can be a bet the business is not ready to make.
The opportunity is finding the person whose experience and trajectory meet at exactly the right moment for the role in front of you.
The résumé may be one job behind the person
That may be one of the most important things for companies hiring senior talent to remember in 2026. The best candidate's résumé may not say CEO yet. It may not say President. It may not contain the exact title everyone put into the search specification. Because a résumé documents what someone has already been asked to do. It does not always tell you what someone is ready to do next.
Sometimes the right person has done the exact job before. Sometimes the right person has spent the last five years preparing for it. The work is knowing which one your business needs.
Look at the experience. Then look at the trajectory. Look at what kept getting added to their plate. Look at the problems leadership trusted them to solve. Look at where their responsibility grew before their title did.
Because the good operators did not disappear in 2026. Some are proven in the seat. Others are ready for a bigger one. The best search knows how to recognize both.
Hiring for a job nobody's résumé matches yet?
We will map the operators whose scope already reaches past their titles, and tell you which of them is ready for yours.
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