Org Design

CAO team structure: organizing the direct reports

The operating-model guide covers the systems a CAO runs. This guide covers the people structure underneath those systems — who reports to the CAO directly, what spans of control work, and how the org chart should shift as scope changes. The structure is downstream of the services, not the other way around.

Updated 2026-10-029 min read

Common patterns Typical direct reports

Design questions

Services first, structure second
Span of control
Federated vs centralized
Chief of staff for the CAO

Starting point

Services define the team, not the reverse

The most common mistake in CAO team design is drawing the org chart first and the services after. The result is a structure that fits the people in seats today rather than the work the function exists to deliver. Strong CAO team designs start from the service catalog and only then ask who should own each cluster.

Build order that works

Define the service catalog.
Group services into coherent portfolios — three to seven of them in most cases.
Assign one accountable executive per portfolio.
Decide which of those leaders report to the CAO directly and which sit one layer down.
Stand up the supporting roles — chief of staff, finance partner, comms — only after the line structure is set.

Build order that breaks

Drawing reporting lines around current people first.
Splitting services across owners to be "fair" rather than coherent.
Adding direct reports for prestige rather than work.
Making the chief-of-staff role an executive direct report when it should be staff support.

Direct reports

Typical CAO direct reports

No two CAO portfolios are identical, but the same leadership roles appear again and again. The table below lists the direct reports CAOs commonly have, what each one owns, and where the role tends to sit instead when it does not report to the CAO. Use it as a menu, not a template: most CAOs have some of these roles, rarely all of them.

Direct report	Typically owns	Often sits elsewhere when
Head of HR operations or people services	HR administration, payroll operations, benefits administration, HR systems	A CHRO owns the full people function; see CAO vs CHRO
Head of IT operations	Infrastructure, service desk, end-user technology, enterprise applications support	A CIO or CTO reports directly to the CEO
Head of facilities or real estate	Buildings, workplace services, maintenance, capital projects, space planning	Real estate is treated as a finance or strategy function
Head of procurement or supply chain	Purchasing policy, sourcing, vendor management, contract administration	Procurement sits under the CFO
Enterprise PMO lead	Portfolio governance, program delivery standards, cross-functional initiatives	A COO or strategy office runs the enterprise portfolio
Compliance or risk lead	Policy management, internal controls, regulatory readiness, risk register	Legal or a dedicated chief compliance officer owns it
Head of shared services	Consolidated transactional services across units; see the shared services guide	Shared services are split by function instead
Security, records, or administrative services lead	Physical security, records management, mail, fleet, front-of-house services	These roll up under facilities

Patterns

Three structural patterns CAOs commonly use

The right structure depends on scope, sector, and how mature the function is. Three patterns show up consistently; most real org charts are a hybrid of two of them.

Pattern 1: Service-line reports

Each direct report owns a coherent service line — HR operations, IT operations, facilities, procurement, enterprise PMO. Span of control is moderate (typically four to seven direct reports). Best when services are relatively independent and each is large enough to need executive ownership.

Strengths: clear accountability, easy to staff externally.
Watchouts: cross-service initiatives need explicit governance, or they fall between owners.

Pattern 2: Functional clusters

Services are grouped into broader clusters — for example, "people services" (HR ops, learning ops), "infrastructure services" (IT ops, facilities, workplace), and "enterprise services" (PMO, procurement, compliance). Each cluster has one executive owner. Span of control is tighter (three to five). Best when scope is large enough that service-line breadth would overwhelm a single CAO.

Strengths: smaller leadership team, cleaner CAO calendar.
Watchouts: cluster owners need to be strong; weakness at this layer is hard to compensate for.

Pattern 3: Federated

Services are delivered locally — by hospital, campus, region, or business unit — with a small central team that sets standards. Direct reports are a mix of central function leads and senior site or regional leaders. Span of control varies. Best for multi-site organizations where local responsiveness matters.

Strengths: closer to internal customers, faster local responsiveness.
Watchouts: standards drift if the central team is too thin or too quiet.

Hybrids

Most mature organizations end up with a hybrid: clusters for the back-office, service lines for the customer-facing administrative work, and a federated layer for site-specific delivery. The hybrid is fine; the key is that every service has one named accountable executive and that the diagram fits on a page.

Span

Span of control and how to think about it

CAOs with too many direct reports become a routing layer rather than a leader. CAOs with too few become a bottleneck on cross-portfolio decisions. The right span is the one that matches how often the CAO genuinely needs to interact with each direct report — not what the org chart "looks like."

Practical bands

Three to four direct reports: tight span, suitable for very senior cluster leaders or in early-stage organizations.
Five to seven: the most common range for mature CAO teams across sectors.
Eight to ten: workable only if reports are highly autonomous and the CAO has a strong chief of staff.
More than ten: a sign the structure has not been redesigned recently; the CAO will be reactive by default.

Adjustments to the default

Add capacity at the top when the function is being redesigned or in crisis.
Reduce span when the CAO has external responsibilities (board, regulators, partnerships).
Increase span when direct reports are tenured and stable, even at the cost of the diagram looking heavy.

Supporting roles

Chief of staff, finance partner, comms

Most CAO teams need at least one role that supports the CAO directly without owning a service line. These roles multiply the CAO's effectiveness when designed well and become a bottleneck when designed poorly. The CAO vs Chief of Staff page covers the wider executive context.

Chief of staff to the CAO

Manages the CAO's operating cadence, prepares executive forums, tracks commitments, and runs cross-portfolio programs that do not have a clear owner. Best as a senior-staff role rather than an executive direct report; borrowing authority from the CAO works only when the CAO is clearly delegating it.

Embedded finance partner

A senior finance leader, dotted-line into the CFO and solid-line into the CAO, who runs the administrative portfolio's budget and forecasting. The presence of this role keeps the CAO/CFO partnership clean by giving both executives a shared point of contact.

Internal communications lead

Administrative services touch every employee. A dedicated comms partner — even part-time — improves rollout quality on policy changes, service launches, and operational incidents. The cost of skipping it usually shows up as confused rollouts and repeat questions to the service teams.

Program management office

An enterprise PMO can either be a service line under the CAO or a small staff function close to the CAO. The choice depends on whether the PMO mostly runs the administrative portfolio's own programs (staff function works) or runs programs across the enterprise (service line is cleaner).

By size

How CAO team structure changes with organization size

The patterns above play out differently depending on the size and complexity of the organization. The table below describes common shapes; treat the boundaries between them as approximate, since sector and geography often matter as much as headcount.

Organization profile	Common structure	Typical direct reports	Main risk
Smaller, single-site organization	Service-line reports, often with the CAO running one area personally	Three to five managers covering HR operations, IT, facilities, and finance or procurement administration	The CAO becomes the escalation point for everything
Mid-sized organization	Service-line reports with a chief of staff or senior analyst supporting the CAO	Five to seven service-line leaders plus supporting staff	Cross-service work falls between owners
Large, complex enterprise	Functional clusters, each led by a senior executive	Three to five cluster leaders plus chief of staff and finance partner	Weak cluster leaders are hard to work around
Multi-site system or network	Federated or hybrid, with central standards and local delivery	Central function leads plus senior site or regional administrators	Standards drift between sites

Evolution

How the structure should change over time

The right CAO team structure for year one is rarely the right structure for year three. The function grows, scope shifts, and what was a sensible cluster splits or merges. Plan for evolution; do not lock in a structure that has to survive forever.

Year one: stabilize

Inherit the existing structure unless something is visibly broken. Use the first-90-days plan to learn the function before redesigning it. Major structural change in the first six months tends to be expensive.

Year two: rationalize

During year two there is usually enough operating data and personal credibility to do real structural work. Consolidate where there is duplication, split where one role is doing two jobs, and bring in external talent for the gaps that internal moves cannot fill.

Year three and beyond: scale

Once the function is stable, the structural question shifts from "is this right" to "is this still right at today's scale." Triggers for redesign include scope changes (new functions arrive or leave), sector shifts (regulation tightens), and growth or contraction in the underlying organization.

Triggers for an off-cycle redesign

A direct report has left or has been promoted out.
A new function has been added to the CAO portfolio.
Service performance has slipped at a structural seam.
Two direct reports are repeatedly fighting about the same boundary.

FAQ

CAO team structure questions

Who reports to a Chief Administrative Officer?

Common CAO direct reports include the leaders of HR operations, IT operations, facilities, procurement, the enterprise PMO, compliance, and shared services. The exact list depends on how the organization splits work between the CAO and peers such as the CFO, CHRO, and CIO.

How many direct reports should a CAO have?

Five to seven is the most common range for mature CAO teams. Three to four suits very senior cluster leaders, while eight or more works only when direct reports are highly autonomous and the CAO has strong staff support.

Does a CAO need a chief of staff?

Not always, but many CAOs with broad portfolios benefit from one. A chief of staff to the CAO runs the operating cadence, prepares executive forums, and tracks commitments, and works best as a senior staff role rather than an executive direct report.

Should HR and IT report to the CAO?

It depends on the organization. Where a CHRO or CIO leads the full function at the executive level, the CAO usually partners with them rather than managing them. Where HR or IT is mainly operational and service-focused, it commonly reports to the CAO.

When should a new CAO restructure the team?

Usually not in the first six months unless something is clearly broken. Use the first year to learn the function and gather operating data, then make structural changes once the services and the people are well understood.

Related guides

Pair structure with operating practice

The operating-model guide, shared-services guide, and skills framework together describe how to make a CAO team productive once the structure is in place.

Browse CAO resources