Chief of Operations is a position at the head of the operations department of an outpost or space station (and sometimes on a starship). A station ops chief has the duties of both a starship operations manager and chief engineer. This position is typically held by a senior enlisted officer or a line officer.

The Operations Manager (also known as Operations Officer or Chief of Operations) is a Starfleet position which became common in the 24th century.

The operations position (also known simply as "ops") evolved from older 23rd century positions. The bulk of the duties held by the helm and navigation positions were combined into the conn position. Other functions of the helm panel, such as internal systems control, became the purview of ops, as have some communications and sensor system usages. Furthermore, ops personnel coordinate the scheduling of resources, hardware and system usage for an entire starship, outpost or space station.

The ops position is typically manned by a member of the command staff of a starship, regardless of seniority. On Enterprise-D, Ops Manager Data (who doubled as second officer) was the most senior member of the ship's staff save the Captain and XO, but on Voyager, Ops Manager Harry Kim was the most junior bridge officer.

On space stations, the chief of operations usually commands the maintenance and engineering staff, since stations do not require the large number of propulsion engineers typically found working under the command of a Chief Engineer on a starship. Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien was a senior chief petty officer who filled this billet on Deep Space Nine.
 

Known Officers in this Department:

Commander Data (Chief Operations USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D and NCC-1701-E)
Senior Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien (Chief Operations Deep Space Nine)
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Harry Kim (Chief Operations USS Voyager NCC-74656)