Operations 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 and conn stations aboard a Galaxy-class starship.

The ops position is typically manned by a member of the command staff of a starship, regardless of seniority. On the USS 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 USS Voyager, Ops Manager Harry Kim was the most junior bridge officer.

As analytical operations relied upon knowledge of science and engineering disciplines, operations managers sometimes performed the additional duties of a science officer, as exemplified by both Lieutenant Commander Data and Ensign Harry Kim.

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 9.

Much of the information about the writer's intentions for this new position, established at the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation, comes from the writer's bible of that series, which later was adapted into data for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual.