The Operations Officer, often shortened to Ops, is a senior position aboard starships. The Ops position is separate from the Engineering and Science divisions, but duties will often intersect with both. For the equivalent Starbase position, see Chief of Operations, a position which combines Chief Engineering Officer and Operations Officer.
Duties and Responsibilities[]
A crucial station on any starship, the Ops officer keeps track of all major shipboard activities and sets priorities and schedules among the requested and required operations. The Primary responsibilities of the operations officer are supervision of power allocation, coordination and scheduling of starship or unit resources, and assignment of away team personnel and equipment. At any given moment multiple requests for starship or station resources may be made. The operations officer must prioritize these requests and allocate the necessary resources. Starship and station resources includes both equipment and personnel.
Power Allocation[]
Regardless of their size, ships cannot produce unlimited power, so the Ops officer delegates how much power goes to what functions and at what time. He is in charge of allocating all resources aboard ship, although the ship's computer does a great deal in assisting in this task by scheduling most of the routine functions. During critical situations the operations officer is responsible for supervising power allocation. This may require rerouting power, taking key systems offline, and coordinating activities within engineering.
Information Management[]
The Ops officer is responsible for updating the crew and the main computer with important information and has direct access to the majority of the ship's functions. As such, the Ops officer is an indispensable crew member when it comes to information gathering and analysis. unless performing a special task at the request of the CO/XO, this individual has no staff. Operations officers can be drawn from the Engineering staff if necessary, as their duties often overlap.
Away Team Monitoring and Management[]
During away missions the operations officer is responsible for notifying away team members and issuing equipment. The operations officer is also responsible for monitoring away team location, activities, and communication. The operations officer has control of all communications systems, which include internship communication, ship-to-ground communication, ship-to-ship communication, and long-range subspace communication.
On stations and larger starships, the allocation of gear may be handled by a quartermaster instead.