Our client is a growing industrial contractor based in Morrisville, NC, seeking a Director of Operations to help build the leadership systems and operational standards that support long-term growth. The ideal candidate for this role will have a strong background in operations leadership within a subcontractor or specialty trade environment, with a proven track record of coaching and developing frontline managers. This role offers significant influence over how the business runs day-to-day, from performance visibility to customer response standards.
Job Responsibilities
- Coach and develop regional service managers through structured feedback, defined expectations, and a consistent performance review cycle.
- Identify and remove operational barriers, such as unclear ownership, missing information, and broken handoffs, that slow down field teams.
-Partner with senior leadership to define and document operating standards, competency requirements, and consistent team expectations.
-Build tracking systems for escalations, callbacks, and response times to create visibility into current performance.
- Lead an effort to map company workflows from initial opportunity through final invoicing, identifying and resolving key bottlenecks.
- Establish response standards for common customer needs, including emergency service and project inquiries, and train the team to follow them.
- Own customer escalations, ensuring timely communication and resolution when service issues arise.
- Monitor and support margin performance across service and project work, including rework and callback rates.
Job Requirements
- Proven experience in an operations leadership role within a subcontractor or specialty trade contracting
environment (mechanical, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, or similar).
- Demonstrated success coaching and developing frontline or regional managers into stronger leaders.
- Experience leading a distributed, field-based team that works primarily at customer sites.
- Track record of implementing operational processes and standards that held up after your direct involvement ended.
- Experience embedding culture and values into daily business practices, including reviews and hiring decisions.
- A systems-focused approach to problem-solving, rather than one centered on individual blame.
- Comfortable using performance metrics as a coaching and development tool; willing to travel to job sites as needed (roughly four to five weeks per year).
- Background in industrial refrigeration, experience in an employee-owned or ESOP company, or
experience in a similarly sized organization is a plus.