Chief Operating Officer

COO Position

This highly successful B2B product sales company has grown revenue by about 50% in the last 5 years thanks to patented, industry-leading load securement products and its culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and customer centricity. We are seeking a strong, experienced Vice President of Finance & Operations or Chief Operations Officer to help lead and scale the company into the future.

The ideal candidate for the position will have:

o A minimum of 15+ years of Finance & Accounting leadership PLUS 5 years of Operations & Supply Chain management experience in a high growth, high performance, fast-paced business environment.

o A minimum of 10-year Lean operational Excellence.

o Warehouse management Including but not limited to Receiving, Shipping and Inventory.

o Domestic and International Transportation industry experience and/or B2B product sales industry experience.

o S&OP or SIOP planning deployment.

o Residence within 1/hour of South Bend, Indiana, a willingness to relocate to South Bend, and expectations to be in-office a minimum of 4 days/week.

o A preferred Culture Index profile with predefined characteristic and trait parameters

As a key member of the executive leadership team, the VP of Finance & Operations leader’s ultimate function is to support top line revenue and help drive bottom-line profits through Team leadership and development, process and procedural improvement, IT systems advancement, strategic development and planning, operational support, and human resources management, as well as External Suppliers and 3rd Party Manufacturing to deliver on time within budget, quality products to our customers.

This position will be responsible for: (i) Delivering direct and indirect material cost saving. (ii) building a cohesive Operations and Supply team (iii) ensure important transaction and business practices are identified and best practices / standard work is implemented. This position offers highly competitive compensation and benefits, including a SEP retirement plan as a form of profit sharing, making this a highly desirable position.

The VP of Finance & Operations or CFO reports directly to the President. This role will also collaborate and team with the CEO, VP of Sales & Marketing, administration, operations, and shipping teams, as necessary, and will have all members of the Finance, Operations, and Supply teams reporting to him/her, and potentially IT/Systems and Human Resources, depending on experience and qualifications.

1. Job Title: VP, Finance & Operations / Chief Operations Officer

2. Position Summary

As a key member of the leadership team, the ultimate function of this Finance & Operations leader is to support the revenue cycle and growth, maximize profitability and cash flow, while helping the company manage risk and ensure long-term sustainability. Additionally, this leader will manage and coach his or her team to operate in a high performance, fast paced, customer-centric environment, continually looking for opportunities to improve processes, increase efficiencies and scalability, with a heavy focus on people, profit, process, technology, and systems.

3. Reporting Relationships & Accountability

· Reports to the President

· Manages the Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain departments, possibly including IT & HR

· Works directly with the CEO and VP Sales & Marketing

4. Responsibilities & Principal Duties

o

· Foster collaboration and teamwork among the leadership team.

· Create a high-performance environment for the administration and IT teams that drives accountability and teamwork both within those functions, as well as across the organization.

· Assisting with employee time and benefits.

· Supporting the payroll function.

· Helping human resources record keeping and documentation.

· Supporting the sales team.

· Driving a customer service culture.

· Strong meeting rhythms and communication with direct reports.

o

· Oversee Finance, Operations and Supply Chain organizational development (succession planning, salary administration), policy administration, budget and strategic planning.

· Develop and implement a 5-year strategic plan for Finance, Operations and Supply Chain that supports the company growth.

· Support the annual budgeting process by developing cost-out project plans and providing forecast guidance.

· Creates and deploys category strategy utilizing lean sourcing methodologies. Optimize cost reduction, supplier delivery and quality performance, risk mitigation, commodity economics, diversity sourcing performance, working capital improvement, and contract compliance.

o

· Maximize return on financial assets by establishing financial policies, procedures, controls, and reporting systems.

· Perform and/or oversee accounting functions to include general ledger, banking, daily reconciling, A/R, A/P, state sales tax, cash management, shipping, budgets and planning.

· Manage customer credit.

· Maintain reasonable IT security systems and protocols to protect the assets of the organization and drive necessary system enhancements, working with the leadership team and outside vendors, as needed.

· Manage Purchasing, Inventory Control, Logistics, Operational Excellence

· Create Import/Export knowledge base within the Logistic function.

· Create and deploy Supplier Management Tools including: Supplier Agreements, Supplier Evaluation, Material Cost Savings procedures.

· Maintain 100% Ontime shipments to customers.

· Improve product quality and achieve 100% on-time delivery by implementing Sales, Inventory, Operational, Planning (SIOP)

· Develop and implement operational plans that improve throughput yields, on-time delivery, labor efficiency and spend forecast accuracy.

· Implement cultural change focused on continuous improvement philosophy and lean tools.

· Drive operations for continuous improvement in COGs, cycle time quality and customer satisfaction.

· Launch lean manufacturing and kaizen with continuous improvement methodology.

· Oversight of monthly commission calculations, reports, etc.

· Management of state sales tax, including software.

o

· Work with the CEO, President, Controller, and key members of management in a constructive and teaming way to ensure the goals of the organization and our customers are met and we are consistently striving for improvement.

· Proficiency in the use of technology and input and leadership in driving technology changes and adoption that will make the company more efficient and help us better serve our customers.

· Partner with the controller to ensure operational effectiveness and a high degree of teaming across the organization.

· Keep up weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual KPI reporting for leadership Team.

· Collaborate with Executive Leadership on the deployment of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) systems and the implementation of new systems and applications.

o

· Develop and deliver project communication plans, to include engagement activities, medium, frequency and key messaging.

· Facilitate and define training materials focused on users exercises to demonstrate overall approach, with explicit direction on Finance, Operations, Supply and Logistic activities.

5. Job Requirements

· Experience requirements: 15+ years, including management/leadership, and 5 years of operations, and supply chain experience.

· Education requirements: 4-year degree in Accounting, Finance, Business. An MBA is a plus.

Software competencies: Accounting software proficient, i.e. Quick Books and Microsoft Great Plains and Business Central ERP, Salesforce, Microsoft Word/Excel etc., plus an understanding of supporting systems and integration that drives efficiency.

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Experience:

• Operations management: 5 years (Preferred)

Ability to Commute:

• South Bend, IN 46637 (Preferred)

Ability to Relocate:

• South Bend, IN 46637: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: In person