VP Operations & Transformation

Position: Vice President of Operations & Transformation 
Status: Full-Time / Permanent / Exempt
Reports To: Chief Operating Officer
Location: Remote + Travel
Travel Required: 25% Ongoing (with heavier travel anticipated during ramp up/initial training)
Salary: $200,000-$225,000 Per Year
Incentives: Annual Bonus + Equity

Position Overview

SavATree is entering a critical phase of scale, where disciplined execution, operational consistency, and profitable growth across service lines directly impact results. The Vice President, Operations owns the performance, standardization, and continuous improvement of field operations and specialty service lines across all markets.

This is an enterprise-level operator role — equal parts P&L facilitator, execution engine, and change leader. Partnering with the COO, President, Regional VPs, District Managers, and Market Leaders, the VP translates strategy into executable plans, embeds operational discipline across a centralized and decentralized field organization, and drives measurable gains in revenue, margin, safety, and customer experience — while preserving the local flexibility that makes markets successful.

Core Mandate

Service Lines

• Own the enterprise operating model and operational standards while partnering with Regional and Field Operations leaders who execute locally.
• Support P&L’s across field operations and specialty service lines (e.g., GTC, PHC, Lawn, NRC, Décor, Landscape), support driving revenue growth and margin targets and expansion across each.
• Own and execute enterprise operating model for field labor, including workforce planning, capacity modeling, crew design, routing strategy, scheduling optimization, labor productivity, technician utilization, and service delivery economics.
• Build and own the strategy for each Service Line in terms of growth focus, training and awareness, new products, product adjustments, industry and disease trending recommendations.
• Partner with the sales organization to facilitate growth and have the team as SMEs to support discussions on product/market / disease-specific trends, as well as pricing.
• Support the overall budgeting process for each service line by highlighting trends in services, applications, and year-over-year headwinds/tailwinds, to ensure a strong budget focused on growth.
• Support annual operating plan: volume, pricing, labor, materials, capital needs by line and market.
• Ensure technical service and quality standards are consistently deployed in partnership with technical experts.
• Approximate time spent: Operational Performance, People & Strategy (25%), Transformation (50%), Labor Strategy (15%), Sales Facilitation & Strategic Support (10%)

Continuous Improvement / Project Management

• Lead high-impact, cross-functional initiatives from strategy through sustained adoption.
• Total ownership of business standard work, including all aspects of Lean; Daily Management, Leader Standard Work, Monthly and Quarterly Operating reviews.
• Create visibility and accountability through structured reporting, governance, and clear KPIs — standardizing where it matters while preserving local flexibility.
• Build and embed a continuous-improvement culture and standardized best practices across branches, districts, and regions.
• Facilitate the ideation, development and acceleration of core business transformation projects, being both tactically hands on to move the projects forward as well as driving the overall strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Performance & P&L Ownership

• Own enterprise performance of core field operations standards and specialty service lines, treating each as a distinct but integrated business.
• Drive revenue growth, service-line penetration, and margin expansion (revenue-per-hour, job costing, labor productivity) across all markets for each service line.
• Partner with Finance and the regions on annual budgets, forecasting, and in-year execution to hit plan within each functional service line.
• Partner with operations on production standards, crew configurations, route density, and hours-per-job benchmarks
• Drive seasonal capacity planning and round scheduling (PHC and lawn applications are calendar- and degree-day-sensitive; tree work is weather- and storm-disrupted)

Enterprise Transformation:  Continuous Improvement & Standardization

• Own the enterprise operating system and measure results through KPI governance.
• Ideate and develop, co-own and accelerate, lead change management and sustainment and acceleration – of all transformational initiatives across the organization.
• Design and deploy a company-wide continuous-improvement framework tailored to field services (Lean methodology, structured problem-solving, root-cause analysis).
• Develop, maintain, implement, update and drive compliance for all standard work across the company partnering with each functional leader.
• Develop and enforce SOPs and scalable best practices for scheduling, routing, job completion, and service delivery in partnership with relevant functions.
• Standardize operations, execution, and analytics usage to optimize cost efficiency and consistency.

Technical Standards

• Lead large-scale initiatives — shared services and specialization / centralization, cost-reduction programs, and new-market expansion — broken into clear workstreams with defined owners, timelines, and deliverables.
• Own program specifications and treatment protocols
• Maintain the approved materials list (fungicides, insecticides, fertility, PGRs, biologicals) with efficacy, cost-per-acre, and label/regulatory review
• Define quality standards and audit mechanisms — field inspections, callback/redo rate tracking, and root-cause correction
• Serve as the senior technical authority on escalated diagnostics, tree risk/failure claims, and phytotoxicity or turf damage events
• Partner with IT to define and optimize the digital operating model, including routing, scheduling, forecasting, mobile execution tools, AI-enabled workforce optimization, and operational analytics.

Strategic Initiative & Change Leadership

• Lead large-scale initiatives — shared services and specialization / centralization, cost-reduction programs, and new-market expansion — broken into clear workstreams with defined owners, timelines, and deliverables.
• Identify risks early and manage cross-functional dependencies; ensure initiatives move from planning into execution and sustained adoption.
• Lead change management: practical rollouts, communication and training plans, and direct resolution of resistance through data and clear outcomes.
• Support service line specific transformation to drive overall service line growth.

Data, Reporting & Performance Management

• Define KPIs and leadership scorecards tied to operational and initiative performance; partner with Data & Analytics on dashboards that give real-time visibility.

• Own and implement all MOR KPI’s for the company, including:
• Labor productivity
• Revenue per hour (RPH)
• Crew utilization
• Route density
• Travel time reduction
• Gross margin improvement
• Scheduling efficiency
• Service-line attachment rate
• Customer retention
• Forecast accuracy
• Initiative ROI

• Ensure major initiatives have defined ROI metrics and post-implementation reviews.
• Drive transparency on what is working, what is not, and where intervention is required.

Safety, Compliance & Customer Experience

• Ensure operations meet or exceed safety standards and regulatory / pesticide-application requirements; lead incident reviews and corrective actions.
• Ensure consistent, high-quality service delivery; support resolution of escalated issues and improve customer satisfaction and retention.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner across Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, and IT to position services, enable teams, and integrate service lines into overall branch strategy.
• Act as a neutral enterprise operator who breaks down silos and drives decisions that benefit the whole business.

Success Metrics

• On-time, on-budget delivery of strategic initiatives.
• Revenue growth, margin improvement, and cost efficiency — overall and by service line.
• Speed and consistency of execution across markets.
• Adoption and sustainability of new processes and systems.
• Crew productivity and utilization, safety performance, and customer satisfaction and retention.

Qualifications

Required

• 10–15+ years in operations, project/program management, consulting, or continuous improvement, including multi-location or field-based leadership.
• Proven track record leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives from concept through execution, and managing or scaling operations or service lines with P&L impact.
• Strong operational and financial acumen; ability to influence senior leadership and drive execution in a decentralized organization.
• Field-services background (arboriculture, landscape, seasonal décor, or other distributed field services) and relevant certifications.
• Bachelor’s degree required.

Preferred

• Experience in a direct-to-consumer, route-based service business.
• Private equity–backed or high-growth environment experience.
• Familiarity with Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies; MBA or advanced degree.

Leadership Profile

• Bias for action and strong execution mindset, with high ownership and accountability.
• Brings structure to ambiguity quickly; strong business acumen connecting operations, sales, and customer experience.
• Credible with both corporate and field leaders; challenges the status quo while maintaining strong relationships.
• Pragmatic — balances strategy with real-world execution.