Director of Operations

Willmeng Construction • Phoenix, AZ

3d

About The Position

Arizona-based Willmeng Construction is a 100-percent employee-owned general contractor that has been dedicated to helping our people build their “Genuine Place of Purpose” since 1977. We prioritize our exceptional company culture, which has us ranked in the Top 5 of the Phoenix Business Journal’s Best Places to Work for more than a decade and made us the only Arizona construction firm on the Inc. Best Workplaces list for three consecutive years. We have earned multiple appearances on AZ Big Media’s Most Admired Companies list, and ranked No. 1 for Healthiest Employers for two consecutive years.
Our people and our culture have also created an atmosphere that encourages going above and beyond for our clients and our community. Our team’s dedication to its craft has earned us NAIOP (CREDA) Arizona General Contractor of the Year six times, while at the same time donating more than $1 million annually to community organizations.
Our strategic vision focuses on supporting prelease transactions, competitively bidding projects of all sizes, and fostering our altruistic service culture by recruiting highly talented individuals of great character who want to make a genuine impact on our communities.
The Director of Operations is responsible for the health and performance of how Willmeng Construction delivers work. This is a senior operational leadership position focused on running a disciplined, scalable operation today while helping shape how we will need to operate five years from now. You will partner closely with our Senior Vice President, Project Executives, preconstruction, and finance leadership. You will not carry day-to-day project management responsibility. Instead, you will work one level above it: reading reporting, identifying patterns across projects and markets, and making decisions that keep small problems from becoming expensive ones. The best person in this seat is forensic without living in the weeds. This role carries real decision-making authority over operational standards, process, and resourcing, and it contributes directly to how we pursue and win work. Success requires someone who is strong operationally but comfortable when strategy is not black and white, since a meaningful part of the job is shaping direction rather than executing a fixed playbook.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in construction management, engineering, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Significant operational leadership experience at a company of meaningful scale, with a clear understanding of what it takes to run operations at the next level of growth.
• A track record in complex project delivery, ideally in healthcare, advanced or high-tech manufacturing, or higher education. Experience in any one of these is welcome.
• Demonstrated ability to read financial and project reporting and translate it into decisions, with strong command of budget and margin drivers.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, with the judgment to move between rigorous operational discipline and open-ended strategic work.
• Experience influencing peers and senior leaders without direct authority, particularly across project teams you do not manage.

Responsibilities

• Own operational performance across the business, establishing the standards, cadence, and reporting that keep projects predictable and profitable.
• Identify risk early by analyzing project reporting and performance trends, surfacing pitfalls before they become active problems.
• Partner with Market Leaders and Project Executives, who own operational outcomes on their own work, providing oversight, pattern recognition, and support without taking over their scope.
• Contribute to the pursuit of new work, shaping how we position our operational approach and how we plan to deliver what we win.
• Build the operational infrastructure the company will need at its future scale, not just its current one.
• Collaborate with finance leadership on budget discipline and margin performance, connecting operational decisions to financial outcomes.
• Drive continuous improvement in process, tools, and systems, evaluating where current practices will not hold up as the business grows.
• Develop and mentor operational talent, strengthening bench depth across markets.

Benefits

• Employee Stock Ownership Plan
• Discretionary annual bonus
• 401k with employer match
• Employee medical, dental, and vision insurance 100% covered, with options to add dependents at 50% coverage by Willmeng
• Flexible Time Off Policy
• 9 paid company holidays
• 3 consecutive weeks of parental bonding leave, with an additional 3-5 weeks of disability leave for delivery recovery
• Spacious break rooms with healthy meals & snacks provided at no additional cost
• Team-building activities, including volunteer opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior