Director, Site Operations

Panthalassa • Portland, OR

1d • $190,000 - $225,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Panthalassa is seeking a Director, Site Operations to lead day-to-day operational performance across its regional facilities and build systems that support their growth. The role has direct responsibility for the Portland headquarters and R&D campus, the company’s primary hub for R&D, engineering, prototyping, and business operations, while leading Site Operations Managers at other locations.

The Director will set and maintain consistent standards for site maintenance, organization, readiness, and service; address safety, reliability, and operational concerns with relevant functional leaders; and develop clear roles, decision paths, routines, vendor relationships, and methods for resolving recurring problems. The role requires close collaboration with Facilities Engineering, Workplace Experience, EHS, Security, Real Estate, IT, Capital Delivery, Manufacturing, R&D, and other teams to coordinate local execution while those functions retain ownership of their technical and professional standards.

This is a systems-building and leadership role that combines strategic planning with hands-on involvement at the main campus. The Director will develop Site Operations Managers, maintain visibility into needs and constraints across locations, and help ensure facilities are consistently well-run, responsive to users, and prepared for the company’s changing work. The role is on-site, based primarily at the main corporate campus in Portland, with regular travel between regional locations.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of experience in site operations, facilities operations, industrial operations, workplace operations, or a related field, including experience leading teams.
• Experience supporting industrial, engineering, manufacturing, laboratory, R&D, or similarly complex environments.
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale operational systems, teams, processes, and service models.
• Experience managing operations across multiple facilities, sites, or complex operating environments.
• Strong systems thinking and ability to understand how people, facilities, services, resources, and business activities interact.
• Experience managing significant operating budgets, vendors, procurement, and operational services.
• People leadership experience developing managers and building effective teams.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills and ability to influence and coordinate across technical and operational organizations.
• Strong judgment and ability to balance immediate operational needs against long-term scalability.
• Comfort operating at both strategic and tactical levels in a fast-changing environment.
• Ability to move regularly throughout office, lab, shop, and industrial environments.
• Willingness to travel regularly between regional locations and to vendors and test sites as needed.
• Intermittent availability outside normal business hours and occasional longer hours or weekends may be required for significant site issues, operational needs, or critical work.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a fast-growing startup or scale-up environment.
• Experience building a regional or multi-site operations function.
• Experience supporting headquarters, R&D campuses, manufacturing facilities, or mixed office/industrial environments.
• Familiarity with industrial safety and commercial building operations.
• Experience developing operational KPIs, service standards, and vendor strategies across multiple sites.
• Experience supporting significant facility growth, new site launches, or organizational scaling.

Responsibilities

• Lead Site Operations across regional facilities, with direct responsibility for the corporate campus and leadership and mentorship of Site Operations Managers at other locations.
• Hire, develop, and manage a high-performing Site Operations team with clear ownership, priorities, and expectations.
• Establish consistent operating standards, service levels, and expectations across sites while accounting for each location’s needs.
• Maintain visibility into activities, constraints, and risks across the regional portfolio, and align resources with business priorities.
• Serve as the escalation point for significant site issues, operational conflicts, and service gaps.
• Maintain hands-on involvement at the main corporate campus while building a regional operating model that does not depend on the Director personally resolving every problem.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Facilities Engineering, EHS, Security, IT, Real Estate, and other functions to understand plans and operational requirements.
• Ensure Site Operations Managers coordinate activities, shared resources, projects, moves, outages, deliveries, and other work that may affect multiple teams.
• Identify operational impacts and resource constraints early, bring together the appropriate teams, and translate growth into site capabilities, staffing, services, and infrastructure needs.
• Build scalable systems, processes, operating standards, operating rhythms, escalation paths, service models, and KPIs across sites.
• Identify recurring operational friction and address root causes; implement tools, automation, vendors, and processes that improve visibility, coordination, service quality, and efficiency.
• Establish ways to share best practices and lessons learned between sites, and evolve operating systems to support future growth.
• Own strategies for site-operation vendors and services, including janitorial, PPE, uniforms and laundry, furniture, waste, workplace supplies, fleet, logistics, and other shared services.
• Establish regional vendor strategies and standards, and support Site Operations Managers in local execution.
• Develop scalable inventory, procurement, and replenishment strategies for operational supplies and shared resources.
• Coordinate workplace readiness with Workplace Experience, including space planning, employee accommodations, furniture, and team moves.
• Partner with EHS, Security, Facilities Engineering, Real Estate, and property management on safety, security, utilities, wastewater, landlord, and other site requirements.
• Develop and own the regional Site Operations budget, including annual planning, forecasting, and ongoing management.
• Establish site-level budgets and accountability while maintaining visibility into regional spending and future requirements.
• Build business cases for staffing, vendors, tools, services, and operational investments.
• Develop staffing and service models that scale with headcount, facility growth, and operational complexity.
• Identify opportunities to improve cost and operational efficiency without compromising safety, reliability, service quality, or employee productivity.

Benefits

• Equity in the company.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Health insurance, with the company paying 100% of a gold-level PPO plan for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents.
• Dental insurance, with the company paying 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents.
• Vision insurance.
• Disability insurance, with the company paying 100% for a policy providing long-term financial support if the employee becomes disabled.
• Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including a 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA.
• Relocation assistance to facilitate a move to Portland, if needed.
• Flexible working hours and a high degree of autonomy.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed