Director, Site Operations

Panthalassa • Portland, OR

1d • $190,000 - $225,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Panthalassa is seeking a Director, Site Operations to lead the day-to-day performance of its regional facilities and develop the systems needed to support 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, and leads Site Operations Managers at other locations. The Director establishes consistent standards for site readiness, maintenance, organization, and service, addresses significant operational concerns, and builds clear roles, routines, decision paths, vendor relationships, and processes for resolving recurring problems.

The Director connects functional expertise with local execution, partnering with Facilities Engineering, Workplace Experience, EHS, Security, Real Estate, IT, Capital Delivery, Manufacturing, R&D, and other teams. Those teams retain ownership of their technical and professional standards; Site Operations coordinates their work at each location and ensures local priorities and constraints are considered. The role remains closely involved in the Portland campus while hiring and developing managers who can lead other locations with clear accountability.

This is an on-site leadership role based primarily at the main corporate campus in Portland, Oregon. Regular travel between regional locations is required, with additional travel to vendors and test sites as needed. The role may require intermittent availability outside normal business hours and longer hours or weekends for critical needs.

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 interactions among people, facilities, services, resources, and business activities.
• Experience managing significant operating budgets, vendors, procurement, and operational services.
• People leadership experience developing managers and building effective teams.
• Excellent cross-functional communication and ability to influence and coordinate across technical and operational organizations.
• Strong judgment and ability to balance immediate operational needs with long-term scalability.
• Comfort operating at strategic and tactical levels in a fast-changing environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to thrive in a creative, scrappy, and collaborative environment.
• Ability to move regularly throughout office, lab, shop, and industrial environments.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly between regional locations and to vendors and test sites as needed.
• Availability outside normal business hours may be required for significant site issues or operational needs; ability to work longer hours and weekends intermittently for critical needs.

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 major 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 developing a regional operating model that does not rely on the Director personally solving every problem.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Facilities Engineering, EHS, Security, IT, Real Estate, and other functions to understand upcoming work, growth plans, and operational requirements.
• Ensure Site Operations Managers coordinate activities, shared resources, projects, moves, outages, deliveries, and other work affecting multiple teams.
• Identify operational impacts and resource constraints early and bring together appropriate teams to resolve them.
• Translate company growth and changing operational requirements 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 rather than relying on repeated one-off fixes.
• Implement tools, automation, vendors, and processes that improve visibility, coordination, service quality, and efficiency.
• Establish mechanisms for sharing best practices and lessons learned between sites, and evolve operating systems ahead of company growth needs.
• Own strategies for vendors and services supporting site operations, including janitorial, PPE, uniforms and laundry, furniture, waste, workplace supplies, fleet, logistics, and other shared services.
• Develop regional vendor strategies and standards while supporting local execution by Site Operations Managers.
• Develop scalable inventory, procurement, and replenishment strategies for operational supplies and shared resources.
• Ensure 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

• 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, with the company paying 100% for full-time employees, their partners, and dependents.
• Disability insurance, with the company paying 100% for a policy providing long-term financial support if an 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.
• Equity in the company.
• Flexible working hours and a high degree of autonomy and work-life balance.

What This Job Offers

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