Senior Manager, Strategy Acceleration

Arcwood Environmental • Indianapolis, IN

1d • Onsite

About The Position

As the Senior Manager, Strategy Acceleration, you will be instrumental in driving critical value creation initiatives with a primary focus on Operations and Service Delivery (e.g., plant operations, service delivery operations, transportation). Your goal through these value creation efforts will be margin expansion, profitability improvements, and transforming the business overall to increase revenue faster than COGS / SG&A. Given the nature of the business, you will also have opportunities to collaborate and drive other high-value creation efforts jointly with Commercial and functional departments. As part of the Strategy and Transformation team, you will lead the enterprise's highest-value, highest-priority initiatives. This team is the primary engine for driving measurable value creation across the business, with a mandate to accelerate performance during Arcwood's Private Equity hold period. This role is a career catalyst for high-potential leaders. You will operate at pace in a reputable, PE-backed portfolio company, working directly on initiatives that materially impact EBITDA, growth, and operating effectiveness. The role provides broad exposure across Operations, Service Delivery, Commercial, and functional teams, with full ownership of high-impact projects and direct visibility to senior leadership. Success in this role is defined by tangible, needle-moving results. Your work will translate strategy into execution, delivering outcomes that meaningfully advance Arcwood's strategic objectives and overall enterprise performance. Successful candidates will have a strong ability to contribute insights and recommendations, a strong focus on pragmatic and swift execution, independent and fact-based perspectives and the ability to build trust-based relationships and collaborate effectively with leaders and teams across the organization.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (required); within engineering discipline (preferred)
• 8+ years of experience leading workstreams in operations, transformations, or performance improvement environments (required)
• Experience working as part of a high-impact, high-performing agile team (required)
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose and improve complex operating environments, including plants, service centers, and field-based operations, with a focus on throughput, utilization, labor productivity, and service reliability
• Strong ability to lead hands-on operational improvements, working directly with frontline teams to implement changes and sustain results
• Understanding of end-to-end service delivery and logistics models, including transportation planning, routing, asset utilization, and cost-to-serve dynamics
• Ability to translate operational strategy into executable changes, including process redesign, role clarity, resourcing models, and standard work
• Deep experience with and knowledge of building and operating metrics-driven performance management systems, including KPI definition, daily/weekly operating cadences, escalation routines, and accountability mechanisms
• Demonstrated success delivering measurable EBITDA impact through operational efficiency, cost reduction, margin expansion, and working-capital improvement
• Strong capability in business case development, including sizing value, pressure-testing assumptions, and tracking realized vs. planned benefits
• Advanced ability to work with large, imperfect, and fragmented operational data sets, identifying root causes and converting analysis into clear, actionable decisions
• High proficiency in analytical tools (Excel required); experience with advanced analytics or visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, R, Python)
• Ability to maintain a fact-based, independent perspective, validating stakeholder input against observed data and operational realities
• Proven ability to lead change in fast-paced, execution-heavy environments, including private-equity portfolio companies, transformation programs, or turnaround situations
• Strong capability to manage resistance, align stakeholders, and sustain momentum during implementation
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and incomplete information, making pragmatic decisions and adjusting course as results and data evolve
• Ability to build credibility and trust with operators, functional leaders, and senior executives, grounded in operational fluency and delivery of results
• Effective at holding teams accountable while maintaining strong working relationships
• Clear, concise communication skills with the ability to translate operational detail into executive-level insights and recommendations
• Regular and predictable attendance to perform the functions and requirements of this role

Nice To Haves

• MBA (preferred); equivalent top-tier consulting experience may be considered in lieu of an MBA
• Experience in the environmental industry or in industrial production and process industries (preferred)

Responsibilities

• Prioritizes health and safety by adhering to policies, processes, and maintaining safe practices at all times
• Rapidly diagnoses operating and service-delivery performance across plants, service centers, and transportation networks by understanding end-to-end workflows, identifying constraints and inefficiencies, quantifying financial impact, and prioritizing initiatives based on value and feasibility
• Owns execution of operational improvement initiatives from problem definition, business case sizing, and implementation, working side-by-side with Operations, Service Delivery, and functional teams to drive change on the ground-not just design solutions
• Translates operational insights into implementable action plans, including detailed operating changes, resourcing requirements, sequencing, and performance metrics required to sustain results
• Drives day-to-day execution rigor by actively removing barriers, escalating risks early, and holding stakeholders accountable for commitments, timelines, and performance outcomes
• Holds full accountability for assigned value-creation initiatives aligned to the Company's Full Potential Plan (FPP), with clear ownership for delivery of results rather than advisory support
• Uses data as a tool for facts and insights, analyzing large and imperfect operational data sets (e.g., throughput, utilization, labor, transportation) to identify root causes, validate hypotheses, and make fact-based decisions
• Maintains an independent, operator's point of view, incorporating stakeholder input while grounding decisions in observed performance, data, and frontline realities
• Implements operational performance management mechanisms, including KPIs, cadence reviews, issue escalation routines, and standard work, to ensure improvements are sustained beyond initial implementation
• Partners with the Vice President, Strategy Acceleration to shape the operational value-creation agenda, supporting prioritization, sequencing, and resource deployment across initiatives
• Identifies incremental operational improvement opportunities during execution and integrates them into the broader value-creation roadmap as appropriate
• Flags delivery risks, performance gaps, and execution slippage early, proposing concrete countermeasures to recover value and maintain momentum
• Tracks and reports initiative progress and realized financial impact, with clear visibility into EBITDA contribution, timing, and sustainability for senior leadership and the TMO
• Delivers and tracks measurable EBITDA impact through operational efficiency, service-delivery effectiveness, transportation optimization, and disciplined execution across the operating model
• Supports broader operational priorities as needed, including rapid-response problem solving in underperforming sites or critical service areas
• Takes on additional duties as assigned to support the team and organization

Benefits

• Arcwood offers competitive pay and bonus incentives.
• Benefits include choice of medical, dental, and vision plans, flexible spending or health savings accounts, employee and dependent life insurance, short and long-term disability, 401(k) savings plan with 7% company match, and tuition reimbursement.

What This Job Offers

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