Vice President, Operations

Quilt • Redwood City, CA

7h • $240,000 - $270,000

About The Position

Quilt's company mission is to move humanity off of fossil fuel heating. 20% of US global warming emissions come from homes (that's more than cars!).
Started by a team of industry veterans from Google, Apple, Nest, and Tesla, Quilt is a technology company focused on improving the energy systems, health, and comfort of buildings. Along the way, we built the first new major HVAC manufacturer in over 100 years. Our systems today combine the most efficient heat pumps on the market with modern artificial intelligence — including occupancy detection, over-the-air updates, real-time energy optimization, and remote monitoring — to deliver a home climate experience that's not just sustainable, but 10x better than what it replaces.We've raised over $63M from Energy Impact Partners, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Lowercarbon Capital, Gradient Ventures, and other great investors.

In the past year, we have seen considerable demand growth from both homeowners and distribution partners. We're scaling across North America and have established distribution across 25+ US states & Canadian provinces.
This is a new and critical role. Quilt has proven its product and its market. The next chapter is about building the operational engine that delivers reliably, efficiently, and at scale. The operational challenges ahead are as significant as the opportunity.
As VP, Operations, you will be responsible for end-to-end manufacturing, fulfillment and delivery of Quilt hardware, ensuring that every step meets the high quality bar we have set for our brand while driving down costs and unlocking efficiencies.

Requirements

• You've scaled a physical product operation. You have direct experience scaling manufacturing, supply chain, and field operations for a hardware or physical product company — ideally in home services, consumer electronics, solar, or adjacent spaces. You understand the difference between building a prototype and building the ten thousandth unit reliably. You've managed complex supplier relationships, navigated sourcing challenges, and ensured continuity of supply for a manufactured product. You've dealt with the realities of hardware — lead times, MOQs, tariffs, quality escapes, single-source risk — and you find them satisfying to solve.
• You've managed complex logistics operations. You understand 3PL warehouse management, freight forwarding, LTL delivery, and reverse logistics. You've dealt with the realities of moving physical products across a national footprint — carrier negotiations, damage rates, delivery windows, cross-border shipping — and you know how to build systems that make logistics reliable and cost-efficient at scale.
• You are a builder. We're not hiring you to optimize a mature operation. We're hiring you to build operational infrastructure that doesn't fully exist yet to enable our future growth. You're energized by standing up new functions, hiring teams, implementing systems, and creating order out of ambiguity.
• You're rigorous, process-oriented, and data-driven — but not bureaucratic. You bring structure without stifling the speed and adaptability of a ~50 person fast-moving startup. You know how to implement the right amount of process for the current stage and evolve it as the company grows.
• You're hands-on. This is not a "hire a team and steer strategy" role — everyone at Quilt is a doer. You jump between the tactical and strategic: building models, writing the docs, making the phone calls, visiting the sites. You take full ownership of outcomes, leading from the front and diving into the details to ensure results are delivered.
• You're willing to travel. Our manufacturing supply chain is primarily in Asia, where we have an in-region team that will be in your organization. Our 3PL warehouses and logistics operations span North America. You're excited to regularly visit and supervise these operations, and to get to know the people behind them.
• You lead effectively across functions. You know that operational excellence at a hardware company isn't built in a silo. You're a credible partner to Hardware Engineering, Finance, and Go-to-Market, and other teams — able to speak their language, align competing priorities, and drive decisions that balance product quality, unit economics, and channel commitments.
• 15+ years in operations, supply chain, manufacturing, or a related function, with at least 3–5 years in a senior leadership role.
• Direct experience at a growth-stage hardware or physical product company.

Nice To Haves

• Experience managing logistics operations — 3PL relationships, freight, warehousing, reverse logistics — across a multi-state or national footprint is strongly preferred.
• Experience in HVAC, home energy, building systems, solar, or related industries is a significant plus but not required — we'll trade domain knowledge for operational excellence.
• Experience in a venture-backed startup environment where you've built functions from early stages

Responsibilities

• Supply Chain & Procurement: You will own upstream component sourcing and vendor management for our contract manufacturing partners. This includes sourcing strategy, supplier relationships, cost negotiations, component quality, and supply continuity planning. You will work closely with our hardware engineering team to manage BOMs, qualify new suppliers, and ensure that our contract manufacturers build high-quality, cost-effective products at increasing volume.
• Manufacturing Operations: You will oversee production execution, quality systems, inventory management, and capacity planning. You’ll partner closely with our hardware engineering team to ensure smooth handoffs from design to production. You will drive continuous improvement in yield, cost, and cycle time while managing CM relationships and manufacturing strategy.
• Domestic Logistics: You'll own everything required to move finished units from our contract manufacturers to our customers — and back, when needed. This means managing 3PL warehousing, freight forwarding, last-mile delivery, and reverse logistics. It also includes our parts and warranty returns program. You'll build the team, vendor relationships, processes, and systems to make this function reliable and cost-efficient as unit volume scales across North America.

Benefits

• Compensation includes meaningful equity commensurate with a senior leadership role.
• Quilt offers strong benefits commensurate with a Series B company of our stage.

What This Job Offers

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