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Salary: USD 190,000 - 225,000 / annual
Panthalassa is a renewable energy and ocean technology company developing devices that capture energy from the ocean's harshest conditions without human maintenance. The company is a public benefit corporation backed by leading venture capitalists and philanthropic investors, headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
The Director, Site Operations will lead day-to-day operational performance across Panthalassa's regional facilities and build scalable systems to support growth. This is a hands-on leadership role with direct responsibility for the Portland headquarters and R&D campus, plus oversight and mentorship of Site Operations Managers at other locations.
Key responsibilities include:
**Regional Site Operations Leadership**: Hire, develop, and manage a high-performing Site Operations team with clear ownership and expectations. Establish consistent operating standards and service levels across sites while accounting for unique location needs. Maintain visibility into major activities, constraints, and risks across the regional portfolio. Serve as the escalation point for significant site issues and operational conflicts. Maintain hands-on involvement at the main corporate campus while building a regional operating model that scales beyond the Director personally solving every problem.
**Cross-Functional Operations & Planning**: Serve as a senior operational partner to Engineering, Manufacturing, R&D, Facilities Engineering, EHS, Security, IT, Real Estate, and other functions. Build strong relationships with functional leaders to understand upcoming work and operational requirements. Ensure Site Operations Managers coordinate activities, shared resources, projects, moves, outages, and deliveries. Identify operational impacts and resource constraints before they affect execution. Translate company growth into site capabilities, staffing, services, and infrastructure needs.
**Systems & Operational Excellence**: Build scalable systems, processes, and operating standards that make facilities high-performing and consistent. Develop common operating rhythms, escalation paths, service models, and KPIs across sites. Identify recurring operational friction and drive solutions addressing root causes. Implement tools, automation, vendors, and processes that improve visibility and efficiency. Establish mechanisms for sharing best practices between sites. Continuously evaluate whether current systems can support the next stage of company growth.
**Site Services, Vendors & Resources**: Own the strategy for vendors and services supporting site operations, including janitorial, PPE, uniforms, furniture, waste, workplace supplies, fleet, and logistics. Establish regional vendor strategies while supporting Site Operations Managers in local execution. Develop scalable inventory and procurement strategies. Ensure workplace readiness on space planning, accommodations, and team moves. Partner with EHS, Security, Facilities Engineering, Real Estate, and property management on safety, security, utilities, and site requirements.
**Budget, Team & Growth Planning**: Develop and own the regional Site Operations budget, including annual planning and forecasting. Establish site-level budgets while maintaining visibility into regional spending. Build business cases for staffing, vendors, tools, and operational investments. Develop staffing and service models that scale with headcount and facility growth. Identify opportunities to improve cost and operational efficiency without compromising safety, reliability, or service quality.
The role requires regular travel between regional locations, ability to move throughout office, lab, shop, and industrial environments, and intermittent availability outside normal business hours for significant site issues. Relocation assistance to Portland is available if needed.
**Requirements**:
- 8+ years of experience in site operations, facilities operations, industrial operations, workplace operations, or related field, including team leadership experience
- 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 understanding of how people, facilities, services, resources, and business activities interact
- Experience managing significant operating budgets, vendors, procurement, and operational services
- Strong people leadership with experience developing managers and building effective teams
- Excellent cross-functional communication and ability to influence across technical and operational organizations
- Strong judgment balancing immediate operational needs against long-term scalability
- Comfortable operating at both strategic and tactical levels in fast-changing environments
**Desired Qualifications**:
- Experience in 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
