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Zūm is transforming student transportation through its Connected Mobility Experience (CMX) platform, serving over 6,500 schools in the $50 billion student mobility market. The company is backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, GIC, TPG, and Softbank, and has been recognized by Fast Company, CNBC, and the World Economic Forum for innovation and growth.
The Vice President of Operations East will lead a multi-market regional P&L across the eastern region, overseeing general managers and their teams while maintaining the operational rhythm required to keep buses running safely and on time. This is a hands-on, startup-mode role requiring someone who can build processes, manage operations, and step into yards to support teams directly when needed.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Regional Operations: Own on-time performance, coverage, and service quality across multiple markets
- Financial Management: Manage the regional P&L, budgeting, forecasting, expense control, and collections
- New Contract Implementation: Lead the complete handoff from Sales through Day One stabilization, including contract review, staffing, training, labor setup, and customer readiness
- Startup Mode: Launch new districts and yards while running existing operations; write and standardize SOPs, RACIs, and protocols; make decisions with incomplete information; step in directly when managers leave or launches stall
- People Leadership: Lead and coach general managers and field managers; handle performance issues; run promotion panels
- Labor Relations: Support bargaining, grievances, arbitration, and CBA implementation; serve as escalation point for district and union disputes
- Safety & Compliance: Lead incident reviews, make documented discipline decisions, oversee training and records, ensure DOT/FMCSA compliance
- Customer Relationships: Serve as senior operational contact for district leaders
- Driver Pipeline: Oversee hiring, spare ratios, CDL training, retention, and recognition programs
- Fleet & Technology: Evaluate routing vendors and support yard and equipment readiness
OPERATING RHYTHM:
Daily: Route coverage, dispatch, on-time performance, driver safety, same-day escalations
Weekly: KPI release and action plans, labor review, customer launch calls, payroll dashboard review, AR collections
Monthly: Safety themes, union dues and benefits compliance, forecast-to-actual review, liquidated damages reconciliation
Seasonal: Back-to-school readiness, budget planning, renewals, 45-day scaling forecast
As needed: Involvement in bargaining, grievances, discipline, incident investigations, service-disruption planning
REQUIREMENTS:
- 10+ years in operations, including 5+ years leading multi-site or multi-region teams in student transportation, logistics, or similar safety-critical field operations
- Experience in high-growth or turnaround settings, launching sites and building processes from scratch
- Strong financial skills: budgeting, forecasting, expense control, and AR management
- Direct union experience (CBA administration, grievances, discipline, bargaining) and skill in renewals and escalations with districts and unions
- Command of DOT/FMCSA, CDL, and state pupil-transportation requirements
- Public-sector contract experience, including SLAs and liquidated damages
- Fluency with operational and workforce data, turned into weekly action
- Strong multitasking and proactive planning; exceptional written and verbal communication
- Willingness to travel
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
