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Fractional Operations Leader
Remote (Chicago, IL area)
Independent Contractor
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Current Opportunities
VeritOps helps growing Illinois manufacturers — job shops, contract manufacturers, custom fabricators, and specialty producers — eliminate operational chaos and capture hidden profits. We find the untapped value hiding in existing operations and build systems that perform so teams can focus on strategic work.
We're a growing operations firm, and you'll have a front-row seat to our journey, with the potential to become a key player in our future.
Position Summary
We need someone who's run a manufacturing operation — managed the floor, owned the P&L, dealt with the chaos when the biggest order of the quarter is stuck and half your team calls in sick.
You'll work directly with shop owners as a fractional member of their leadership team. Most of our clients are job shops, contract manufacturers, and custom fabricators in Illinois with 20–80 people. They know something's broken but don't have the horsepower to fix it. That's where you come in.
You assess what's actually going on, figure out where the money's leaking, build the plan, and drive the fix — with our Operations Project Leads doing the heavy lifting on implementation. You own the client relationship and the outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
- Walk into a client's operation and figure out where the real problems are
- Build a 90-day improvement roadmap the owner can actually understand and the team can actually execute
- Show up regularly as a fractional VP of Ops or COO — know the people, know the numbers, know the floor
- Direct our Operations Project Leads on what needs to get fixed and hold them to timelines and results
- Set up KPIs and reporting so the owner sees what's happening without chasing people down for answers
- Get in the weeds when you need to (this isn't a flyover role where you drop off a binder and disappear)
- Advise on systems and tools, but only what actually fits a 20–80 person shop
- Deliver results that show up on the P&L: better margins, faster delivery, less fire-fighting
What You'll Bring
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Your Expertise
- You've held a senior ops role — VP of Ops, Plant Manager, Director of Operations, COO — inside a real manufacturing environment. Job shops, contract manufacturers, or custom fabricators are ideal.
- You've owned a P&L in a make-to-order or mixed-production environment and you understand how every operational decision shows up in the numbers.
- You can walk a shop floor and spot the problems without someone pointing them out. Scheduling gaps, inventory pileups, quoting that's costing margin — you've seen it before.
- You can build a 90-day plan for a 20–80 person manufacturer that doesn't require an MBA to follow.
How You Work
- You earn trust fast with owners who've been burned by outside help before
- You speak plain English — no frameworks-for-the-sake-of-frameworks, no 80-page decks nobody reads
- You can lead a team of project-level operators and hold them accountable without micromanaging
- You're comfortable telling an owner what they need to hear, even when it's not what they want to hear
Industry & Technical Requirements
- 10+ years running operations in manufacturing — job shops, contract manufacturers, custom fabricators, or similar environments strongly preferred
- You've managed teams of 15–75 people on a production floor
- Strong handle on the core functions: production planning, inventory, quoting, order-to-cash, quality
- Working knowledge of ERP systems (NetSuite, SAP Business One, Dynamics, Epicor, JobBOSS, or similar) — you don't need to configure it, but you need to know what good looks like versus what's a mess
- Familiar with lean, continuous improvement
- Experience with manufacturers in the $20M–$100M range preferred
Platform Expertise
- You've held a senior ops role — VP of Ops, Plant Manager, Director of Operations, COO — inside a real manufacturing environment. Job shops, contract manufacturers, or custom fabricators are ideal.
- You've owned a P&L in a make-to-order or mixed-production environment and you understand how every operational decision shows up in the numbers.
- You can walk a shop floor and spot the problems without someone pointing them out. Scheduling gaps, inventory pileups, quoting that's costing margin — you've seen it before.
- You can build a 90-day plan for a 20–80 person manufacturer that doesn't require an MBA to follow.
Consulting Skills
- You earn trust fast with owners who've been burned by outside help before
- You speak plain English — no frameworks-for-the-sake-of-frameworks, no 80-page decks nobody reads
- You can lead a team of project-level operators and hold them accountable without micromanaging
- You're comfortable telling an owner what they need to hear, even when it's not what they want to hear
Industry & Technical Requirements
- 10+ years running operations in manufacturing — job shops, contract manufacturers, custom fabricators, or similar environments strongly preferred
- You've managed teams of 15–75 people on a production floor
- Strong handle on the core functions: production planning, inventory, quoting, order-to-cash, quality
- Working knowledge of ERP systems (NetSuite, SAP Business One, Dynamics, Epicor, JobBOSS, or similar) — you don't need to configure it, but you need to know what good looks like versus what's a mess
- Familiar with lean, continuous improvement
- Experience with manufacturers in the $20M–$100M range preferred
Compensation & Structure
- $150–$200/hour based on experience and scope of engagement
- Independent contractor arrangement with flexible scheduling
- Engagements are typically fractional — 2–4 days/week per client, with potential for multiple clients
- Remote, with regular on-site presence at client shops in Illinois and the greater Midwest
- This is for experienced manufacturing operators who want to lead real transformation across multiple growing businesses
