Director of Business Operations & Finance
Location: Jacksonville, Florida — On-site
Company: Powerline Hardware
Reports to: President & CEO
About the Opportunity
Powerline Hardware is a fast-growing manufacturer and national distributor of products serving the utility, telecom, industrial, and data center markets. With continued geographic expansion, new product launches, and significant investment in inventory and warehouse capacity, we are looking for a hands-on business leader to help manage our next phase of growth.
This is not a narrowly defined corporate position. We are seeking a highly capable, entrepreneurial leader who can work directly with the CEO and take ownership of the day-to-day operational and financial performance of the company.
The successful candidate will initially lead key areas of business operations, finance, Marketing, inventory, freight, and organizational accountability, with the opportunity to grow into a broader VP or COO leadership position based on performance.
Key Responsibilities
Business Operations & Leadership
- Take ownership of day-to-day business operations and help translate the CEO's growth strategy into execution.
- Coordinate across sales, finance, Inventory planning, logistics, and customer service.
- Establish clear accountability, KPIs, and follow-up across departments.
- Identify operational bottlenecks and implement practical solutions without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Develop and maintain effective SOPs for critical business processes.
Finance, Reporting & Controls
- Review monthly financial performance, including P&L, EBITDA, gross margin, cash flow, AR, AP, and working capital.
- Establish weekly and monthly management dashboards that provide clear, actionable visibility into business performance.
- Oversee AP review and approval controls, AR aging and collections, and bank wire/ACH authorization processes.
- Identify cost-saving opportunities and areas of financial leakage.
- Work closely with the Controller and accounting team while providing the CEO with clear business insights and recommendations.
Purchasing & Vendor Management
- Lead purchasing planning based on sales trends, forecasts, inventory levels, lead times, and working-capital requirements.
- Negotiate with domestic and international suppliers on price, payment terms, minimum order quantities, lead times, quality, and service levels.
- Develop vendor scorecards and identify opportunities for cost savings, better terms, and supply-chain risk reduction.
- Balance inventory availability with cash-flow discipline and inventory-turn objectives.
Inventory & Warehouse Performance
- Drive inventory accuracy through disciplined cycle-count procedures and root-cause analysis of variances.
- Improve inventory turns while maintaining appropriate service levels and minimizing stockouts.
- Identify and execute strategies to reduce slow-moving and obsolete inventory.
- Establish accountability for warehouse productivity, shipment accuracy, and operational discipline.
Freight & Logistics
- Analyze inbound and outbound freight costs and identify opportunities for measurable savings.
- Drive negotiation with carriers, freight forwarders, and logistics providers.
- Improve container utilization, shipment consolidation, routing, and expedited-freight control.
- Track freight cost as a percentage of sales and other relevant logistics KPIs.
Commercial & Growth Support
- Partner with sales leadership to align forecasts, inventory, pricing, margins, and customer priorities.
- Review pricing and gross-margin performance by product, customer, and sales channel.
- Support new-product launches and strategic growth initiatives in utility, telecom, C&I, and data-center markets.
- Help ensure that revenue growth translates into profitable growth and improved EBITDA.
What Success Looks Like
Within the first 12 months, the successful candidate should demonstrate measurable progress in:
- Improving inventory accuracy and inventory turns.
- Reducing unnecessary freight and expedited-shipping costs.
- Improving sales growth and promoting the product launch
- Strengthening AP, AR, cash-flow, and financial controls.
- Improving gross-margin and EBITDA visibility.
- Reducing slow-moving inventory.
- Creating clear accountability through KPIs and practical SOPs.
- Reducing the CEO's involvement in routine day-to-day operational issues.
Ideal Candidate Profile
- 8+ years of progressive leadership experience in operations, finance, distribution, manufacturing, supply chain, or a related environment.
- Proven experience managing multiple business functions in a small to mid-sized organization.
- Strong financial acumen with the ability to understand P&L, gross margin, EBITDA, working capital, AR/AP, and cash flow.
- Hands-on experience with purchasing, vendor negotiations, inventory, logistics, or warehouse operations.
- Strong analytical skills and comfort working with ERP, CRM, financial systems, Excel, and business intelligence tools.
- A practical, hands-on leadership style suited to a fast-growing entrepreneurial business.
- Ability to move comfortably between strategic planning and solving day-to-day operational problems.
- Strong communication, accountability, and people-management skills.
Preferred but not required:
- Electrical, utility, industrial distribution, manufacturing, or infrastructure industry experience.
- International sourcing and import experience.
- Experience helping scale an entrepreneurial or founder-led company.
Leadership Growth Opportunity
For the right person, this is more than an operations position. The successful candidate will work directly with the President & CEO and have the opportunity to assume increasing responsibility for the company's day-to-day management.
The long-term objective is to develop a leader capable of helping run the business across operations, finance, organizational accountability, and profitable growth, allowing the CEO to devote greater attention to strategy, acquisitions, key customer relationships, and expansion.
Title will be commensurate with experience and may range from Director to Vice President, with the potential to grow into a broader executive leadership role based on demonstrated performance.
Job Type: Full-time
Benefits:
Application Question(s):
- what is your current and desire compensation ?
1. What have been your key successes at your current position?
2. Why are you choosing to leave your current position?
3. What are three (3) things you’d look for in your next job opportunity?
4. Describe your experience & role in P&L Management.
5. Among the three (3) major heads in our Business – Operations, Marketing & Sales, and Finance; list in order of your strength.
6. Please take our Culture Survey which shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. https://take.surveys.ci/s/g2Q30i9g7e/53259
Work Location: In person
