Director of Operations – High-Growth Company
Company: Halstead Residential
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Job Type: Full-time, in person
Compensation: $90,000–$120,000 per year, based on experience
Additional Compensation: Performance-based bonus opportunity
Benefits: 401K, Health Insurance, Vision + Dental
Build the Operating Platform Behind a Rapidly Growing Company
Halstead Residential is a fast-growing real estate investment and operating company based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Our business has approximately doubled in size each year, and we intend to continue growing aggressively. We are not looking for someone to simply maintain the business as it exists today. We are looking for an experienced operator who can help build the people, systems, processes, and accountability required for the next stage of growth.
The Director of Operations will work directly with ownership and will have a meaningful role in shaping how the company operates as it scales.
This is an opportunity for someone who wants significant responsibility, direct access to decision-makers, and the ability to leave a visible mark on a growing organization.
Position Overview
The Director of Operations will be responsible for translating company goals and standards into consistent daily execution.
This individual will oversee people, processes, vendors, field operations, customer service, quality control, and performance reporting. The role requires someone who can move comfortably between high-level planning and hands-on problem solving.
Although Halstead Residential operates multifamily properties, direct real estate experience is not required.
We are interested in proven operators from industries such as:
- Hospitality
- Construction
- Logistics and distribution
- Manufacturing
- Field services
- Facilities management
- Retail or restaurant operations
- Healthcare operations
- Home services
- Multi-location businesses
- Property management
The right candidate has successfully managed teams, improved underperforming operations, implemented repeatable systems, and created accountability in a growing organization.
What You Will OwnOperational Execution
- Oversee the company’s day-to-day operating performance.
- Translate ownership’s priorities into clear plans, responsibilities, and deadlines.
- Ensure company standards are consistently followed across all properties and departments.
- Identify operational breakdowns and implement lasting solutions.
- Create a culture of urgency, ownership, professionalism, and follow-through.
- Regularly visit company locations to inspect conditions and verify execution.
- Take responsibility for outcomes rather than simply reporting problems.
Building a Scalable Organization
- Help design an operating platform capable of supporting significant continued growth.
- Document and standardize recurring processes.
- Create systems that reduce reliance on individual employees and institutional knowledge.
- Determine where additional staffing, technology, training, or outside support is required.
- Help define organizational roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, and decision-making authority.
- Build processes that remain effective as the company adds locations, employees, and complexity.
- Identify operational risks before they become larger problems.
Team Leadership and Accountability
- Lead, manage, and develop the company’s operations employees.
- Establish measurable expectations for each employee and department.
- Conduct regular operating meetings focused on results, obstacles, and commitments.
- Follow up consistently and ensure commitments are completed.
- Coach strong employees and directly address underperformance.
- Recruit, onboard, train, and retain high-quality team members.
- Improve communication and coordination between departments.
- Build a team that can execute independently without constant involvement from ownership.
Process Improvement
- Analyze existing workflows and identify inefficiencies, delays, and gaps in responsibility.
- Develop clear standard operating procedures for recurring activities.
- Improve how the company tracks tasks, deadlines, performance, spending, and quality.
- Create practical scorecards and dashboards that show whether the business is performing.
- Introduce structure without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Ensure systems are actually used, not merely created.
- Continuously refine processes as the company grows.
Field Operations and Quality Control
- Maintain high standards across the company’s physical locations.
- Conduct inspections and identify issues involving cleanliness, safety, maintenance, presentation, and customer experience.
- Assign corrective actions and verify completion.
- Hold employees, contractors, and vendors accountable for quality and timeliness.
- Ensure completed work meets company expectations before it is accepted.
- Improve the consistency and professionalism of the company’s public-facing operations.
Vendor and Expense Management
- Manage relationships with contractors, suppliers, and service providers.
- Establish clear scopes of work, pricing, deadlines, and quality expectations.
- Obtain competitive bids and negotiate favorable terms.
- Verify that invoices match completed work and approved pricing.
- Monitor labor, material, repair, renovation, and operating costs.
- Identify waste and recommend more efficient alternatives.
- Ensure spending decisions support both quality and profitability.
Customer and Resident Experience
- Ensure customer and resident concerns are handled promptly and professionally.
- Create clear standards for communication, response times, documentation, and escalation.
- Resolve high-level or sensitive operational issues.
- Identify recurring complaints and address their underlying causes.
- Balance strong customer service with consistent enforcement of company policies.
- Improve the overall reliability and professionalism of the customer experience.
Performance Management and Reporting
- Develop and maintain operating reports that provide a clear picture of company performance.
- Track key indicators related to productivity, quality, staffing, expenses, customer service, and execution.
- Present problems together with recommended solutions.
- Use data to identify trends and guide operational decisions.
- Maintain visibility into important projects, deadlines, and risks.
- Communicate honestly and directly with ownership.
Initial Priorities
During the first year, the Director of Operations will be expected to:
- Evaluate the current team, processes, vendors, and operating structure.
- Identify the most significant obstacles to continued growth.
- Clarify employee roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations.
- Improve accountability and follow-through across the organization.
- Standardize the company’s most important recurring processes.
- Strengthen quality control and field inspection procedures.
- Improve coordination between leasing, maintenance, renovations, and administration.
- Create a reliable operating dashboard for ownership.
- Reduce the number of routine operational matters requiring ownership involvement.
- Prepare the company’s operating platform for another period of significant growth.
How Success Will Be Measured
Success in this position will be measured by:
- Improved consistency and quality of execution
- Stronger employee accountability
- Faster resolution of operational problems
- Reduced dependence on ownership for daily decisions
- Increased team productivity
- Better customer and resident service
- Improved vendor performance
- More reliable reporting
- Controlled operating costs
- Successful implementation of repeatable processes
- The company’s ability to continue growing without sacrificing standards
Required Qualifications
- At least five years of operations or general management experience.
- Experience directly managing employees, vendors, and outside service providers.
- A track record of improving execution within an operating business.
- Experience creating or implementing processes, procedures, and performance measurements.
- Strong organizational and project-management ability.
- Strong financial judgment and comfort reviewing budgets, invoices, contracts, and operating reports.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Willingness to work in the field and personally inspect results.
- Valid driver’s license and reliable transportation.
- Ability to respond to occasional urgent matters outside standard business hours.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in a rapidly growing or entrepreneurial company.
- Experience overseeing multiple locations, properties, projects, or operating teams.
- Experience in hospitality, construction, logistics, manufacturing, facilities, field services, retail, healthcare, home services, or property management.
- Experience introducing structure into an informal or founder-led organization.
- Experience managing both salaried and hourly employees.
- Experience with operating software, workflow systems, or performance dashboards.
- Experience overseeing a business through a period of significant growth.
The Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is a builder, not a caretaker.
This person:
- Enjoys creating order in a fast-growing environment.
- Can see both the overall business and the operational details.
- Takes personal responsibility for results.
- Is comfortable making decisions with incomplete information.
- Addresses difficult issues directly and professionally.
- Creates accountability without creating unnecessary conflict.
- Understands how to lead people with different levels of experience.
- Is equally comfortable in an office, at a property, or working through a field problem.
- Builds systems that make the entire organization stronger.
- Wants the opportunity to grow with the company.
Why Join Halstead Residential?
- Join a company that has approximately doubled in size each year.
- Work directly with ownership and participate in important business decisions.
- Help shape the structure of a company rather than inheriting a mature bureaucracy.
- Have significant autonomy and responsibility.
- Build a team and operating system that can support substantial future growth.
- See the direct results of your work.
- Grow professionally as the company expands.
- Participate in a performance-based compensation structure tied to measurable results.
What This Role Is Not
This is not a remote position, a consulting assignment, or a role focused primarily on presentations and meetings.
It is also not a traditional property-management position limited to processing work orders, handling resident calls, or supervising individual buildings.
The Director of Operations will be expected to lead people, improve systems, visit operating locations, solve difficult problems, and take responsibility for company-wide execution.
How to Apply
To apply, please email your resume to [email protected] with the subject line:
Director of Operations Application – [Your Name]
In the body of your email, please answer the following questions:
- What type of operation have you previously managed?
- How many employees, locations, properties, or projects were under your responsibility?
- Describe an underperforming operation you helped improve.
- What specific and measurable results did you produce?
- Describe a process or system you built that helped a company grow.
- What interests you about joining a rapidly growing, owner-operated business?
- What compensation range are you seeking?
Applications submitted without responses to these questions may not be considered.
Halstead Residential is an equal opportunity employer.
Pay: $90,000.00 - $125,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
