Company Overview:
Magnum Electric Inc is a dynamic leader in the electrical contracting industry with over 35 years of experience powering diverse projects across multiple states. We pride ourselves on fostering a family-oriented environment where teamwork, growth, and excellence are at the core of everything we do.
About The Role:
The Chief Operating Officer is responsible for leading day-to-day operations across Magnum Electric. This executive will oversee field operations, project execution, workforce planning, safety performance, operational systems, and cross-functional coordination to ensure the company delivers high-quality work safely, profitably, and on schedule. This role serves as a strategic partner to the President and works closely with senior leadership to shape the direction and success of the company.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on, strategic operations leader with deep experience in construction, electrical contracting, or a closely related industry. This person must be comfortable leading at scale, supporting a workforce of approximately 1,000 employees, and partnering closely with executive leadership to drive growth, efficiency, accountability, and operational excellence.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Leadership
- Lead daily operations across the company, including field operations, project management, manpower planning, prefabrication, warehouse/logistics, fleet, safety, and operational support functions.
- Translate company strategy into clear operational plans, priorities, performance goals, and execution rhythms.
- Establish scalable processes, systems, and standards that support continued growth while maintaining quality, safety, and profitability.
- Partner with business ownership to evaluate business performance, identify operational risks, and implement improvement initiatives.
- Foster a culture of accountability, teamwork, craftsmanship, safety, and continuous improvement across all levels of the organization.
Project Execution and Delivery
- Oversee the successful execution of commercial electrical projects from preconstruction through closeout.
- Ensure projects are properly planned, staffed, scheduled, and managed to meet budget, timeline, quality, and customer expectations.
- Work closely with project executives, project managers, estimators, and support teams to improve project outcomes.
- Monitor project performance metrics, including labor productivity, schedule adherence, change management, margin performance, cash flow, and customer satisfaction.
- Support resolution of high-priority project issues, including schedule conflicts, labor shortages, customer concerns, subcontractor coordination, and contract-related challenges.
Workforce Planning and Field Productivity
- Lead company-wide manpower planning to ensure labor resources are aligned with project demands, backlog, and growth objectives.
- Partner with HR, field leadership, and training teams to attract, retain, develop, and promote skilled employees.
- Strengthen leadership development pathways for foremen, superintendents, project managers, and operational leaders.
- Drive field productivity initiatives, including improved planning, prefabrication, material flow, scheduling discipline, and labor tracking.
- Support a high-performing culture that values employee engagement, career development, and strong communication between field and office teams.
Safety, Quality, and Compliance
- Champion a safety culture and ensure safety expectations are embedded in every level of the organization.
- Partner with safety leadership to improve safety performance, reduce incidents, and maintain compliance with OSHA, company policies, customer requirements, and applicable regulations.
- Ensure quality control standards are clearly defined, consistently followed, and continuously improved.
- Promote proactive risk management across projects, contracts, field operations, fleet, equipment, and workforce practices.
- Maintain high standards for ethical conduct, regulatory compliance, and professional business practices.
Financial and Business Performance
- Own operational performance against key financial and business objectives, including gross margin, labor productivity, project profitability, backlog execution, and revenue targets.
- Work with CFO to improve cost control, billing discipline, and project financial visibility.
- Review operational dashboards and project performance reports to identify trends, risks, and opportunities.
- Support strategic planning, annual operating plans, capital investments, and long-term business growth initiatives.
- Evaluate and improve operational structure, staffing models, systems, and processes to increase efficiency and scalability.
Customer, Vendor, and Partner Relationships
- Serve as an executive-level representative with key customers, general contractors, construction managers, vendors, subcontractors, and industry partners.
- Support business development and client retention by ensuring strong operational delivery and responsive customer service.
- Partner with preconstruction and estimating teams to align project pursuits with operational capacity, profitability goals, and execution strategy.
- Help negotiate, review, and manage significant operational or project-related commitments.
- Build trusted relationships that strengthen the company’s reputation in commercial electrical contracting.
Required Qualifications
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in construction, electrical contracting, specialty contracting, engineering, or a related field.
- Significant experience leading operations for a large, multi-project organization with a substantial field workforce.
- Proven ability to manage operational performance at scale, preferably within a company of several hundred employees or more.
- Strong understanding of commercial construction project delivery, field productivity, labor planning, safety, scheduling, estimating, change management, and project financial controls.
- Demonstrated success leading teams, developing leaders, improving systems, and driving measurable operational results.
- Experience working closely with executive leadership on strategy, growth planning, budgeting, and organizational development.
- Strong financial acumen, including experience with project profitability, labor cost management, forecasting, margins, and operational KPIs.
- Excellent communication, decision-making, problem-solving, and relationship-building skills.
- Ability to travel to project sites, customer meetings, and company locations as needed.
Preferred Qualifications
- Direct experience in commercial electrical contracting or a closely related specialty trade.
- Experience leading operations in the Upper Midwest or similar regional construction markets.
- Bachelor’s degree in construction management, engineering, business administration, operations management, or a related field.
- Master’s degree or executive leadership training preferred.
- Experience with prefabrication, design-build delivery, lean construction, labor productivity systems, and construction technology platforms.
- Familiarity with non-union workforce environments, apprenticeship programs, and skilled trades workforce development.
- Experience leading organizations through growth, process improvement, acquisition integration, or operational transformation
Magnum Electric Inc is headquartered at 471 Christianson Dr W, West Fargo, ND 58078 Phone: 701-551-3240 | Visit us at www.magnumelectric.net
Magnum Electric is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
