Operations Manager

Job description

Position Summary: The Operations Manager will lead a team responsible for the full underground infrastructure spectrum serving a shared base of utility, telecom, and municipal clients, across distinct geographic territories (Southwestern and Eastern Ontario). Given this scale and complexity, the role calls for a leader who has operated at the level of a $20M+ business — someone comfortable owning operational and financial performance across multiple crews, service lines, and sites, not just a single department or project. The Operations Manager maintains a broad view across the company's departments, active work, and upcoming opportunities; establishes operational priorities; addresses performance or capacity concerns; and ensures larger, higher-value, or higher-risk projects receive the planning, coordination, and management oversight required for successful delivery. This role requires a practical, technically credible leader who can connect estimating, departmental execution, and project performance with company-level priorities. The Operations Manager ensures operational risks, resource requirements, and performance concerns are identified and addressed before they affect safety, customers, schedules, quality, or profitability. Key Responsibilities Daily Operational Leadership Lead and coordinate the daily operations of departmental Field/Crew Supervisors. Translate the General Manager's operational priorities into clear work plans, expectations, and accountabilities for Site/Crew Supervisors. Maintain visibility across active projects, service work, crews, and operational commitments across both entities to ensure work is progressing as planned. Balance priorities across departments and companies, and make timely decisions regarding labour, equipment, materials, scheduling, and operational support. Identify operational risks, bottlenecks, and capacity concerns; direct appropriate solutions; and keep the General Manager informed of significant issues, emerging risks, and decisions requiring further approval. Ensure effective coordination between field operations and administrative, estimating, dispatch, sales, finance, and shared service functions, as applicable. Operational Team Leadership & Accountability Provide direct leadership, direction, coaching, and performance management to Site/Crew Supervisors and Estimators across divisions. Establish clear expectations for departmental performance, estimating accuracy, safety, quality, productivity, customer service, documentation, communication, and people leadership. Conduct regular operational and performance reviews to assess workload, capacity, project requirements, estimating activity, results, risks, and departmental priorities. Hold direct reports accountable for meeting established expectations and ensure performance concerns are addressed promptly and effectively. Support leaders in resolving complex employee, customer, technical, scheduling, estimating, and operational matters. Identify leadership and technical development needs and support succession planning across operational departments. Project Oversight and Execution Provide management oversight for larger, higher-value, higher-risk, or operationally complex projects requiring coordination beyond routine supervision — including emergency storm restoration work. Ensure significant projects have appropriate execution strategies, schedules, budgets, staffing plans, procurement considerations, risk controls, and reporting requirements. Establish project-performance expectations and hold operational leaders accountable for delivery against approved scope, schedule, budget, quality, safety, and customer commitments. Evaluate project performance at key stages, identify significant variances or emerging risks, and direct recovery or corrective-action plans where required. Coordinate cross-department and cross-company priorities and resolve higher-level resource, scheduling, customer, subcontractor, or operational conflicts affecting project delivery. Provide operational direction on significant scope changes, project challenges, and customer escalations, involving the General Manager where appropriate. Ensure effective project closeout, financial and operational review, and application of lessons learned to future estimating and execution. Operational Capacity & Workforce Planning Assess current and upcoming workload and develop short- and medium-term workforce and resource plans with Site/Crew Supervisors and the General Manager. Monitor labour utilization, overtime, capacity, scheduling gaps, and productivity, and take action to improve operational effectiveness. Set cross-department resource priorities and ensure operational leaders coordinate workforce, equipment, subcontractor, and scheduling requirements effectively. Lead or participate in recruitment and selection for operational leadership, estimating, and field positions and ensure effective onboarding and deployment of new employees. Work with Site/Crew Supervisors and HR to address attendance, performance, conduct, training, and workforce development needs. Ensure operational decisions support employee competency, appropriate supervision, and sustainable workloads. Estimating & Pre-Execution Planning Lead the estimating function across both companies and hold Estimators accountable for timely, accurate, complete, and commercially sound estimates. Establish consistent estimating, bid-review, documentation, and approval practices appropriate to each company. Review significant, complex, or higher-risk opportunities to assess scope, pricing, resource requirements, execution strategy, schedule, and operational risk before submission. Ensure estimating decisions reflect current labour capacity, productivity expectations, material and subcontractor requirements, and operational capabilities. Ensure an effective handoff from estimating to operations, with clear communication of scope, assumptions, exclusions, budget, schedule, commitments, and identified risks. Compare estimated and actual project performance and direct improvements to estimating assumptions, cost information, and future work planning. Safety, Quality & Compliance Champion a strong safety culture and hold Site/Crew Supervisors accountable for safe work practices, hazard control, inspections, meetings, documentation, and corrective actions. Support a single, harmonized H&S management system across divisions, respecting activity-specific requirements. Maintain regular field presence to verify compliance with company policies, occupational health and safety legislation, codes, procedures, and client requirements, including high-risk activities such as confined space, rock drilling, marine/barging operations, and live utility work. Ensure compliance with Ontario OHSA requirements, WSIB obligations, and utility-specific contractor safety prequalification standards. Ensure work is executed in accordance with approved scope, drawings, specifications, permits, technical standards, and quality expectations. Review serious incidents, near misses, quality failures, deficiencies, and recurring concerns with Site/Crew Supervisors and shared service leaders. Ensure corrective actions are assigned, completed, verified, and communicated appropriately. Escalate material safety, quality, environmental, regulatory, or operational risks to the General Manager and appropriate shared service leader. Operational & Financial Performance Monitor operational performance indicators including productivity, labour utilization, overtime, schedule adherence, rework, callbacks, equipment use, and work completion across both entities. Review job or departmental performance with the General Manager and provide accurate explanations of variances, risks, and corrective actions. Support cost control by ensuring labour, materials, equipment, and subcontracted resources are planned and used effectively. Identify preventable operational costs, recurring inefficiencies, and opportunities to improve margin and service delivery, including cost synergies such as shared procurement and equipment utilization. Ensure field time, work records, purchase information, change documentation, and other operational records are completed accurately and on time. Customer & Stakeholder Coordination Support Site/Crew Supervisors in maintaining professional communication with customers, contractors, consultants, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Help maintain and grow key relationships across service territories. Respond to escalated operational or service concerns and coordinate timely, practical resolution. Ensure operational commitments are realistic, communicated clearly, and delivered consistently. Maintain effective communication with the General Manager regarding significant customer concerns, project risks, and operational commitments. Represent the company professionally during site meetings, operational reviews, and customer discussions as required. Reporting & Continuous Improvement Provide regular operational reporting to the General Manager regarding workload, staffing, project and service performance, safety, quality, capacity, and material risks. Use operational data and field observations to identify trends, recurring issues, and improvement opportunities. Develop and implement practical improvements to scheduling, planning, communication, documentation, field processes, and resource use. Promote consistency and accountability across both companies while recognizing legitimate technical and workflow differences. Ensure lessons learned are communicated and incorporated into future planning and execution. Key Performance Indicators: Operational performance vs. revenue and margin targets across both entities H&S performance (incident rate, near-miss reporting, zero lost-time targets) across both companies Cross-referral activity generated between divisions within the portfolio. Equipment/fleet utilization rates Client retention and satisfaction On-time, on-budget project delivery Education & Qualifications: Post-secondary education in Construction Management, Operations Management, Engineering Technology, Business Administration, a skilled trade, or a related discipline is preferred; an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered. Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in construction, skilled trades, field services, industrial operations, or a similarly complex operational environment, including significant leadership responsibility. Demonstrated experience operating with P&L or budget accountability for a business or division in the $20M+ annual revenue range, ideally spanning multiple crews, sites, or service lines. Proven operations experience in underground utility construction, drilling, or heavy civil contracting. Current or previous trade qualification, license, apprenticeship training, or other directly relevant technical background is strongly preferred; the credential does not need to be current where the candidate demonstrates appropriate technical knowledge and experience. Demonstrated experience leading supervisors or multiple field teams across concurrent projects, service work, or operational priorities, and coordinating shared resources across business units. Strong understanding of workforce planning, scheduling, productivity, quality management, safety requirements, and field execution. Ability to interpret drawings, specifications, scopes of work, technical documents, schedules, and operational or job-cost information relevant to the assigned business. Strong working knowledge of Ontario OHSA requirements and utility contractor safety prequalification standards. Valid Ontario G-Class driver's licence and clean driver's abstract. Relevant safety certifications, such as Working at Heights, WHMIS, and First Aid, are required or must be obtained based on the operating environment. Desirable: Existing relationships with Ontario utility providers or municipalities. CRSP or equivalent H&S qualification. Experience integrating or managing sister/affiliated companies. Core Competencies: Operational Leadership: Coordinates complex daily operations across multiple sites and companies, and holds supervisors accountable for safe, efficient execution. Commercial Acumen: Has operated with P&L or budget accountability at $20M+ scale and understands how field-level decisions roll up to company financial performance. Technical Credibility: Applies relevant field and trade knowledge to evaluate risks, challenge plans, and support sound decisions. Planning & Prioritization: Balances competing demands and aligns labour, materials, equipment, and schedules with operational commitments. People Leadership: Coaches Site/Crew Supervisors, addresses performance concerns, and strengthens leadership capability. Project & Service Oversight: Maintains overall accountability for work performance while enabling supervisors to lead daily execution. Financial Awareness: Understands how operational decisions affect cost, productivity, margin, and company performance. Safety & Quality Leadership: Sets clear expectations, verifies compliance, and ensures corrective actions are completed. Problem Solving: Anticipates issues, makes timely decisions, and escalates significant risks appropriately. Communication: Maintains clear, professional communication with field teams, management, customers, and support functions. Accountability: Takes ownership of operational results and follows issues through to resolution. Working Conditions: This is an operational leadership role requiring regular presence at company locations, active project sites, and field operations across Southwestern and Eastern Ontario. The role combines office-based planning, meetings, reporting, and analysis with frequent field visibility and site inspections. Travel between projects, departments, customer sites, and company locations is required. May be required to work extended or non-standard hours in response to operational demands, urgent service issues, project requirements, or significant incidents. Work may occur in active construction, utility, marine/waterfront, and outdoor environments, depending on the assigned company. Note: The above key responsibilities are not exhaustive, and additional duties may be assigned as needed to meet the demands of the position and the organization.