VP of Operations

Job description

# **VP of Operations** ## **Mission** LENS’s mission is to end traffic accidents. LENS prevents accidents and saves lives by detecting hazards to prevent accidents before they happen. ## **Platform & Product** LENS Detect scans CCTV feeds on highways to identify hazards, in real-time, before they become accidents. Public Safety agencies, alongside Departments of Transportation, receive alerts on the LENS Detect dashboard about Disabled Vehicles, Stalled Big Rigs, and Pedestrians on Freeway. A dispatcher reviews and validates the detection, and then dispatches an officer to the scene to assist the person in need — resulting in either preventing an accident or saving a life. CBS LA recently did a three minute TV feature that succinctly captures what LENS is doing with Public Safety Agencies in one of the largest traffic capitals in the world: [CHP LA Communications Center using AI to prevent accidents before they happen](http://youtube.com/watch?v=KrY2NVJ2eno) ## **Role & Responsibilities** As the VP of Operations, you seek transformational change. You do not accept the status quo that accidents are an accepted inevitability, or that *they just happen*. Instead, you believe when the root cause of an accident can be known in advance, the accident can and should be prevented. You work with fellow Preventers that share this core belief, using LENS to prevent accidents and save lives. Your responsibilities are: - **Build and lead our business organization.** Develop the business functions that power LENS, including Marketing, Communications, Customer Impact, People, and other functions as the company grows and create an organization capable of compounding its impact over time. - **Translate company strategy into operational execution.** Partner closely with the leadership team to turn long-term strategy into clear priorities, measurable objectives, and coordinated execution across the company. - **Design our systems for scale.** Establish the planning processes, operating cadences, decision-making frameworks, and management systems that enable the company to move quickly while remaining aligned as it grows. - **Create organizational leverage.** Continuously improve how teams collaborate, communicate, and make decisions. Remove organizational friction, clarify accountability, and ensure every function is positioned to do its highest-impact work. - **Partner with the CEO on company building.** Serve as a trusted thought partner on organizational strategy, operational priorities, hiring, and business performance. Help ensure today's decisions strengthen the company's long-term ability to fulfill its mission. ## **Mindset, Principles, and Skills & Experience** Your **mindset** is grounded in: - **The organization is a force multiplier.** You understand that extraordinary missions require extraordinary organizations. Your greatest impact comes from building an environment where exceptional people consistently produce exceptional results. - **Scale is designed, not discovered.** Great organizations do not simply grow - they are intentionally built. You anticipate the capabilities the company will need six, twelve, and twenty-four months from now, and begin building them before they become constraints. - **Leaders build leaders.** Your success is measured not only by the decisions you make, but by the leaders you develop, the ownership you create, and the standards that continue to rise long after you've established them. **Principles** you share with us are: - **Begin with the end in mind.** You understand the organization LENS must become to achieve its mission and work backwards to build the structure, leadership, and operating model required to get there. - **We spend the most time where it makes the most progress.** You continually evaluate where leadership attention, organizational resources, and operational investment will have the greatest impact on advancing the mission. - **We always advance.** Where some others may see an obstacle or friction, you see an opportunity to find alternatives. You inspire leaders to create environments where teams overcome challenges and perform beyond what any individual could accomplish alone. The **Skills & Experience** you have are: - **Demonstrated success helping companies scale from early stage into larger, more complex organizations**, building the operating model, management systems, and leadership capabilities required at each stage of growth. Experience in public safety, defense, logistics, or similarly high-stakes domains is a strong plus. - **A track record of building enduring organizations,** not simply delivering operational results. You leave behind stronger leaders, stronger teams, and stronger systems than the ones you inherited. - **Strong strategic judgment balanced with operational rigor.** You are comfortable moving between long-term company strategy and the practical realities of execution and can translate company vision into organizational execution and business results. - **Experience operating in highly dynamic environments** where priorities evolve rapidly, ambiguity is constant, and leaders are expected to create clarity rather than wait for it. - **Experience building and leading multiple business functions,** including developing senior leaders, creating organizational structure, and scaling teams through periods of rapid growth. - **Exceptional organizational leadership skills,** with the ability to align diverse functions around shared priorities while maintaining speed, accountability, and execution. - **Outstanding executive communication and influence skills,** with the ability to build trust across employees, customers, partners, investors, and public-sector stakeholders. The time to accept traffic accidents is ending, and the time to prevent them has begun. This belief is becoming more of an inevitable reality every day. The number of agencies LENS serves keeps growing - and the world needs to know why. If you are energized by designing the operations of a company dedicated to preventing accidents and saving lives, this role is for you. LENS is an equal opportunity employer committed to building an inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate against any applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.