Role Overview:

We are looking for a highly entrepreneurial operations leader to work directly with the founders in building and scaling the company's end-to-end operations.

This is not a traditional operations management role.

The individual will be responsible for designing scalable operational processes, developing a contract manufacturing ecosystem, strengthening procurement and supply chain capabilities, optimizing logistics, and building high-performing operational teams.

The role combines strategy and execution and requires someone who enjoys solving complex business problems from first principles.

Key Responsibilities:

End-to-End Operations

• Own operations from procurement through customer delivery.
• Oversee sourcing, manufacturing planning, demand planning, supply planning and logistics.
• Ensure timely delivery with optimum quality and cost.
• Identify operational bottlenecks and build scalable systems.

Vendor Development & Contract Manufacturing (Primary Focus)

• Build and expand the company's contract manufacturing network.
• Identify, evaluate and onboard manufacturing partners across categories.
• Conduct detailed capability assessments covering:
• Manufacturing capacity
• Infrastructure
• Financial capability
• Quality systems
• Certifications
• Customer portfolio
• Process maturity
• Negotiate commercials and long-term strategic partnerships.
• Develop vendors into long-term manufacturing partners.

(Approximately 60–70% of the role during the first six months.)

Process Design & Team Building

• Assess the current operations structure.
• Identify capability gaps across teams.
• Design scalable organization structures.
• Build new functions where required.
• Train, mentor and develop operational teams.

Supply Chain Planning

• Improve demand planning, production planning and inventory planning.
• Coordinate closely with Sales, Procurement, Manufacturing and Quality teams.
• Ensure smooth execution across internal and external stakeholders.

Vendor Governance

• Establish milestone-based execution with manufacturing partners.
• Monitor production timelines, raw material availability and dispatch schedules.
• Create governance mechanisms for quality, cost and delivery performance.
• Drive continuous improvement across the partner ecosystem.

Cross-functional Leadership

Work closely with:

• Founders
• Sales
• Procurement
• Manufacturing
• Quality
• Planning
• Finance
• External manufacturing partners

to ensure seamless business execution.

Key Deliverables:

• Build a scalable operations organization.
• Develop a high-quality contract manufacturing ecosystem.
• Improve procurement and supply chain efficiency.
• Reduce operational costs over time.
• Strengthen delivery reliability.
• Enable rapid business scale without proportional increase in manufacturing infrastructure.

Ideal Candidate:

We are looking for someone who is:

• A builder rather than a manager.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity.
• Highly analytical and data-driven.
• Hands-on and execution focused.
• Entrepreneurial with a founder mindset.
• Equally comfortable visiting factories as presenting business recommendations.
• Curious and eager to learn new industries and technologies.

Must-Have Skills:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Vendor evaluation and partner management experience.
• Procurement and supply chain understanding.
• Operations planning and execution.
• Process design and optimization.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management.
• Commercial acumen.
• Ability to build teams from scratch.

Preferred Background:

Candidates may come from areas such as:

• Supply Chain
• Strategic Sourcing
• Vendor Development
• Procurement
• Operations Excellence
• Founder's Office
• Manufacturing Operations
• Consulting with strong operations exposure

What We're Looking For:

• 7–12 years of experience
• Startup or high-growth environment preferred
• MBA (Operations/Supply Chain/General Management) preferred
• Strong ownership mindset
• Comfortable getting hands-on with execution
• Willingness to travel to vendor locations as required

Why Join?

• Opportunity to build the operations function from the ground up.
• Work directly with the founders on strategic initiatives.
• Play a critical role in scaling a fast-growing sustainability business.
• High visibility and ownership with a clear path toward future business leadership (potential progression to COO/CEO-level responsibilities as the company scales).