Director of Operations

DROP Collaborative is a pretreatment consulting firm that built its own compliance software. We help municipal utilities run industrial pretreatment programs under 40 CFR Part 403, and our DROP platform holds their permit, enforcement, and compliance data in one place.

We serve more than 40 utilities from under 1 to 80 MGD across 7 states and growing, with Missouri as our core market. Our team of engineers, scientists, and developers is based in St. Louis. We run the business on Entrepreneurial Operating Systems: a weekly scorecard, quarterly Rocks, and weekly leadership meetings.

Our consulting and software work as one company. Consulting wins clients and shows us what to build next. The software absorbs repeatable work, so revenue can grow faster than staff.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Director of Operations runs DROP day to day, so our CEO can focus on vision, client relationships, and growth. You will turn our long-range plan into quarterly priorities, run the leadership team, and own how consulting work is staffed, delivered, and measured.

Our goal is for this person to grow into Chief Operating Officer as the business scales. You will join the leadership team as a peer to our Chief Technology Officer and Director of Finance.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Lead the leadership team and operating rhythm

• Run the weekly leadership meeting, keep quarterly priorities on track, and resolve issues across departments.
• Own the weekly scorecard and hold every leader accountable to their numbers and goals, including the CEO.
• Work with the CEO to turn the 10-year vision and annual plan into quarterly priorities with clear owners and measures.

Run consulting delivery and quality

• Lead our Project Managers and consulting staff, managing scheduling, staffing, and workload so client work is on time and on budget.
• Plan capacity and manage utilization across the technical team as client work grows.
• Set and enforce QA/QC standards for regulatory deliverables, including permits, local limits, inspection reports, and enforcement documents.
• Work with technical leads to scope proposals, set realistic schedules, and manage scope changes.

Build processes and systems

• Write and maintain SOPs from client intake and scoping through delivery, billing, and renewal.
• Find bottlenecks and fix them with repeatable processes, not one-off workarounds.
• Select and implement the tools we run the business on, such as project management, CRM, and time tracking.

Put the DROP platform to work

• Own the client onboarding process for the DROP platform, working with the CTO and Product Owner on configuration, data migration, and training.
• Use the platform to make consulting delivery more efficient, moving repeatable work into software.
• Feed client and consultant input back to the product team to shape the roadmap.

Manage business performance and contracts

• Partner with the Director of Finance on budgets, utilization, billing, and project profitability.
• Track contracts, scopes of work, and renewal cycles so work is billed accurately and renewals don't lapse.

Develop people

• Lead hiring, onboarding, and performance conversations across the team.
• Build a culture of accountability, technical excellence, and continuous improvement grounded in our core values.

WHAT YOU BRING

Required

• 8+ years of operations or project delivery experience at a consulting, engineering, or environmental services firm, including 3+ years leading teams. Small-firm experience where you also did hands-on work is ideal.
• A strong grasp of how professional services firms make money: project budgets, utilization, backlog, and billing.
• A track record of building processes, scorecards, and resource plans that others actually use.
• Clear, professional communication with internal teams, utility directors, and city staff.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, environmental science, business, or a related field.

Preferred

• Water or wastewater experience, especially municipal utilities, pretreatment, or NPDES programs.
• Experience running a business on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) or a similar operating system.
• Experience operating in a combined services and software business.
• PMP, Lean, or Six Sigma certification.

WHO YOU ARE

• You enjoy tracking numbers and building systems that make work run smoothly.
• You build clean, repeatable processes rather than patching problems one at a time.
• You follow through, and you're comfortable having direct accountability conversations, including with the company's founder.
• You're calm and professional with clients when issues come up.
• You share our core values: Data First: decisions are technical, not opinion or convenience.
• We Own the Outcome: act like owners; accountable without being defensive.
• Do Work That Matters: impact over activity; build for the long term.
• Earn Trust, Keep Improving: transparency, integrity, and growth.

REPORTING AND SUCCESS

You report to the CEO and lead our Project Managers and consulting staff. You work alongside the CTO and Director of Finance as peers.

In your first year, success looks like

• The weekly scorecard is reported consistently and drives decisions.
• Leadership meetings run without the CEO leading them.
• The CEO is fully focused on vision, clients, and sales.

Ongoing, we'll measure the role by

• Billable utilization and project margin
• On-time, on-budget delivery and first-pass QA/QC quality
• Client retention and renewals
• Speed of DROP platform onboarding for new clients
• Team retention and engagement

COMPENSATION

• Salary range of $130,000–$170,000, based on experience.
• Hybrid schedule based in St. Louis, Missouri.