Executive Vice President of Operations

Job Description

Job Description

Vice President of Operations

Houston, Texas | On-Site | Executive Leadership Position

The Opportunity

Optimal Balance Pharmacy is seeking an exceptional Vice President of Operations to help lead the organization through its next stage of national growth.

Over the past few years, we have grown from a local compounding pharmacy into one of the fastest-growing national compounding operations in the country.

Today, Optimal Balance Pharmacy has approximately 150 employees, is licensed in 35 states with additional states in process, supports a nationwide sales organization of approximately 70 representatives (and growing!) working directly with clients, and offers more than 250 compounds across our formulary. And we’re just getting started.

Our ambition is to build Optimal Balance into one of the largest and most recognized compounding pharmacy brands in the country. Reaching that level will require an entirely new level of operational infrastructure, leadership, technology and discipline.

We are looking for a builder, operator and strategic leader who understands what pharmacy operations look like at serious scale and can help architect the organization required to support several times our current volume. We are investing heavily in automation, technology, facilities, leadership, quality and infrastructure, and the Vice President of Operations will have a significant seat at the executive table in determining how those investments translate into a scalable operating platform.

This is not an opportunity to simply maintain what has already been built. We want someone who looks several years ahead and asks what this organization must look like at several times its current size, and what people, systems, processes, technology and infrastructure need to be built today to make that possible.

The foundation is already here: the national footprint, growth, provider relationships, team and demand. But there is still an enormous amount left to build. For the right operational leader, that is the opportunity.

Where This Role Sits

This position reports directly to ownership and serves on the executive leadership team.

Operational functions report into this role, including pharmacy operations support, fulfillment, shipping and receiving, inventory and procurement. Compounding, Quality, Regulatory and the statutory responsibilities of the Pharmacist-in-Charge remain with their existing leaders; this role partners closely with each of them rather than owning them, so that rapid operational growth happens inside a strong culture of compliance, quality and inspection readiness.

What You Will Own

You will have executive-level responsibility for the performance, scalability and continued development of our pharmacy operations. Your mandate will include:

• Lead and develop the operational leadership team  across pharmacy operations, fulfillment, shipping, inventory, procurement and related operational functions.
• Build a scalable operating structure  with clearly defined responsibilities, accountability and decision-making authority throughout the organization.
• Establish a comprehensive operating scorecard,  KPIs, dashboards and management systems that provide leadership with real-time visibility into operational performance.
• Drive measurable improvements  in prescription throughput, turnaround time, labor efficiency, productivity, capacity utilization, inventory performance, service levels and operating cost.
• Evaluate and continuously improve the entire prescription lifecycle,  from prescription receipt and processing through compounding, pharmacist verification, fulfillment and shipping.
• Identify operational bottlenecks,  determine root causes and systematically eliminate constraints to growth.
• Develop staffing models and workforce plans  aligned with current prescription volume, production requirements and anticipated future demand.
• Build leadership bench strength  by recruiting, mentoring and developing managers and future operational leaders, and establish a culture where leaders understand their numbers, own their departments and are accountable for results.
• Lead continuous-improvement initiatives  using Lean, Six Sigma or comparable operational-excellence methodologies.
• Partner with Technology and IT  to automate manual processes and implement pharmacy technology, robotics, workflow automation and systems capable of supporting significantly greater prescription volume without proportional increases in headcount.
• Lead capacity planning  across people, facilities, equipment, technology and automation, and develop future-state operating plans based on projected demand rather than waiting for constraints to occur.
• Support facility expansions,  new production areas, equipment installations, automation deployments and other major operational projects.
• Establish disciplined inventory, purchasing and supply-chain processes  that maintain product availability while controlling working capital, waste and operational risk.
• Develop annual operating plans,  departmental budgets, financial targets and capital requirements in partnership with Finance and executive leadership.
• Create an operating culture  built around accountability, urgency, ownership, measurable performance and continuous improvement, and break down silos between Operations, Pharmacy, Compounding, Quality, Regulatory, Technology, Finance, HR, Sales and executive leadership.
• Partner closely with Quality and Regulatory leadership  to ensure rapid operational growth occurs within a strong culture of compliance, quality and inspection readiness.

The Leader We Are Looking For

This is not a position for someone whose experience has primarily consisted of maintaining an established operation. We are looking for someone who has scaled one.

The ideal candidate has operated inside a large, complex, high-volume pharmacy, healthcare, pharmaceutical, fulfillment, manufacturing or similarly regulated organization and understands what fundamentally changes when a company moves from entrepreneurial growth into true enterprise scale.

You understand that scaling is not simply about adding more people. It requires better systems, stronger managers, smarter automation, clearer accountability, disciplined capacity planning, better data and an operating model capable of producing consistently at substantially greater volume.

You should be equally comfortable sitting with ownership and executive leadership discussing long-term operating strategy as you are walking the pharmacy floor, examining the numbers, identifying a bottleneck and working with the team to understand and solve its root cause.

We already have talented leaders across pharmacy, compounding, quality, regulatory and other key functions. We are looking for someone who can bring those functions together operationally and help architect the next version of Optimal Balance.

Preferred Experience

• 10+ years of progressive operations leadership experience, with meaningful experience at the VP, Senior Director, Director or equivalent level, including leading large teams through multiple layers of management.
• Demonstrated success scaling a high-growth organization through periods of substantial operational complexity.
• Experience with high-volume pharmacy operations strongly preferred; 503A compounding, 503B outsourcing, specialty pharmacy, mail-order pharmacy, central-fill pharmacy, pharmaceutical manufacturing or high-volume healthcare fulfillment is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing operational KPIs, executive scorecards and management dashboards.
• Experience with automation, robotics, pharmacy workflow technology or automated fulfillment systems, and a record of materially increasing production or prescription capacity.
• Experience with workforce planning, capacity modeling, demand forecasting and operational forecasting.
• Experience managing departmental budgets, financial performance and significant capital investments.
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose operational problems using data, identify root causes and redesign complex workflows.
• Experience building management teams, developing leaders and creating succession plans.
• Working knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma or comparable continuous-improvement methodologies, and strong analytical, data-driven decision-making capability.
• Experience working effectively alongside independent Quality, Regulatory and Compliance organizations; multi-state or multi-site experience is highly desirable.
• A track record of building infrastructure ahead of growth rather than reacting to growth after the organization has exceeded its capacity.

A PharmD or pharmacy background is valuable but not required. We are more interested in finding an exceptional operational leader who understands scale, people, systems, technology and execution.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this position is not simply hitting today’s production targets. The successful Vice President of Operations will help build an organization capable of supporting several times its current size and volume. That means creating an operation where:

• Operational performance is measurable and visible, and leadership has real-time insight into the health of the operation.
• Leaders know exactly what they own, are accountable for their results, and actively manage their departments rather than reacting to problems.
• Problems surface quickly, root causes are identified and corrective actions are implemented.
• Capacity is forecasted and built before it becomes a constraint, and staffing decisions are driven by demand, capacity and productivity data.
• Technology and automation replace unnecessary manual work, and operational decisions are driven by data rather than assumptions.
• Managers are developed into strong leaders, and quality and operational performance strengthen together.
• The pharmacy can absorb substantial increases in volume without proportional increases in complexity, headcount or operational chaos.
• The organization becomes progressively less dependent on individual heroics because strong systems, processes, technology and leaders are in place.

Most importantly, this executive will help us answer, and execute against, the questions that will define our next chapter: What does Optimal Balance need to look like at several times its current size? And what do we need to build today to make that possible?

Why Optimal Balance Pharmacy

It is rare to find an organization where the foundation for significant scale already exists while there is still an opportunity to meaningfully influence how the company itself is built. Optimal Balance already has the national footprint, provider relationships, product breadth, leadership foundation, growth and momentum.

You will be joining a highly experienced executive and leadership team with deep knowledge of the 503A compounding pharmacy industry, spanning quality, regulatory and compliance, pharmacy operations, compounding, technology, sales and commercial leadership. That depth of expertise is supported by a state-of-the-art, approximately 33,000-square-foot operational footprint designed to support the next stage of our growth.

But we are still early in what we believe this company can become. We are investing heavily in the infrastructure necessary for the next stage of automation, technology, facilities, quality, leadership and people, and we want an exceptional operations executive helping determine what comes next. This person will have a significant seat at the table alongside ownership and our executive leadership team and the ability to make a lasting impact on the organization.

For someone who loves building teams, solving complex operational problems, developing leaders, creating systems and scaling organizations, this is an unusual opportunity. You will not be inheriting a finished operating system. You will help build it.

How to Apply

Send your resume and a short note about the largest operation you have helped scale to [careers email] with "VP of Operations" in the subject line. All conversations are confidential.

Optimal Balance Pharmacy is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.