Operations Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Camano Island / Stanwood, WA · Full-time · On-site, with field presence across Island, Skagit & Snohomish counties

Pay: $75,000 base. On top of base, a written profit-participation plan: when the company's profit rises above a set line, you get a share of it, paid every quarter, and your base rises with it. Here's the honest part: we're not above that line today, and nobody has collected on the plan yet. The person in this role is the one who gets us there — and the plan is written so that when you do, you're paid for it. The full plan comes with the written offer. Full available benefits after 90 days — medical, dental, vision, 401(k) match.

Run the operation. Not just the schedule.

Most operations jobs hand you a title and a pile of fires. This one hands you a pile of fires and the blueprint for the system that puts them out for good. Your job is to build that system into the business — with us — and then run it.

Envirotek keeps septic systems working for those who count on us — done right, made to last. We're a service company on Camano Island running five service lines across three counties, with technicians, CSRs, and dispatchers who do hard work well. We're building something rare in the trades: a business that runs on written standards, real numbers, and advancement you earn — instead of knowledge that lives in one person's head. We call it the Summit Way.

Three values run everything here. Prove It — Don't say it. Show it. Own It — Run toward the problem. Elevate It — Leave it better than you found it.

The business itself is still being designed: for the most efficient operation we can run, with the customer's experience first, and with room to invent better ways to do the work.

What isn’t running yet — read this before you apply

We're not going to pretend the system is finished. It isn't. Here's what isn’t running yet, and what you’d be installing:

• Roles people actually work to. Every role is written — what it owns, what it is responsible for, what is expected, what it is measured on. Nobody is working to it yet. It is on paper, not in the building.
• A scorecard people actually see. The measures are written. Nobody has seen their number on a Friday, because no one is running the scorecard yet.
• One standard for the customer. Today the experience depends on who answers the phone and who shows up. It shouldn't.
• One team. Technicians, CSRs, and dispatchers work as three groups today. This role makes them one.
• One operating system. The standards exist — some written, some trained, some half-built, some still in the founder's head. They need to be organized, installed, and enforced as one system.

Too many days, the business still needs the owner in the room to function. That's why this role exists. If that list reads like work you want to own, keep reading. If you need a system that’s already running handed to you, this isn’t your role.

You won't be doing this alone

Walking into that list doesn't mean walking in solo. You inherit willing, capable Summit Professionals who want the clarity this role brings. The founder stays in the business — not running your day, but building alongside you: writing the standards that still live in his head, ruling on the calls that need his license, and showing up to teach. We will work together to build a system for an industry that sets a new standard of excellence. Self-driven, yes. On your own, no.

Who you’ll work for

The founder. Thirty-five years in septic — he has designed systems, built them, sold them, and serviced them. His best work is teaching and inventing. Running the day is not, and he knows it; that is the honest reason this role exists. What you get from him: the truth, every time. Coaching, not just correction. A boss who is still in the business, close enough to the work to know what is real. He does not take himself too seriously. He takes the work seriously. If you could sit through a barbecue with him and enjoy it, you will probably do fine here.

What this role exists to produce

Operations that run predictably without the owner — one team, written roles, real numbers, and a weekly scorecard that shows problems before customers ever feel them.

What you'll own

• One team — Technicians, CSRs, and dispatchers working as one crew with one standard. You make it one team and you keep it that way.
• Roles and the scorecard — A written role for every position: what they own, what they're measured on, what winning looks like. Everyone sees their numbers every week.
• Installing standards — Take the standards we have (and the ones still fragmented) from draft to trained to enforced, role by role, on a set schedule. You organize the system, install it, and make it hold.
• Accountability — Answering for the result. The conversations that keep standards real — with technicians, CSRs, and dispatchers — held one-on-one, on record, with a follow-up date. This is the part of the job most people avoid. Here it is the job.
• Daily execution — The field delivers on time, to standard, every day. Problems come to you first; the owner sees only what needs his license or his ruling.
• Summit Academy — Our training session runs every Friday, and there's already a written standard for how it's run. You own the calendar and the topics. You don't have to teach every session — hand it to the right person — but it happens, on standard, every week. The founder shows up for Q&A when the topic calls for it.
• Training and development — We do not have a fully trained crew today. Making sure training happens is this job: every Summit Professional guided through the training their role needs, new hires through Basecamp, trainers answering for their trainees. Training lives in Trainual — our home for SOPs, tests, quizzes, and training records — and it is not fully built out yet. The founder has 35 years in this industry; transferring it to the team runs through you and Summit Academy.
• The weekly rhythm — A weekly leadership meeting, a daily huddle that runs 15 minutes or less, and a Friday scorecard that tells the truth.
• Customer trust — No customer ever chases us. Clean handoffs, every item finished and reported back, and reviews and referrals that come from a system, not a mood.

The Non-Negotiables

Read these twice. They're not aspirations — they're the terms of the role.

1. Nobody tells you what to do next. You know the mission, the vision, the values, and the goals — and you drive toward them without being pointed. If the owner has to assign your next move, the role isn't working.
2. The owner never chases what you own. Every item you take on, you finish — and report back with "done, here's the result."
3. You never have to say it. You show it. Results in this role come with proof: numbers, records, photos.
4. Everyone knows if they're winning. Your team sees the scorecard every week. Nobody works in the dark, and nobody gets surprised at review time.
5. One-on-ones happen. On schedule, on record. Every person on your team is developing, and you can show it.
6. Every piece of the operation has a named owner. No orphaned work. No "I thought someone else had it."
7. The owner steps in less every month — and you prove it. You log every operational item that reaches the owner's desk, then build the fix so it never reaches him twice. The log is yours. The trend line is your scorecard.
8. Operational questions stop with you. The owner stays available for technical septic judgment — that's his license and his depth. Everything else operational reaches him one way only: one problem, three options, one recommendation.
9. Existing standards are enforced by you, without the owner seeing it. Uniforms, phones, communication, schedule, dispatch — if it's already been trained and rolled out, he never sees it again. Accountability lives in this role.
10. Nobody decides in a vacuum. Where no standard exists, you don't guess and your team doesn't freelance: it goes to the owner, he rules, the standard gets written, and it's rolled out through the Summit Change Installation System. Then it's yours to hold — forever.
11. Three projects at a time. No more. They're sequenced and prioritized. Nobody earns the right to start another until one is finished or we agree to swap it out — the founder included.

If any of these eleven made you flinch, we've saved each other a lot of time.

Your first 90 days

• Learn the Summit Way and teach it back — the values, the standards that exist, and the ones that don't yet.
• Take over daily execution: problems, the huddle, Summit Academy's calendar.
• Roll out the written roles — what each person owns, what they are measured on — so every position is working to one.
• Stand up the Friday scorecard and publish it, even when the numbers are ugly.
• Hold the first accountability conversations, on record.
• Cut the operational items reaching the owner's desk in half — and show the log that proves it.

What "good" looks like here (yes, with numbers)

These are the targets, not where we are today. Your first job is to build the scorecard that measures them.

• Fixed right the first time, 85% or better; callbacks 5% or lower
• Two standards fully installed and holding per quarter
• Every accountability conversation written up within 24 hours, with a follow-up date
• Scorecard published every Friday by noon — no exceptions, no chasing
• Zero days where the business needs the owner to function

Everything in this company is written to pass one test: could you film it, and would two people watching agree it happened? You'll be measured the same honest way — and so will everyone who reports to you.

Who thrives in this role

You've led operations, field service, or a branch in the trades or home services — septic, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, excavation, or similar. You've walked into a shop that was running on chaos and left it running on a system. You'd rather build the system that prevents the fire than be the hero who fights it. You hold standards without needing to be liked for it, you bring together people who've been working apart, and you finish what you start. You listen before you decide, and when someone tells you you got it wrong, you hear them out before you answer. You can read a P&L, run a meeting that ends on time, and tell an owner the truth.

If you've read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , The 7-Power Contractor , Clockwork , or The E-Myth Revisited and found yourself nodding, you'll recognize how we think. Those books shape how decisions get made here.

Septic experience helps- not required . Systems thinking is required. A spine is required.

Why here

• An operating system you get to finish — the blueprint is drawn: core values, who decides what, a five-tier climb, standards in various stages of built. You inherit a design, not a blank page — and not a finished product either. You put it together, with the founder beside you, and make it run.
• A defined climb — advancement here is earned on written, objective bars: shown, documented, sustained. That includes this role, and the pay grows with it.
• A vision with room in it — the company has written goals and a vision big enough that your own goals fit inside it. It starts with what we build now; that is what makes the rest possible.
• An owner who's building to hand off — this role exists because the founder is deliberately working himself out of daily operations. You're not a buffer; you're the successor to the work.
• Work that matters — clean water and working systems for the communities we live in. We take the mission seriously and ourselves a little less so. (We're a septic company. The jokes write themselves. The standards don't — that's your job.)

How to apply

Our first value is Prove It. Don't say it. Show it. So skip the generic cover letter. Two things get you in the door:

1. The written answer (one page max):

Tell us about one system you built or fixed that kept working after you stepped away. What broke before, what you changed, and how you know it held.

2. The video (1–2 minutes, phone quality is fine): Why Envirotek? Tell us why this company, why this role, and why now. We're not grading production value — we're listening for whether you actually read this posting.

Every leadership role here requires the video. If a two-minute video feels like too much to ask, the eleven non-negotiables above were going to be a problem anyway.

Applications missing either element will not advance.

Envirotek is an equal opportunity employer. We hire on what you can do.