Director, Project Operations

Ashland, Oregon | In office four days per week, one remote

The Mission

Complex product organizations do not move faster because they add more meetings. They move faster when teams can see what matters, what is due, where risk is building, and who owns the next decision.

Blue Marble is looking for a Director, Project Operations to build that operating system across Product Design & Development. You will lead Project Operations and create the schedules, portfolio visibility, capacity planning, systems, and cross-functional rhythm that connect Industrial Design, Product Development, Creative, Marketing, Compliance, Sourcing, and international partners from project initiation through on-shelf delivery.

This is not a project-tracking role. You will create structure that improves execution without burying a creative, entrepreneurial organization in process. The standard: clearer priorities, earlier decisions, fewer surprises, and more predictable delivery.

Can you create structure that makes a complex product organization faster, not heavier?

If that is the kind of operating challenge you want to own, keep reading.

What You'll Do

• Build the Operating System. Build and evolve the project-management framework that carries products from initiation through development, production, and on-shelf delivery.
• Work Backward from Shelf. Translate target on-shelf dates into realistic schedules with clear milestones, owners, dependencies, deliverables, and decision points.
• See the Whole Portfolio. Create portfolio visibility across brands and projects so leaders can see status, priorities, resource pressure, dependencies, and risk in time to act.
• Surface Risk Early. Identify schedule, resource, cost, and execution risks early; establish clear escalation paths; and drive the right people toward timely decisions and resolution.
• Make Capacity Visible. Build practical capacity-planning and resource-management processes that help functional leaders match commitments to the people and time actually available.
• Make Systems Work for People. Help evaluate, implement, govern, and improve PLM and project-management systems so data is accurate, reporting is useful, and teams use the tools.
• Lead the Team. Lead, coach, and develop Project Operations team members while clarifying roles, standards, accountability, and career growth.
• Improve the Machine. Improve workflows, change-management processes, dashboards, KPIs, and operating cadences as the portfolio evolves.

What You Bring

• A Systems Builder's Mindset. You can take a collection of disconnected practices and turn them into a clear operating system with useful standards, not process for process sake.
• Physical Product Fluency. You understand how physical products move from concept through design, development, compliance, sourcing, production, and commercial launch - and where timing breaks down.
• Operational Judgment. You know when a schedule is unrealistic, when a dependency needs attention, and when an issue should be solved by the team versus escalated.
• Cross-Functional Influence. You can align strong functional leaders around shared milestones and decisions without relying on formal authority over every person involved.
• Clear Signal from Complexity. You can reduce a large amount of project information to the few things leaders need to understand, decide, or act on.
• People Leadership. You set expectations, develop people, address performance directly, and build a team that creates leverage for the broader organization.

What It Takes

• Generally 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in project management, program management, project operations, product development operations, or closely related work.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing project-management, program-management, or operations teams.
• Strong end-to-end understanding of physical product development and commercialization.
• Experience managing complex cross-functional portfolios with multiple simultaneous projects, schedules, dependencies, risks, and competing resource needs.
• Meaningful experience with portfolio management, capacity planning, risk management, executive reporting, and cross-functional operating cadences.
• Experience implementing, improving, or governing PLM and/or project-management systems, including process design and user adoption.

What Sets You Apart

Experience in toys, consumer products, or another fast-moving physical-product business will stand out, especially if you have worked across seasonal launches, large product portfolios, international sourcing or manufacturing, and multiple creative and technical functions.

We are also interested in leaders who have built a Project Operations or PMO capability, led a meaningful PLM implementation or transformation, improved product-change control, or helped a growing organization become more predictable without becoming bureaucratic.

How We'll Measure Success

Projects reach key milestones and on-shelf dates more predictably. Leaders can see the portfolio clearly enough to make timely tradeoffs. Risks surface earlier. Resource conflicts are visible before they become emergencies. PLM and project-management processes are trusted and used. Project Operations becomes a source of clarity, accountability, and momentum - and the product development organization gets faster and more scalable because of it.

Is Blue Marble Right for You?

We're intentionally building a culture of people who lead by example, challenge one another respectfully, take ownership of their work, and want to continue learning and improving.

Blue Marble may be exactly the place you're looking for if...

• You take ownership of your words, actions, and work product.
• You value honest, hard conversations and long-term progress over short-term comfort.
• You enjoy solving meaningful problems and seek purposeful work.
• You see feedback as an opportunity to improve and grow.
• You naturally look for ways to make things better and help others succeed.
• You ask questions when something isn't clear.
• You believe character matters as much as competence.
• You proactively bring solutions to problems.

On the other hand, you probably won't enjoy working here if...

• You spend more time making excuses or pointing fingers than solving problems.
• You consistently avoid difficult conversations.
• You believe your responsibility ends with your job description.
• You need someone to constantly tell you what to do.
• You become defensive when receiving constructive feedback.
• You believe being right is more important than finding the best solution.
• You consistently wait for instructions rather than taking appropriate initiative.
• You have difficulty acknowledging mistakes and learning from them.
• You're primarily looking for a paycheck rather than an opportunity to meaningfully contribute.

We're not looking for perfect people.

We're looking for capable people who want to keep getting better and who bring their best to the people and work around them.

If this sounds like you, let's make great things together.

This description is not exhaustive; responsibilities may evolve as Blue Marble grows.

Blue Marble is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law and provide reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process.