Founding Director of Veteran & Military Partnerships

Job Description

Job Description

Hero Johns | Full-Time | Phoenix, AZ (Hybrid/Travel Required) | Reports to Founder & CEO

The Opportunity

Hero Johns is building the first veteran-owned national portable sanitation franchise — a purpose-built pathway that takes transitioning service members from active duty to business ownership or skilled management careers. We are a founding-stage company backed by a Founding Equipment & Manufacturing Partnership with PolyJohn and an active industry partnership with PSAI, targeting 500+ franchise locations by Year 5.

We are hiring our first institutional relationship-builder — someone who will personally construct the pipeline that makes our entire model work. This is not a marketing role and not a recruiting-coordinator role. This is the person who builds Hero Johns' relationships with the Department of Defense's SkillBridge program, installation transition offices, TAP coordinators, and the national network of veteran business and support organizations (VBOC, DAV, USO, Gary Sinise Foundation, Student Veterans of America, and others) from the ground up.

This is a Founding role. You will be employee #2 or #3, you will have no playbook to inherit, and what you build in your first 12 months becomes permanent infrastructure for a national franchise network. We are compensating accordingly — see the Founding Compensation Package below.

What You'll Own

Phase 1 — Transition Pipeline (Your Core Mandate)

• Lead Hero Johns' application for DoD SkillBridge employer partner approval and manage the full approval process
• Build direct relationships with installation-level SkillBridge coordinators and TAP transition offices — this is relationship work, not a one-time application
• Represent Hero Johns as an invited participant at TAP briefings and installation transition events as access is earned
• Design and pitch both tracks service members can enter through: the Career Track (training toward operations, sales, marketing, or logistics management roles) and the Entrepreneurship Track (training toward franchise ownership) — SkillBridge approval will likely depend on leading with the Career Track
  

Institutional Partnership Development

• Build and formalize relationships with VBOC, DAV, USO, Gary Sinise Foundation, Student Veterans of America, NaVOBA, CVOB, and NVSBC
• Develop and formalize the aspirational relationship with IVMF (Institute for Veterans and Military Families) for career and entrepreneurship curriculum
• Own all messaging accuracy regarding partnership status (active vs. in-development) across marketing materials, ensuring Hero Johns never overstates a relationship that isn't formalized
  

Event & Field Presence

• Serve as lead staff at the Hero Johns recruiting booth at WWETT Show and PSAI Expo
• Build Hero Johns' presence at veteran-focused hiring and transition events nationally
• Own the veteran-candidate capture and qualification pipeline (working with Marketing on CRM/lead flow)
  

Candidate Pipeline Management

• Build the operational process that takes a qualified veteran from first contact through Career Track or Entrepreneurship Track placement
• Coordinate with the eventual Franchise Development lead to ensure pipeline candidates are properly routed and legally compliant with franchise disclosure timing

Who You Are

Required:

• Direct professional experience working with, inside, or alongside DoD transition programs (SkillBridge, TAP), a military installation, or a national veteran services/business organization — you should already know how this world works, not be learning it on the job
• Track record of building an institutional relationship or partnership program from zero — you can point to something you built, not just administered
• Comfortable operating without a playbook, in a company that is still being built around you
• Strong public presence — you will represent Hero Johns at national trade shows and installation events; this is a face-of-the-company role
  

Strongly Preferred:

• U.S. military veteran (not required, but strongly preferred given the audience you'll be building trust with)
• Experience with franchise, skilled trades, or field-services industries
• Existing personal relationships within the SkillBridge/TAP/veteran business organization network — a warm network shortens our timeline meaningfully

Founding Compensation Package

Hero Johns is a founding-stage company. We are asking you to accept below-market cash compensation in exchange for real, meaningful ownership in what you build. Here is the honest structure:

Founding Equity Grant: 0.5% of Hero Johns' fully diluted membership interests (profits interest), vesting over 4 years with a 1-year cliff

Deferred Compensation Plan: Rather than a cash IOU, any agreed base-salary shortfall against market rate is converted into additional vested profits interests on a quarterly true-up schedule, reviewed and adjusted once Hero Johns closes its first institutional funding round or reaches [X] signed franchise agreements — whichever comes first

Title Progression: Founding Director → VP of Veteran & Military Partnerships upon reaching agreed pipeline milestones (to be defined in first 90 days)

Milestone Equity Refresh: Additional equity grant triggered upon: (a) formal SkillBridge employer approval, (b) first signed installation-level referral relationship, (c) IVMF partnership formalized

Why This Role, Why Now

Hero Johns has real institutional traction — a founding equipment partnership with PolyJohn and an active relationship with PSAI. What we don't yet have is a functioning veteran pipeline, and that is the single piece of infrastructure the entire franchise model depends on. We need this built before the WWETT Show in February and the months following it. If you're the person who can build durable institutional trust with DoD transition programs and veteran organizations from scratch, this is the role where that skill has outsized, visible, immediate impact — and outsized ownership to match.

To Apply

Send your resume and a short note on the most significant institutional relationship or partnership program you've built from the ground up . Veterans and veteran spouses are strongly encouraged to apply.

Hero Johns is an equal opportunity employer.