Chief of Staff

High-Impact Executive Opportunity | Chief of Staff | Exceptional Compensation + Bonus Structure

What if your next career move put you directly at the table where major business decisions are made?

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: This position is responsible for the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Reporting Relationships

• Supports the CEO-chaired Transformation Steering Committee with a monthly steering pack and eventually supports development of a monthly business review pack with the CEO and group-level team.
• Leads the Administrative Transformation Team day to day with outside consulting partners.
• Works with the COO and Operations Transformation Team, EVP Transformation, Chief Counsel, CFO, and the named owner of each administrative and operating area.
• Has no direct reports at the start; however, the ability to manage the President's Executive Assistant and external advisors is essential. A small staff for document control and internal audit may be added as the work scales.

Transformation Oversight

• Keep the integrated transformation plan and track both teams and every area owner against it.
• Collect weekly status updates, risks, and decisions needed from each owner; escalate issues to the President.
• Lead the Administrative Transformation day to day with the consulting partner across finance, contracts, supply chain, HR, IT, and growth.
• Hold teams to the sunset criteria: approved future-state processes, controlled policies, trained staff, and a completed self-assessment.
• Drive teams to execute against commitments and step in to help before failure occurs.

Operating Rhythm

• Set and run the calendar of team, steering, and leadership meetings.
• Prepare agendas, pre-reads, and decision papers; record decisions and actions and follow them to closure.
• Keep one integrated schedule across both transformation teams.

Artifact Capture and Control

• Stand up and own the business system repository, including policies, procedures, desk guides, process maps, controls, and records.
• Capture every transformation artifact as it is approved; format, number, version, and file it.
• Chair a Policy Control Board that approves and releases every new or changed policy and procedure.

Audit Readiness and Testing

• Complete a baseline audit of current business practices within the first 90 days.
• Keep every artifact audit-ready for customers, government reviewers, and external auditors.
• Plan and run the internal audit and control-testing program; track findings and corrective actions to closure.
• With the Chief Counsel, check new practices against FAR principles and the specific requirements in company contracts.

Internal Reporting

• Set the templates and documents for internal reports to the President.
• Consolidate owner status into a weekly brief for the President and a monthly pack for the Steering Committee.
• Keep a single register of open gaps, with owners and due dates.

Office of the President

• Help the President manage priorities, correspondence, follow-ups, and decisions.
• Prepare the President for internal and external meetings.
• Act as a trusted channel between the President and the leadership team and handle sensitive matters with discretion.

After the Transformation Teams Sunset

• Keep the leadership rhythm, repository, and Policy Control Board running as permanent business processes.
• Run the annual internal audit plan and support customer reviews and corrective actions.

Success in the First Year

Success is measured against the transformation milestones below.

By - Outcome

30 days on board - Meeting calendar, status templates, and weekly owner reporting in place

February 2027 - Repository live; baseline audit of current business practices complete

Every month - Steering pack delivered on time, with every owner reporting

June 2027 - Administrative team sunsets with all criteria met; its artifacts under control

September 2027 - Operations team sunsets; steady-state governance running

Ongoing - Every approved artifact controlled in the repository; internal audit findings closed on schedule

Required Education & Experience:

Required

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, or a related field.
• At least seven years of experience in complex manufacturing, investment banking, or consulting, ideally including experience as a Chief of Staff or in a PMO, internal audit, business systems, or operations leadership role.
• Experience building or running a controlled document, policy, or configuration management system.
• Experience preparing executive or board-level reporting and running recurring leadership meetings.
• Experience planning or running internal audits or control testing.
• Able to access export-controlled (ITAR/EAR) information.

Preferred

• MBA or related master's degree.
• Shipbuilding or ship repair experience is helpful but not required.
• Experience with an ERP implementation or a major business transformation.
• Experience in a foreign-owned U.S. company operating under FOCI mitigation.

Working Conditions:

• Based at a Gulf Copper site on the Texas Gulf Coast, with regular time in shipyard production areas where PPE is required.
• Travel of approximately 15-25% among the Galveston, Port Arthur, and Corpus Christi sites, with occasional international travel to the parent company.
• Occasional extended hours around steering reviews, audits, and customer reviews.

Necessary Equipment Operation:

Requires regular use of standard office equipment and business systems. Personal protective equipment is required when working in shipyard production areas.

Special Skills:

• Discretion: Handles sensitive leadership matters and information with care.
• Organization and follow-through: Turns decisions into owned actions and closes them.
• Influence without authority: Holds senior owners to plan through clarity, not title.
• Clear writing: Produces short, decision-ready briefs and reports.
• Controls mindset: Builds right-sized controls, applying as much as company contracts require and no more.
• Steadiness: Keeps the rhythm under schedule pressure on a live ship program.