Chief Operating Officer

Travelers Rest, SC | Full-Time | On-Site

Are you interested in helping scale a highly profitable American manufacturer through its next major stage of growth?

Have you already helped take a manufacturing organization from roughly 100 employees to 300, 400, or 500+ and want the opportunity to do it again?

If so, check this out.

What’s the Job?

We’re looking for a Chief Operating Officer to lead the operating engine of a rapidly growing, approximately 150-person manufacturer in the Upstate South Carolina area.

This is not a turnaround.

The company is performing extremely well, demand is growing, and the challenge is now how to scale manufacturing capacity, people, systems, and infrastructure fast enough to support that growth.

You’ll report directly to the founders and oversee the majority of company operations, including:

• Manufacturing and production

• Supply chain and production planning

• Quality

• Customer service and warranty

• Purchasing and inventory

• Shipping and receiving

• Capacity and facility planning

• ERP and operational systems

• Leadership development

• Cost and margin performance

What Do You Need for the Job?

The biggest requirement is simple:

You’ve scaled before.

We want someone who has experienced rapid manufacturing growth firsthand and understands what happens when the systems, facilities, processes, and leadership structure that worked at 100 people need to support several hundred.

You should bring:

• 10+ years of manufacturing/operations leadership experience

• Experience scaling a manufacturing organization through significant growth

• Leadership experience as a COO, VP of Operations, General Manager, VP of Manufacturing, or similar

• Strong manufacturing, supply chain, and production planning experience

• ERP/MRP implementation or optimization experience

• Capacity planning and facility expansion experience

• Strong operational and financial acumen

• Experience developing managers and senior operational leaders

• A track record of quickly identifying problems and driving corrective action

Experience in aerospace, medical device, industrial equipment, precision manufacturing, defense, or another complex manufacturing environment can translate extremely well.

Firearms industry experience is not required.

What Kind of Person Works Here?

Someone who is an operator first and an executive second.

You need to be polished enough to work directly with ownership on growth strategy, margins, capital investment, staffing, and long-term planning.

But you also need to enjoy being on the manufacturing floor.

The right person probably started closer to the plant, grew into broader operational leadership, and never lost the instinct to go see the problem for themselves.

You move quickly.

When there is a production issue, quality problem, non-conforming part, supply-chain constraint, or operational bottleneck, you don't wait three weeks for another meeting.

You start moving.

What Else Does the Job Entail?

One of the biggest challenges ahead is capacity.

The company is already tight on manufacturing space and expects continued headcount and production growth.

You'll help determine how to:

• Get more from the existing facility and equipment

• Improve production planning and utilization

• Add capacity intelligently

• Evaluate facility expansion and future manufacturing space

• Build the systems and leadership structure necessary for the next stage of the company

You won't simply inherit a mature operating model and maintain it.

You'll help build what comes next.

What Else Is Amazing About This Opportunity?

This is a founder-led company that has grown organically for more than a decade without outside private equity controlling the business.

The founders aren't looking for someone to arrive with a giant corporate playbook and announce:

“This is how I've always done it.”

They want someone experienced enough to bring great ideas and humble enough to first understand why the company has been successful.

Respect what works.

Improve what doesn't.

Build what they'll need next.

What’s In It for You?

• Base salary around $230K with flexibility for the right candidate

• Significant performance-based variable compensation

• Target total compensation around $400K

• Relocation support available for the right person

• Health, dental, vision and disability insurance

• PTO

• 401(k)

• Direct access to ownership

• Significant influence over the company's next stage of growth

This is an opportunity to take an already successful manufacturing company and help build the operation required to take it to an entirely different level.

If you've scaled manufacturing before and want to do more than simply maintain somebody else's operation, we should talk.