Operations Director

About Thrivence
Thrivence is a management consulting subsidiary of Barge Design Solutions, created to provide specialized advisory services in leadership, strategy, and technology. While Barge Design Solutions is renowned for its expertise in engineering and architecture, Thrivence extends the firm's capabilities by focusing on digital transformation and organizational improvement initiatives. Operating under the Barge umbrella, Thrivence benefits from the depth and stability of its parent company, while maintaining the agility and client-focused precision of a boutique consultancy. This dual advantage allows Thrivence to deliver tailored solutions that align with Barge's mission of creating lasting, positive impacts for our clients, communities, and the industries we serve.

Our Vision
Thrivence exists to transform leaders, teams, and organizations by equipping them with the right tools, expert insights, and tactical strategies needed to reach their highest potential.

Summary
We are seeking a strategic and detail-oriented Director of Operations to lead and support company and project operations across our consulting engagements and overall administration of the firm. This role is pivotal in creating seamless, integrated, automated, and lightweight operational systems that enable our consultants to focus their capacity on high-value client work. The Director of Operations will ensure our project managers—who also serve as consultants—are equipped with the tools, guidance, and oversight needed to deliver high-quality, profitable projects that support the overall strategic goals of Thrivence. Activities will be conducted on behalf of Thrivence at the direction of the Thrivence CEO and in collaboration with Barge Design, as appropriate.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Contribution:

• Collaborate with Thrivence leadership to refine project delivery models.

• Identify trends and opportunities for improvement across the firm's portfolio of engagements.
• Develop operational strategies that support the firm's growth objectives

• Maintain scalable operational frameworks that accommodate increasing project volume and complexity.

• Operational Excellence:

• Develop and maintain standardized processes for project budgeting, setup, staffing, tracking, and reporting.

• Provide hands-on support and training to project teams on project and resource management tools and methodologies.
• Establish quality control checkpoints to ensure operational consistency across all engagements

• Advise achieving business operations synergies across Thrivence (and/or Barge projects), where applicable.

• Financial Management & Reporting:

• Establish and monitor financial metrics across all projects to ensure alignment with firm-wide profit and margin goals.

• Work with Thrivence leadership to consider different pricing methodologies, implement and monitor the chosen methodology, and work with the team leaders to utilize the defined methodology.
• Generate regular reports on project performance, profitability, and resource utilization for leadership review.
• Aid management of Thrivence contribution and impact to Barge financial reporting.

• Generate financial dashboards and automated reporting systems that provide real-time visibility to project performance.

• Business Development Support:

• Standardize proposal processes, pricing frameworks, and Statement of Work (SOW) development

• Oversight of case studies, sample deliverables, and other project materials to support sales processes.
• Oversee a Client Satisfaction survey process with defined key clients.Share the results of these surveys with the Thrivence leadership and the defined client leader.
• Maintain our current version of Statement of Work templates, MSA templates, NDA templates, and Partnership Agreement templates.

Education & Experience Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• MBA or other master's degree in a business-related subject area preferred OR
• 2 years of work experience in management consulting or any relevant business area including operations, marketing, finance, IT, or human resources
• Strong communication and leadership skills
• Ability to collaborate and drive executive level stakeholders
• Proven experience in project management within a consulting or professional services environment
• Strong understanding of budgeting, resource planning, and financial tracking
• Demonstrated expertise in process standardization, automation, and operational optimization
• Proficiency in project management systems and tools
• Experience with creating and maintaining efficient business systems and operations
• Excellent communication and leadership skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Effective time and priority management skills with ability to meet deadlines
• Passion, personal alignment, and commitment to the mission and goals of Thrivence

Preferred

• Background in process improvement methodologies.
• Experience with CRM, project management, and financial systems integration.
• Experience in consulting industry (or Professional Services organization) best practices for operational excellence.

Why join us?
Barge Design Solutions, Inc., is an engineering and architecture firm with diverse in-house multidisciplinary practice areas. The employee-owned company is more than 550+ people strong and serves clients nationwide from multiple U.S. locations. Barge is ranked on Engineering News-Record (ENR)'s Top 500 Design Firms and Architectural Record's Top 300 Architecture Firms and is a certified Great Place To Work.

Our Primary Purpose For Being In Business Is Ultimately To Create a Better Life By Unleashing The Potential Of Our People, Clients And Communities. This Purpose Is Supported By Our Company's Core Values Because At The End Of The Day, Barge CARES

• Collaborate – Help and expect help. Teamwork is essential in what we do.
• Authentic – Honesty, integrity and trust are at the heart of everything we do. We are who we say we are.
• Responsible – We are accountable for our work, our attitude, and our actions. We make Barge better.
• Excellence – We go all in and expect more of ourselves than others expect of us.
• Service – We are humble. We use our gifts in service of others.

We believe that if we are living out our purpose for being in business and integrating our values into everything we do, we will ultimately achieve our vision to be the firm best known for being selected when it matters most.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status or on the basis of disability. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled