Fractional Head of Business Operations / Integrator: Fast-Growing DTC Consumer Brand

We are a fast-growing, founder-led consumer brand exploring additional senior business-operations capacity, and looking to meet someone who can turn CEO priorities and functional strategies into coordinated execution across the company as we build the next stage of our management team. This is not primarily a strategy consulting role, and it is not a traditional administrative project manager role. We already have specialists and fractional leaders across marketing, finance, Amazon, creative, e-commerce, influencers, product development and other functions. What we are missing is the management layer that connects all of those people together and makes the organization execute. THE CORE JOB The core responsibility is simple: Take company priorities and make sure they actually happen. That means translating priorities into: • Clear workstreams and deliverables • One accountable owner for each meaningful outcome • Realistic deadlines and decision dates • Dependencies and handoffs between functions • Definitions of done • KPIs where relevant • Visible blockers and risks • Clear escalation when something is slipping • Consistent follow-through until commitments are closed You will work directly with the Founder/CEO and functional leaders. Functional specialists own how they perform their jobs. You own the operating layer that makes sure everyone understands what needs to be delivered, by whom, by when, what it depends on, and whether it is actually happening. AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION We are not looking for someone whose primary output is: • Strategy decks • Transformation presentations • Audits that are never operationalized • Long static planning documents • Frameworks describing how the company should operate • Recommendations that someone else then has to convert into execution Strategic thinking is valuable and this role absolutely requires business judgment. But your job does not end when the strategy is written. You must be the person who converts strategy into the live operating system and then manages through that system. For example, if we are launching a new product, we should not need the CEO to independently figure out: • What Amazon needs • What e-commerce needs • What creative needs • What influencers need • What paid media needs • Which workstream is blocking another • Who owes what • What is late • What decisions are required You should be able to build that integrated picture with the functional owners and run the launch from it. SOURCE OF TRUTH DISCIPLINE We are project management tool agnostic, but you MUST be proficient on one of them to run the live cross-functional operating system. Reference materials may appropriately live elsewhere: briefs, financial models, creative files, Figma, research, strategy documents, etc. But dynamic operating information should live in the project-management system: Owner → Deliverable → Due Date → Status → Dependency → Blocker → Decision → Completion We do not want multiple manually maintained versions of the same operating plan across Word documents, spreadsheets and project-management software. You do not necessarily need to personally enter every task forever (and you should know how to automate that work with AI), but you are accountable for the integrity, adoption and usefulness of the operating system. WHAT YOU WILL OWN 1. CEO Priority Translation Work directly with the Founder/CEO to turn ideas and company priorities into a limited number of executable initiatives. Help distinguish: • What needs to happen now • What should wait • What should stop • What requires a CEO decision • What the team can resolve without CEO involvement An important part of your job is protecting the organization from taking on more priorities than it can execute. 2. Cross-Functional Execution For major initiatives and launches: • Build the integrated workback • Establish owners and decision rights • Identify dependencies • Get real commitments from functional owners • Identify critical-path items • Surface risks before they become emergencies • Resolve cross-functional conflicts • Escalate when necessary • Track commitments through completion 3. Accountability Delegating something is not the same as managing it. You will follow through. If someone committed to Friday and Friday passes, you notice. If a deadline is slipping because another team has not delivered an input, you identify the dependency and resolve it. If someone repeatedly misses commitments, you address it directly and escalate appropriately. We are looking for someone who is calm, direct, persistent and difficult to evade. You do not need to yell at people. You do need to be comfortable holding smart, senior people accountable. 4. Operating Cadence Create and run a practical management cadence based on the same live source of truth. This may include: • Weekly leadership operating review • Priority / blocker review • CEO decision review • Functional follow-ups • Product launch stage-gates • Monthly KPI / business reviews • Forecast and capacity reviews Meetings should drive decisions and closure, not simply provide updates. 5. Executive Visibility The Founder/CEO should be able to understand the state of the business quickly. You should be able to communicate: What is on track?
What is at risk?
What is blocked?
What changed?
What decision is needed?
Who owns the next action? The CEO should not have to personally reconstruct the state of the company by interviewing every functional specialist. 6. Business Operations & Organizational Improvement Once the execution layer is functioning reliably, this role can also contribute to broader business-building work, including: • Organizational design • Roles and decision rights • KPI architecture • Resource allocation • Process improvement • Automation • Agency/vendor management • Product-launch systems • Revenue and demand planning • Commercial / growth initiatives • Operating efficiency However, these broader projects do not replace the primary responsibility of making the existing organization execute. THE PERSON WE ARE LOOKING FOR You are probably a strong fit if you have personally operated as some combination of: • Head of Business Operations • Business Operations Lead • Chief of Staff • COO / Fractional COO • Operating Partner • Program Director • Cross-Functional Program Lead • Integrator Titles matter less than what you actually did. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE We are specifically looking for someone who has: • Personally run cross-functional execution across multiple departments • Managed specialists whose functional expertise exceeded your own • Built and operated workbacks with owners, deadlines, dependencies and decision gates • Used tools such as Monday, ClickUp, Asana or similar as an actual operating system • Run recurring operating meetings from that source of truth • Held senior people, agencies and vendors accountable for commitments • Identified and resolved cross-functional blockers • Escalated problems appropriately rather than allowing deadlines to silently slip • Worked directly with a founder/CEO or senior executive • Operated effectively in a lean organization where there were not multiple layers of middle management underneath you Consumer, DTC, e-commerce, beauty/skincare or digitally native brand experience is strongly preferred. IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE APPLYING We are not looking for someone who was simply responsible for cross-functional execution at a large company while project managers, department heads or coordinators underneath them handled the actual operating mechanics. We specifically want to know: Were you personally the person who created the integrated plan, obtained commitments from owners, managed dependencies, ran the operating cadence and followed through when things were late? If the answer is no, this probably is not the right role. Similarly, if your strength is primarily strategy, consulting, presentations or recommendations, this is probably not the right role. At the other extreme, if your experience is primarily updating task boards, taking notes and reminding people about deadlines without exercising management judgment, this role is likely too senior. We need someone who can operate between strategy and execution. ENGAGEMENT • Fractional / part-time leadership role • Approximately 3 substantial working days per week initially • Must have reliable overlap with Los Angeles / Pacific Time • Embedded member of the leadership team, not an outside consultant who checks in occasionally • Potential for an expanded long-term role if there is a strong fit HOW TO APPLY Please do not send a generic proposal. Start your response with the words “MAKE IT HAPPEN” so we know you read the posting. Then answer the following questions specifically. 1. Give us one real example of a cross-functional initiative you personally ran. Please tell us: • What the initiative was • Which functions were involved • What you personally owned • How you structured the execution plan • How you tracked owners, deadlines and dependencies • What went wrong • What you personally did when commitments were missed • What the final outcome was 2. Who maintained the operating system in your previous roles? Be very specific. Did you personally build and maintain the integrated project plan and run follow-through, or did project managers / department heads underneath you do that work? There is no preferred answer. We want to understand your actual experience. 3. Describe a time a senior person repeatedly failed to deliver something they had committed to. What did you do? 4. A CEO gives you ten priorities and the organization realistically has capacity for four. What do you do? 5. What information belongs in a project-management system versus a strategy/brief document? Explain how you prevent multiple sources of truth. 6. Tell us about a project that was visibly “green” until shortly before it failed. What warning signs should have been caught earlier? 7. What project-management system have you run most deeply? Please describe how you actually used it to manage a business or major cross-functional program. We care less about software certification and more about operating behavior. Paid Finalist Exercise Finalists will receive a paid practical exercise using a realistic company scenario. You will receive a messy set of: • CEO priorities • Existing briefs • Team responsibilities • Meeting notes • Deadlines • Conflicting information • Known dependencies We will ask you to turn it into the operating structure you would actually use to run the initiative. We may then introduce several simulated problems, such as: • A critical deliverable is late • Two functions disagree about ownership • A specialist says they are waiting for information • A launch date is at risk • The CEO becomes the blocker We will ask you to walk us through how you would handle them. We are not evaluating who makes the prettiest presentation. We are evaluating whether you can take a messy founder-led organization and create clarity, accountability and coordinated execution. What Success Looks Like Within the first 30–60 days, we should feel a material difference in how the company operates: • Major priorities are visible and ranked • Every meaningful deliverable has accountable ownership • Important deadlines and dependencies are visible • Team members know what they owe • Blockers are surfaced early • Missed commitments are followed through • Decisions reach the right person quickly • Meetings produce actions and closure • Static reference documents support the operation rather than duplicating it • The CEO has dramatically better visibility without becoming the company’s project manager • Functional experts can focus more deeply on their specialties because someone is integrating the whole system The simplest description of the job is: The CEO provides direction. Functional experts provide expertise. You make the organization execute.