Operations Manager

Position Summary:

The Operations Manager will lead a team responsible for the full underground infrastructure spectrum serving a shared base of utility, telecom, and municipal clients, across distinct geographic territories (Southwestern and Eastern Ontario). Given this scale and complexity, the role calls for a leader who has operated at the level of a $20M+ business — someone comfortable owning operational and financial performance across multiple crews, service lines, and sites, not just a single department or project.

The Operations Manager maintains a broad view across the company's departments, active work, and upcoming opportunities; establishes operational priorities; addresses performance or capacity concerns; and ensures larger, higher-value, or higher-risk projects receive the planning, coordination, and management oversight required for successful delivery.

This role requires a practical, technically credible leader who can connect estimating, departmental execution, and project performance with company-level priorities. The Operations Manager ensures operational risks, resource requirements, and performance concerns are identified and addressed before they affect safety, customers, schedules, quality, or profitability.

Key Responsibilities

Daily Operational Leadership

Lead and coordinate the daily operations of departmental Field/Crew Supervisors.

Translate the General Manager's operational priorities into clear work plans, expectations, and accountabilities for Site/Crew Supervisors.

Maintain visibility across active projects, service work, crews, and operational commitments across both entities to ensure work is progressing as planned.

Balance priorities across departments and companies, and make timely decisions regarding labour, equipment, materials, scheduling, and operational support.

Identify operational risks, bottlenecks, and capacity concerns; direct appropriate solutions; and keep the General Manager informed of significant issues, emerging risks, and decisions requiring further approval.

Ensure effective coordination between field operations and administrative, estimating, dispatch, sales, finance, and shared service functions, as applicable.

Operational Team Leadership & Accountability

Provide direct leadership, direction, coaching, and performance management to Site/Crew Supervisors and Estimators across divisions.

Establish clear expectations for departmental performance, estimating accuracy, safety, quality, productivity, customer service, documentation, communication, and people leadership.

Conduct regular operational and performance reviews to assess workload, capacity, project requirements, estimating activity, results, risks, and departmental priorities.

Hold direct reports accountable for meeting established expectations and ensure performance concerns are addressed promptly and effectively.

Support leaders in resolving complex employee, customer, technical, scheduling, estimating, and operational matters.

Identify leadership and technical development needs and support succession planning across operational departments.

Project Oversight and Execution

Provide management oversight for larger, higher-value, higher-risk, or operationally complex projects requiring coordination beyond routine supervision — including emergency storm restoration work.

Ensure significant projects have appropriate execution strategies, schedules, budgets, staffing plans, procurement considerations, risk controls, and reporting requirements.

Establish project-performance expectations and hold operational leaders accountable for delivery against approved scope, schedule, budget, quality, safety, and customer commitments.

Evaluate project performance at key stages, identify significant variances or emerging risks, and direct recovery or corrective-action plans where required.

Coordinate cross-department and cross-company priorities and resolve higher-level resource, scheduling, customer, subcontractor, or operational conflicts affecting project delivery.

Provide operational direction on significant scope changes, project challenges, and customer escalations, involving the General Manager where appropriate.

Ensure effective project closeout, financial and operational review, and application of lessons learned to future estimating and execution.

Operational Capacity & Workforce Planning

Assess current and upcoming workload and develop short- and medium-term workforce and resource plans with Site/Crew Supervisors and the General Manager.

Monitor labour utilization, overtime, capacity, scheduling gaps, and productivity, and take action to improve operational effectiveness.

Set cross-department resource priorities and ensure operational leaders coordinate workforce, equipment, subcontractor, and scheduling requirements effectively.

Lead or participate in recruitment and selection for operational leadership, estimating, and field positions and ensure effective onboarding and deployment of new employees.

Work with Site/Crew Supervisors and HR to address attendance, performance, conduct, training, and workforce development needs.

Ensure operational decisions support employee competency, appropriate supervision, and sustainable workloads.

Estimating & Pre-Execution Planning

Lead the estimating function across both companies and hold Estimators accountable for timely, accurate, complete, and commercially sound estimates.

Establish consistent estimating, bid-review, documentation, and approval practices appropriate to each company.

Review significant, complex, or higher-risk opportunities to assess scope, pricing, resource requirements, execution strategy, schedule, and operational risk before submission.

Ensure estimating decisions reflect current labour capacity, productivity expectations, material and subcontractor requirements, and operational capabilities.

Ensure an effective handoff from estimating to operations, with clear communication of scope, assumptions, exclusions, budget, schedule, commitments, and identified risks.

Compare estimated and actual project performance and direct improvements to estimating assumptions, cost information, and future work planning.

Safety, Quality & Compliance

Champion a strong safety culture and hold Site/Crew Supervisors accountable for safe work practices, hazard control, inspections, meetings, documentation, and corrective actions.

Support a single, harmonized H&S management system across divisions, respecting activity-specific requirements.

Maintain regular field presence to verify compliance with company policies, occupational health and safety legislation, codes, procedures, and client requirements, including high-risk activities such as confined space, rock drilling, marine/barging operations, and live utility work.

Ensure compliance with Ontario OHSA requirements, WSIB obligations, and utility-specific contractor safety prequalification standards.

Ensure work is executed in accordance with approved scope, drawings, specifications, permits, technical standards, and quality expectations.

Review serious incidents, near misses, quality failures, deficiencies, and recurring concerns with Site/Crew Supervisors and shared service leaders.

Ensure corrective actions are assigned, completed, verified, and communicated appropriately.

Escalate material safety, quality, environmental, regulatory, or operational risks to the General Manager and appropriate shared service leader.

Operational & Financial Performance

Monitor operational performance indicators including productivity, labour utilization, overtime, schedule adherence, rework, callbacks, equipment use, and work completion across both entities.

Review job or departmental performance with the General Manager and provide accurate explanations of variances, risks, and corrective actions.

Support cost control by ensuring labour,