VP – Operational Excellence

Role: VP, Operational Excellence

Organization: Cobalt Service Partners (cobaltsp.com)

Location: Remote (US)

Reports To: President

About Cobalt Service Partners

Cobalt Service Partners is a private equity–backed platform building the leading commercial access and security integration business in North America. Our partner companies design, install, and service mission-critical systems including access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and related low-voltage infrastructure for enterprise, institutional, and commercial customers.

Backed by Alpine Investors, a private equity firm specializing in middle market companies in the services and software industries and with $15bn+ of AUM, Cobalt has scaled rapidly since launch, completing twenty acquisitions in two and a half years and establishing a differentiated operating model in a large, fragmented, and growing market. Today the platform spans 12+ security businesses operating across the country. Our leadership team combines deep operating experience with disciplined investment practices, and we are building a platform designed to scale through both organic growth and M&A.

Position Overview

This is a high-impact operating role sitting at the center of Cobalt's Security group performance engine. The VP of Operational Excellence owns gross margin expansion, operating system transformation, and technology-enabled performance improvement across all Cobalt Security partner companies. You will drive measurable EBITDA improvement through field operations discipline, labor productivity, quoting integrity, and cross-business initiative execution.

This role requires someone who can work across multiple businesses simultaneously, influence without line authority, build systems from scratch, and leave every organization more capable than they found it. You will report directly to the President of Security and your work will be visible at the portfolio level from day one. You will own a real P&L number: success is measured by a direct EBITDA delivery target, with supporting KPIs including revenue per technician, billable utilization, and tech stack adoption across the portfolio.

What You Will Own

1. Gross Margin Expansion
   • Drive sustained improvement in gross margin percentage and gross profit dollars across the Security group through structural operational changes.
   • Launch and manage cross-business margin initiatives with documented pre and post financial impact.
   • Own quoted vs. actual margin variance tracking and enforce tolerance standards across all partner companies.
2. Field Productivity and Labor Economics
   • Build visibility into field labor productivity across the Security group and drive measurable improvement in revenue per technician.
   • Track and improve billable utilization, optimize subcontractor spend, and implement tech tiering models across partner companies.
   • Ensure no business runs more than 30 days without a current labor productivity snapshot.
3. Quoting Intelligence and Job Costing
   • Build the standards, data, and tools that make disciplined quoting possible across the portfolio.
   • Define and enforce quoting standards including labor hours by task, complexity, and material cost benchmarks.
   • Establish a job costing cadence with regular job-level margin reviews across all partner companies.
4. Technology and AI Enablement
   • Identify, pilot, and evaluate AI and automation tools that improve gross margin, field productivity, and operating visibility.
   • Build technology roadmaps grounded in financial return, not hype, and deliver forward-looking recommendations to the President.
   • Own technology adoption across the portfolio, treating it as an operational lever, not an IT function.
5. Cross-Business Initiative Execution
   • Design and run margin improvement initiatives built for replication: a fix that works at one business should be deployed across comparable businesses within 90 days.
   • Maintain a live initiative backlog with owners, timelines, and expected financial impact visible to the GP at all times.
   • Coordinate the commercial operations intersection including quoting accuracy and CRM adoption with the Head of Sales.
6. M&A Integration and Post-Close Value Delivery
   • Own the operational integration of new Security acquisitions, ensuring stability and no value leakage in the first 90 days post-close.
   • Complete ConnectWise and operating system onboarding within committed timelines and establish an operating baseline within 60 days of close.
7.  Internal Capability Build
   • Develop internal operators and field leaders within partner companies so that operational gains do not depend on your continued direct involvement.
   • Build a center of excellence model grounded in the best internal operators, not external consultants.
8. National and Multi-Site Project Delivery
   • Build and own the delivery model for enterprise projects spanning multiple partner companies, ensuring a consistent customer experience across all sites.
   • Establish single-point-of-accountability project management for every multi-site award regardless of how many businesses are involved.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience driving operational improvement in a project-based field services business where you managed dispatch labor, not just advised on it. Must include working knowledge of revenue recognition, job costing, backlog conversion, and technician utilization, with the ability to read a job cost report and identify margin leakage at the line level.
• Proven ability to read P&Ls and job cost reports to identify margin leakage at the job level and translate findings into structural, lasting fixes. This competency must come from inside an operating business, not from an advisory or consulting engagement.
• Experience building and implementing operating systems across multiple business units simultaneously, with a track record of driving adoption rather than just compliance.
• Comfort evaluating and deploying technology and AI tools based on financial return, with the ability to build a roadmap that serves the next stage of the platform.
• Prior experience inside a PE-backed, multi-site, or multi-entity environment with exposure to M&A integration and post-close value delivery.
• Strong quantitative fluency: you use data to force decisions, not justify outcomes, and you document every initiative with a verified baseline and post-implementation measurement.
• Track record of influencing without line authority, earning trust through competence, and driving change inside businesses you do not directly manage.
• Demonstrated ability to develop internal talent and leave every organization more capable than you found it.

Our Core Values

• Unwavering Stewardship: We believe advancing founders' legacies is a privilege. We do right by our founders, teams, and customers in good times and in bad.
• Excellence in Action: We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards. We're bold in our pursuits, don't make excuses, and relentlessly empower each other to get the job done.
• Seek and Tell the Truth: We're honest with ourselves and others. We do what we say we'll do, say what needs to be said, and search for the right answer regardless of where it comes from.
• Love Learning: We're always learning as individuals, as a team, and as a business. We show up humble, curious, and with the courage to change our minds.
• Enjoy the Ride: We're fired up by our mission, love our team, and don't take either for granted. We show up authentically, assume best intent, and try not to take ourselves too seriously.