Operating Associate

Operating Associate — Continuous Improvement Department

Orion Group | Two-year operator development program | Boulder, CO home base with travel across U.S. / territories / Canada 

About Orion 

Orion exists to redefine what a career in the service trades looks like. We are a network of operating companies across the United States, U.S. territories, and Canada, working to become the gold standard for people in our industry. We win through people leadership, technical superiority, and business excellence. We are the employer-of-choice for top talent in our industry, and we invest in development to create career opportunities that don't exist anywhere else in the service trades.

About the Operating Associate Program

The Operating Associate role is a two-year apprenticeship designed to develop high-potential early-career talent into future leaders of Orion. You will learn the disciplines of Continuous Improvement, the operational problem-solving methodology used by world-class operating businesses, while building toward placement into an Orion Operating Company in a leadership role such as Director, Operations Manager, or other mid-level operating position, with a clear path to continue advancing toward more senior operating leadership over time. This is not a traditional analyst program. You will spend the majority of your time traveling to Orion Operating Companies, learning their businesses from the inside, contributing to real operational improvement work, and developing the judgment to eventually lead one of these companies yourself.

 What you'll do

 • Travel to Orion Operating Companies. Roughly 50–70% of your time will be spent on-site at our operating companies across the U.S., territories, and Canada. You will work alongside their teams, observe their operations, and contribute to Continuous Improvement work in service of their business outcomes.

• Learn the businesses we serve. You'll spend deliberate time in different parts of each operating company, dispatch, operations, sales, finance, ride-alongs with technicians, building real understanding of how service-trades businesses succeed and where they get stuck.

• Apprentice in Continuous Improvement. You'll learn the A3 problem-solving method from senior senseis, contribute to real CI engagements at operating companies, and progressively take on more of the coaching work yourself as your capability develops. 

• Build business literacy. You'll learn to read a P&L, understand operational KPIs, see how leadership decisions flow through to results, and develop the judgment of an operator. Coursework includes Orion University, the LAUNCH program for operational excellence, and in-person training at the University of Tennessee.

• Develop through structured gates. You will pass through six structured capability assessments across the two years, quarterly in Year 1, semi-annually in Year 2, each one a real evaluation of your readiness for the next stage of development.

 What you'll learn

• How to solve operational problems using proven Continuous Improvement methods, A3 thinking, Kaizen, Lean, Kanban, and structured problem-solving disciplines. 

• How service-trades businesses actually work, the economics, the operations, the people, the leadership choices that separate good from great.

• How to coach teams through structured problem-solving and build their capability rather than solve their problems for them.

• How to read a business through an operator's eyes: P&L, KPIs, organizational health, customer dynamics, talent.

• How to lead through influence and partnership rather than authority, the central skill of operating leadership.

 Who we're looking for

 Required:

• Bachelor's degree by your start date.

• Willingness to be based in Boulder, CO, with travel 50–70% of your working time across the U.S., territories, and Canada in Year 1.

• Willingness to relocate within 2–3 years for placement at an Orion Operating Company. 

• U.S. work authorization.

What makes someone successful in this program:

• Hungry and driven. Clear ambition to run a business someday. Treats every assignment as a step toward that goal. Brings a bias to action and looks for the next thing to learn before being asked.

• Coachable and humble. Receives feedback as a gift and acts on it. Asks questions before offering answers. Comfortable saying “I don't know.” Shows up to learn, not to impress.

• Comfortable with ambiguity. Operating companies are messy, real businesses with messy, real problems. You'll be effective if you can hold uncertainty without rushing to false clarity.

• Genuinely interested in the work, not just the destination. The strongest candidates are curious about how businesses actually run, not just focused on what role comes next. 

Our values — the culture you'll be working in:

• Coach. We are servant leaders, responsible for the development of each other.

• Compete. We pursue excellence with a high pace of play and a bias to action.

• Collaborate. We prioritize local autonomy while believing in the power of our network.

• Commit. We commit to being the best version of ourselves. 

Preferred but not required:

• Exposure to operations, manufacturing, service trades, or other hands-on business environments through internships, family business, or coursework.

• Leadership experience in any setting, team sports, student organizations, work, military, community service.

• Demonstrated track record of personal initiative outside what was required of you.

Compensation and benefits

The salary range for this role is $60,000 to $80,000, dependent on background, experience, and location. The Operating Associate role is a structured two-year program with built-in compensation progression: each successfully passed gate carries a meaningful bonus, and the move to Operating Associate II (Year 2) carries a further increase reflecting the expanded coaching and operating responsibility of that year. Orion offers competitive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401(k) with company match, paid time off, and full coverage of business travel expenses.

About the travel and relocation expectations

This role is based in Boulder, CO, with heavy travel built into the work. Year 1 Associates can expect to be on the road 50–70% of the time, with the remainder of working time at the Boulder home base. We will pay for all business travel, including transportation, lodging, and meals. Within 2–3 years of starting the program, successful Associates are placed into operating leadership roles at one of Orion's operating companies. These placements may be anywhere in our portfolio, across the U.S., U.S. territories, or Canada. Relocation support is provided when placement occurs. This is the part of the role we encourage you to think about most carefully. If you are not in a position to travel heavily in your first two years and relocate for an operating placement after that, this is not the right program for you. We would much rather have an honest conversation up front than place someone who isn't ready for what the role asks.

Equal opportunity

 Orion Services Group is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities and customers we serve. Employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.