Business Operations Manager

Business Operations Manager Location: Huntington Beach, CA Reports to: Chief Operating Officer Employment Type: Full-Time, Onsite Volund is building propulsion for America’s next industrial revolution. We design propulsion systems for cost, agility, and scale, combining advanced automation, precision manufacturing, and rapid iteration to move from prototype to production at unprecedented speed. Intelligent manufacturing is engineering at scale. At Volund, engineers operate across the full stack, from concept and simulation to process code and machine execution, ensuring that what is designed can be built and what is built can be scaled. Role Overview: Volund is looking for a Business Operations Manager to work directly with the Chief Operating Officer on high-priority business initiatives across the company. Business Operations sits between functions. The role focuses on problems that do not fit neatly within Finance, Operations, Engineering, HR, or another single team. You will help evaluate opportunities, improve business systems and processes, develop analyses for important decisions, and drive cross-functional initiatives from an initial question through implementation. The scope will evolve as Volund grows. Success requires the ability to quickly understand unfamiliar problems, create structure, exercise judgment, work with incomplete information, and drive work to completion. This is an individual-contributor role with broad exposure to the business and direct interaction with company leadership. What You’ll Own: Work directly with the COO on strategic, financial, organizational, and operational business priorities. Structure and solve cross-functional problems that do not have an obvious functional owner. Build financial models, business cases, scenario analyses, and decision-support tools. Support company planning across budgets, headcount, cash, capital expenditures, and long-term operating requirements. Develop and improve company KPIs, executive reporting, leadership reviews, and investor reporting. Analyze business performance and translate data into clear recommendations. Improve workflows across ERP, accounting, banking, expense management, HRIS, procurement, and reporting systems. Identify inefficient or poorly defined processes and help design scalable solutions. Lead cross-functional projects involving Finance, Operations, Engineering, HR, and leadership. Support organizational planning, compensation analysis, workforce planning, and other company-building initiatives. Own special projects that become important as the company grows. You might be asked to: Build an 18-month headcount and operating plan. Evaluate the financial and operational implications of a new facility. Develop the business case for a major capital investment. Analyze unit economics and identify opportunities to improve cost or margin. Create a company-wide KPI and management reporting structure. Improve purchasing, approval, or spending controls. Analyze software, vendor, or departmental spending. Improve the way information moves between Finance, HR, ERP, banking, and operational systems. Support leadership in evaluating organizational structure or compensation. Build a process for a business requirement that does not yet have one. Investigate an emerging business issue, develop the analysis, recommend a path forward, and help implement the solution. What We’re Looking For: We are looking for someone with strong judgment, analytical ability, leadership experience, and a high degree of personal ownership. You should be someone who naturally takes an unclear problem and begins creating structure around it. You should have: An MBA or equivalent demonstrated business capability. Strong structured problem-solving skills. Strong quantitative and financial aptitude. Advanced Excel skills and comfort working directly with data. The ability to quickly learn unfamiliar business, technical, and operational topics. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Strong project leadership and cross-functional coordination skills. The confidence to work directly with senior leadership. High personal accountability and follow-through. The ability to operate effectively without extensive direction. Good judgment around when to move independently and when to escalate. Comfort moving between analysis, decision-making, systems, and implementation. U.S. Person status due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information and facilities. Experience may come from military leadership, management consulting, finance, engineering, operations, technology, or another environment where you were expected to take ownership and deliver results. Military experience is particularly valued. We are interested in candidates who have led people, managed resources, operated under uncertainty, and been accountable for accomplishing a mission. How This Role Fits at Volund: Volund’s Operations organization owns the physical operating system of the factory, including supply chain, production planning, manufacturing operations, inventory, material flow, facilities, ERP/MRP execution, and factory performance. Business Operations focuses on the broader operating system of the company: strategy, finance, people, business systems, analysis, reporting, organizational processes, and cross-functional initiatives. The Business Operations Manager will work directly with the COO across these areas and help build the infrastructure required for Volund to scale. What Success Looks Like: You create clarity where there is ambiguity. You can take a broad question, determine what matters, find the right information, develop an answer, and turn that answer into action. You are equally comfortable working through a financial model, improving a business process, preparing a leadership decision, or driving a cross-functional project. You take ownership through completion, not simply through recommendation. As Volund grows, you become someone leadership can rely on to take on important business problems and move them forward. Salary Range: $140,000 - $160,000 USD The salary range above is an estimate only with final amount being dependent on a wide variety of factors. All roles include a generous equity package and the following benefits: Platinum Healthcare Benefits with comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans at no cost to you. 100% covered Basic Life/AD&D and long-term disability insurance 401k Unlimited PTO Lunch and fully stocked kitchen This role does not offer relocation This role is full time on site, no hybrid or remote option Volund Manufacturing, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a federal contractor committed to compliance with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws, including those enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). We recruit, hire, train, promote, and compensate employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. As a government contractor, we also take affirmative action to employ and advance qualified women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and protected veterans. Please note that employment with Volund Manufacturing, Inc. is subject to compliance with U.S. export control laws and regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Due to the nature of our work, all candidates must be U.S. persons as defined by ITAR (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)). We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs, in accordance with applicable law. If you require an accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact Human Resources at 714-488-7393.