Director of Field Operations

BarnTools; Urbandale (IA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

BarnTools is seeking a Director of Field Operations and Fleet Reliability to own end-to-end field service delivery, equipment deployment, and supplier coordination. You will lead the Field Service team and contracted install crews to install hardware quickly and keep it healthy, while aligning with Customer Success, Supply Chain, and Engineering.

Your north star is reliable equipment uptime, fast ticket resolution, and a cost-neutral service engine that enables upsell opportunities.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in field service, field operations, or fleet/network operations, including managing a field team or managers.
• Proven track record leading internal service teams and external contractor/vendor networks.
• Financial acumen—experience managing a budget or cost center and driving cost-efficiencies.
• Commercial mindset—understanding how service translates into a sales pipeline.
• Fluent with operational data, dashboards, SLAs/KPIs, and root-cause with engineering.
• Exceptional problem solver who builds processes to eliminate bottlenecks.
• Experience managing geographically dispersed field workforce; rural/remote sites a bonus.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and scale the internal Field Service team and contracted install crews.
• Own install throughput and SLA attainment for large Integrator deals.
• Ensure tickets are resolved timely and high quality; manage triage process for urgent vs. non-urgent issues.
• Manage field operations budget with P&L discipline toward cost neutrality.
• Partner with Customer Success, Supply Chain, and Engineering to set a shared reliability bar.
• Drive opportunities for on-site upsell and revenue-generating activity.

Skills

Field service leadership

P&L management

Budgeting

Cross-functional collaboration

IoT/connected devices

Travel readiness

Job description

As the Director of Field Operations and Fleet Reliability, you will own the end-to-end execution of our field service delivery and equipment deployment — getting hardware installed quickly for large Precision Feed rollouts, keeping the deployed base healthy, and running an efficient service engine when it isn’t. You will lead our internal Field Service team directly and manage the contracted install crews that put our hardware in the ground, while orchestrating the seams between Customer Success, Supply Chain, and Engineering.

Your north star is the experience our enterprise customers and growers receive: equipment installed right the first time, hardware that stays reliably online, and tickets resolved quickly and well. You will run this department with P&L discipline — managing field service and installation as a cost center you drive toward neutrality — while enabling the timely, high-quality service that opens the door to upsell and revenue-generating opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

Field Service & Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and scale the internal Field Service team, fostering a culture of accountability, urgency, and customer-first execution.
• Ensure every ticket is resolved in a timely, high-quality manner, with time to resolution prioritized according to the significance of each ticket.
• Build and own the triage process that separates issues needing urgent attention from those that can wait — and hold the team accountable to it.
• Manage the third-party crews that deploy our hardware: own the relationships and contracts, control cost, and ensure crews are properly trained and held accountable to our SOPs.
• Guarantee installations are done right the first time, setting each grower up to be onboarded smoothly.
• Own install throughput and SLA attainment for large Integrator deals, where deployment speed is a direct driver of the grower-conversion funnel.

Fleet Reliability

• Ensure the hardware in the field stays reliably functioning for our customers, shifting effort from reactive fixes toward proactive intervention.
• Work from device health signals to catch failing hardware before the customer does, and partner with Engineering to root-cause systemic failures.
• Ensure compliance with our processes and standards for installing and servicing equipment.

Cost Management & Revenue

• Manage the Field Operations budget with P&L discipline, driving efficiency and optimizing resource allocation toward cost neutrality.
• Enable and train the field team to recognize on-site upsell opportunities and tee up warm, well-qualified leads for the sales team.

Cross-Functional Orchestration

• Partner with Customer Success (first-line diagnosis and triage), Supply Chain (replacement inventory and returns), and Engineering (firmware and root cause) to set and hold a shared reliability bar.

What You’re Measured On

Fleet uptime, mean time to resolution, install SLA attainment for enterprise deals, and time to service (ticket latency).

You are not the owner of the CS support desk or the Supply Chain organization — you set the shared reliability bar and orchestrate across the teams that feed it.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years in field service, field operations, or fleet/network operations, including experience managing a field team or managing managers.
• Proven track record leading both internal service teams and external contractor/vendor networks.
• Financial acumen — experience managing a budget or cost center and driving cost-efficiencies.
• Commercial mindset — an understanding of how outstanding service naturally translates into a sales pipeline.
• Fluent with operational data — comfortable living in dashboards, defining SLAs/KPIs, and running root-cause alongside an engineering team.
• Exceptional problem solver — you don’t just spot bottlenecks, you build process to eliminate them.
• Track record managing a geographically dispersed field workforce (rural/remote sites a bonus).
• Operates well in a matrix, driving outcomes across teams you don’t directly manage.
• Hands‑on experience running a connected‑hardware or IoT device fleet strongly preferred; experience in Ag Equipment, AgTech, or a related industry is a plus.
• Willingness to travel to field and client sites as required (approx. 15–30%).

Why BarnTools

We offer a fast-paced, collaborative environment where your work has a direct, visible impact on the business and on the pork and poultry industries. You will have the autonomy to build, innovate, and share in the growth you help create.

About BarnTools

BarnTools is redefining agricultural technology by delivering innovative, reliable monitoring solutions that empower pork and poultry producers. Today we keep roughly 10,000 growers’ barns monitored and their feed bins visible — value that depends entirely on a fleet of cellular Gateways and LoRa sensors staying installed and online. We pride ourselves on operational excellence, cutting-edge technology, and an unwavering commitment to customer success. As we scale, we are looking for a strategic, hands‑on leader to elevate our field operations and ensure best‑in‑class service delivery.