Director of Operations

Design and Production Incorporated; Lorton (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Design and Production Incorporated (D&P) is seeking a Director of Operations to drive the full delivery chain from detailing to fabrication and installation. You will align shop and field teams, optimize schedules, and implement scalable processes to support complex, high-end exhibits and bespoke projects.

The role calls for a strong operational leader who can balance hands-on shop floor activity with strategic oversight, ensuring safety, quality and profitability across concurrent programs.

Qualifications

• Hands-on operational leader with fabrication or bespoke production experience.
• Ability to manage multiple complex projects with coordinating shop and field teams.
• Strong understanding of cost, productivity, schedules and margins.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day operations across production, detailing, shop and field teams.
• Build an operating rhythm to prioritize, avoid bottlenecks and move multiple projects.
• Drive accountability for schedule, cost, quality, productivity and safety.

Skills

Operations leadership

Production planning

Project management

Cost control

Safety management

Shop floor operations

Field installation

Team leadership

Process improvement

Tools

MS Project

Job description

Design and Production Inc. is a renowned builder of museum experiences, offering a comprehensive range of specialty services for museums and high-profile institutions. D&P’s expertise lies in prefabrication consulting, project management, exhibit engineering, detailing, prototyping, installation, media, and lighting systems. Projects are custom, large scale, complex, multi-year experiences. Based in Lorton, Virginia.

The Role

We are looking for a high-impact Director of Operations to lead the operational engine of D&P. This is a pivotal leadership role with responsibility for the entire delivery chain — detailing, shop operations, fabrication, facilities and field installation — ensuring that ambitious, highly customized projects move seamlessly from design intent to fabrication and final installation. You will bring together people, processes and resources to create an operation that is fast, disciplined, scalable and consistently delivers exceptional quality.

This is a role for someone who wants to lead, improve and transform operations, not simply manage them.

Lead the operational engine:

• Take ownership of day-to-day operations across production, detailing, shop and field teams.
• Build an operating rhythm that gives teams clear priorities, anticipates bottlenecks and keeps multiple complex projects moving simultaneously.
• Drive accountability around schedule, cost, quality, productivity and safety.
• Turn design into reality.
• Own the critical transition from design intent and shop drawings through fabrication and installation.
• Ensure detailing is accurate, coordinated and fabrication-ready, while strengthening collaboration between project management, technical teams, the Shop and the field.
• Challenge processes and solve problems before they affect production or installation.
• Build a high-performance Shop
• Lead production planning and resource allocation across concurrent projects.
• Continuously improve workflows, capacity planning, productivity and quality.
• Make smart decisions about people, equipment, technology and infrastructure to increase D&P's ability to deliver increasingly ambitious projects.
• Oversee field operations and installation teams across active job sites.
• Lead and support site supervisors and field leads, ensuring seamless coordination between what happens in the shop and what happens on site.
• Set high expectations for execution, safety, quality and client experience through final installation and closeout.
• Develop the operation for the future.
• Identify where D&P can operate faster, smarter and more efficiently.
• Develop capital investment plans for equipment, tools and facilities.
• Oversee preventative maintenance, repairs and upgrades across shop equipment, facilities and the company vehicle fleet.
• Create scalable processes and operating standards that support D&P's next stage of growth.
• Lead people: Build, develop and challenge strong operational teams.
• Partner closely with Project Management and company leadership to anticipate resource requirements, resolve delivery issues and ensure operational priorities remain aligned with the business.

Who we're looking for:

We are looking for a builder and an operator.

Someone who understands how complex, bespoke projects actually get made — from technical drawings and procurement through fabrication, logistics and installation.

You know how to run a shop and field operation, but you also know how to step back, improve the system and build an organization capable of delivering more.

You are:

• A strong operational leader who creates structure and accountability.
• Highly comfortable in fabrication, construction, millwork, exhibits, specialty interiors or another bespoke production environment.
• Commercially minded, with a strong understanding of cost, productivity, schedules and margins.
• Hands‑on enough to understand what is happening on the shop floor or job site, but senior enough to lead through others.
• Obsessed with solving problems and improving how things are done.
• Comfortable making decisions in a fast-moving environment with multiple concurrent projects.
• A strong people leader who can earn credibility with craftspeople, technical teams, project managers and senior leadership alike.

Experience in museum exhibits, experiential environments, architectural fabrication, high-end millwork, themed entertainment or complex specialty construction would be particularly valuable.

Why this role matters - D&P delivers projects where design ambition meets the reality of making and building.

The Director of Operations sits right at that intersection. Your job is to make sure great ideas can actually be built — beautifully, safely, efficiently and profitably — while building the operational platform that will take D&P to its next stage of growth.

Design and Production Incorporated (D&P) is an Equal Opportunity Employer - All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. Design and Production Incorporated (D&P) is an E-Verify Employer.