Vice President Operations

Who We Are

Porter Logistics started in 2017 with two founders, a single 3,000-square-foot warehouse and no customers. We had no national brand, no legacy contracts and no playbook to copy. We won our first accounts one at a time by taking on the work other warehouses didn't want, and by doing it better than our clients expected.

Less than a decade later, Porter is a founder-led third-party logistics (3PL) company headquartered in Atlanta, running four facilities across Atlanta and the Savannah port area. Our niche is simple: we handle the hard stuff. That means hazardous and specialty chemicals, food-grade and temperature-controlled products from ambient to frozen, bonded import freight, and bulk repackaging into drums, totes and pails. Our customers include some of the largest chemical, food and beverage, consumer goods and building materials companies in the world. They are Fortune 500 manufacturers and global distributors who could work with any 3PL in the country, and they work with us.

Growth is strong and is continuing to accelerate. We have grown revenue every year since we opened: CAGR of 28% over the last four years, with 2026 on pace for 40% YoY. In the past year we opened our first facility outside Atlanta, near the Port of Savannah, and launched a chemical repackaging business for global chemical producers.

Demand is not our constraint. Our Atlanta network is approaching full capacity, our pipeline is full, and existing customers are asking us to follow them into new markets. What we need now is the operating leadership to scale.

The Next Five Years

Porter is executing a five-year plan to become a national, multi-capability logistics platform, growing through a combination of acquisitions and greenfield expansion:

• Footprint: from two Georgia markets to six cities across five regions: Southeast, Texas, Northeast, Midwest and West
• Network: from 4 facilities to 15–17
• Team: from about 80 people to 250
• Capabilities: add transportation brokerage and drayage, and expand repackaging into multiple new formats
• Financials: grow from a low-tens-of-millions revenue business with single-digit millions of EBITDA into a nine-figure revenue company producing double-digit millions of EBITDA

If you have helped scale a private equity-backed platform, you will recognize the playbook: a clear operating model, disciplined capital allocation, a repeatable launch and integration process, and leaders who own their numbers. The difference is that here you work directly with the founders, with fewer layers and faster decisions.

The Role

As Vice President or Senior Vice President of Operations, you will take a founder-led Southeast 3PL and build the national operating company behind it. You will own operations across the network: every site, every customer commitment, every new market and every acquired business. You will build the team, systems and standards that let Porter grow fast without breaking.

You will report to the CEO and work as a close partner to the President, with regular exposure to our Board. You will sit at the center of every major operating decision: where we build, what we buy, how we integrate it and how we run it.

This seat is designed to become Porter's Chief Operating Officer. The title follows the outcomes: as the network, the team and the results scale, so does the role.

What Success Looks Like

First 100 Days

• Know every site, leader, major customer and facility P&L, with real time on the floor in Atlanta and the Savannah area.
• Deliver a three-year operating plan and organization design to the CEO and President.
• Put one operating cadence and one KPI scorecard in place across all sites: safety, on-time, accuracy, productivity and facility EBITDA.

Year One

• Existing sites running at target capacity and margin, with service levels intact.
• The next new market launched and performing to plan, using a documented site-launch playbook.
• An acquisition diligence and integration playbook in place, and critical leadership hires made.

Years Two and Three

• Three or more regions operating to one Porter standard on safety, quality, service and financial performance.
• Acquisitions closed and integrated on plan, with customers and key talent retained.
• Transportation brokerage, drayage and expanded repackaging contributing meaningful, profitable revenue.

Year Five

• A national network of 15–17 facilities across five regions, run by a team of 250 .
• Nine-figure revenue and double-digit millions of EBITDA, with margins that hold or improve as we scale.
• You are leading Porter's operations as Chief Operating Officer.

Key Responsibilities

Operating Performance

• Own safety, service, quality, productivity and facility-level P&L across every site, and hold our 99% on-time and accuracy standards as volume grows.
• Drive margin through labor planning, engineered standards, continuous improvement and account profitability, including pricing and exiting accounts that don't fit.
• Protect and extend our regulated capabilities (hazmat, food-grade, bonded and temperature-controlled) at every existing, new and acquired site.

Strategy and Network Expansion

• Partner with the CEO and President on Porter's five-year operating strategy, budget and capital plan, and turn growth targets into a roadmap for capacity, footprint and capability.
• Lead network planning (where to build, expand or acquire next) and greenfield launches end to end, from site selection and buildout through hiring, certifications and customer start-up.
• Build a market-launch playbook that makes each new site faster and less risky than the last.

Acquisitions and Integration

• Lead operational due diligence on targets: facilities, people, customers, systems, safety and compliance exposure, and synergies.
• Own 100-day plans and full integration across people, process, technology, finance and systems, and build a playbook that makes each one faster and cleaner.

New Business Lines

• Stand up transportation brokerage and drayage with the right partners, systems, controls and talent.
• Scale repackaging into new formats and new sites with our repackaging and chemical compliance team.

People, Systems and Customers

• Build a multi-layer leadership team of regional, site and functional leaders, sized for a company more than three times today's headcount, with succession for every critical role.
• Lead WMS, TMS, reporting and automation investments so every site runs to one Porter standard.
• Serve as senior operating partner to our largest customers, using operational excellence to grow our share of their business.

Qualifications

Required

• 12 years of progressive operations leadership, including 5 years leading multi-site operations through directors, regional or site leaders.
• A proven record of scaling an operation through rapid growth, ideally helping a business grow 3x or more in revenue, sites or headcount.
• Hands-on acquisition experience, including operational diligence and integration.
• Experience launching new facilities or entering new markets from the ground up.
• P&L ownership with measurable EBITDA and margin improvement.

Preferred

• 3PL, contract logistics or warehousing experience, especially in a private equity-backed or high-growth platform.
• Regulated operations: hazmat and chemical, food-grade (SQF, AIB, GMP), bonded or temperature-controlled.
• Transportation brokerage, drayage, or packaging and repackaging operations.
• Multi-site WMS, TMS, ERP or automation rollouts, and a continuous-improvement discipline such as Lean or Six Sigma.
• Bachelor's degree; an MBA or engineering degree is a plus.

You'll Thrive Here If You

• Have scaled a business through rapid growth and want to do it again, with real ownership.
• Like building systems, teams and sites from the ground up.
• Want a direct partnership with the founders on company strategy.
• Have led an acquisition and know the integration decides the outcome.

This Might Not Be For You If

• You want a mature company with established systems.
• You prefer running what exists over building what comes next.
• You want a narrow lane. This role spans operations, people, technology and M&A.

Compensation and Equity

We want this leader to share in what we build. The package is designed to compete with private equity-backed platforms for top operating talent:

• Competitive executive base salary.
• Annual performance bonus tied to EBITDA growth and operating goals.
• Equity ownership that rewards the value you help create.