What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Operations (Integrator) position at Rare Plant Fairy?
Help Build the Next Stage of Rare Plant Fairy
Rare Plant Fairy grows and sells some of the rarest tropical plants in the world to collectors across the U.S. and overseas, from our nursery and tissue culture lab on Detroit's east side. Founded in 2020 and fully bootstrapped, we carved out our own niche in this industry, and we are building the playbook as we go.
Our founder, Jocelyn Ho, is a 2025 EY Entrepreneur of the Year, a Crain's Detroit Business 40 Under 40 honoree and a 2026 Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, and our work is regularly featured in Detroit and national media.
We are hiring our first Director of Operations to be Jocelyn's second-in-command: the leader who owns the day to day and drives operational excellence across the company, end to end, so she can focus on scaling the business.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Our inventory is alive. Growth timing, quality, bench space and demand all shape what we can sell and when. As we grow, our goal is operational excellence end to end, and that depends on building the people, processes and systems that scale with us. You will not be a cog in a wheel. In a company our size, the changes you make show up right away.
WHAT YOU'LL LEAD
- Lead the leadership team. Run our weekly EOS meeting, own the scorecard and hold department leads accountable, including Sales and Marketing.
- Lead production. Our nursery operation includes propagation, the greenhouse and our tissue culture lab. Be the first stop for daily plant decisions and build the standards that let the team decide confidently on their own.
- Scale fulfillment. Map packing and shipping end to end and build processes that grow with order volume.
- Manage living inventory. Keep it accurate, tied to the financials and supported by smart purchasing.
- Own payroll and people operations, with an outsourced HR partner for complex issues.
- Keep the cash visible. Maintain our 13-week cash flow forecast and manage cash with our bookkeeper and CPA.
- Build the team. Make your first hire within 90 days and develop future leaders.
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- Proven experience at the Director of Operations, VP of Operations or COO level
- Deep strength in production (nursery operations in a greenhouse or controlled environment) or fulfillment (packing, shipping and e-commerce), with working knowledge of the other
- A track record of leading a team through growth and building the processes and managers to sustain it
- Experience running payroll and people operations at a small or mid-size company
- Direct leadership of an on-site hourly team
- Comfort reading a P&L and managing cash flow, labor cost and inventory
Living or perishable goods, a hobbyist market, EOS experience or business ownership are all a plus.
WHO THRIVES HERE
You think like an owner and take time to learn our people, processes and constraints before making big structural changes. You can fix a packing-line detail in the morning and plan next year's team in the afternoon. You want to own the day to day so our founder can focus on scaling the business, and you want to co-create something meaningful along the way.
OUR CORE VALUES
Our purpose is to propagate happiness through extraordinary plants, guided by four core values: No Bull, Own Your Outcome, Grow or Go, and Customer Success Is Our Success.
- On-site in Detroit | $105,000 to $137,000 base, plus performance bonus and long-term incentive eligibility | Relocation candidates welcome
Salary : $105,000 - $137,000