Operating Associate

Operating Associate — Continuous Improvement Department Orion Group | Two-year operator development program | Boulder, CO home base with travel across U.S. / territories / Canada About Orion Orion exists to redefine what a career in the service trades looks like. We are a network of operating companies across the United States, U.S. territories, and Canada, working to become the gold standard for people in our industry. We win through people leadership, technical superiority, and business excellence. We are the employer-of-choice for top talent in our industry, and we invest in development to create career opportunities that don't exist anywhere else in the service trades. About the Operating Associate Program The Operating Associate role is a two-year apprenticeship designed to develop high-potential early-career talent into future leaders of Orion. You will learn the disciplines of Continuous Improvement, the operational problem-solving methodology used by world-class operating businesses, while building toward placement into an Orion Operating Company in a leadership role such as Director, Operations Manager, or other mid-level operating position, with a clear path to continue advancing toward more senior operating leadership over time. This is not a traditional analyst program. You will spend the majority of your time traveling to Astra Operating Companies, learning their businesses from the inside, contributing to real operational improvement work, and developing the judgment to eventually lead one of these companies yourself. What you'll do • Travel to Orion Operating Companies . Roughly 50–70% of your time will be spent on-site at our operating companies across the U.S., territories, and Canada. You will work alongside their teams, observe their operations, and contribute to Continuous Improvement work in service of their business outcomes. • Learn the businesses we serve . You'll spend deliberate time in different parts of each operating company, dispatch, operations, sales, finance, ride-alongs with technicians, building real understanding of how service-trades businesses succeed and where they get stuck. • Apprentice in Continuous Improvement. You'll learn the A3 problem-solving method from senior senseis, contribute to real CI engagements at operating companies, and progressively take on more of the coaching work yourself as your capability develops. • Build business literacy. You'll learn to read a P&L, understand operational KPIs, see how leadership decisions flow through to results, and develop the judgment of an operator. Coursework includes Orion University, the LAUNCH program for operational excellence, and in-person training at the University of Tennessee. • Develop through structured gates. You will pass through six structured capability assessments across the two years, quarterly in Year 1, semi-annually in Year 2, each one a real evaluation of your readiness for the next stage of development. What you'll learn • How to solve operational problems using proven Continuous Improvement methods, A3 thinking, Kaizen, Lean, Kanban, and structured problem-solving disciplines. • How service-trades businesses actually work, the economics, the operations, the people, the leadership choices that separate good from great. • How to coach teams through structured problem-solving and build their capability rather than solve their problems for them. • How to read a business through an operator's eyes: P&L, KPIs, organizational health, customer dynamics, talent. • How to lead through influence and partnership rather than authority, the central skill of operating leadership. Who we're looking for Required : • Bachelor's degree by your start date. • Willingness to be based in Boulder, CO, with travel 50–70% of your working time across the U.S., territories, and Canada in Year 1. • Willingness to relocate within 2–3 years for placement at an Orion Operating Company. • U.S. work authorization. What makes someone successful in th