Production-Director | Aardvark Mobile Tours

Aardvark Mobile Tours is the undisputed leader in the fast paced experiential marketing industry. We work with the largest brands in the world (and their agencies) and have a unique family culture you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve grown tremendously over the past few years and our future looks even brighter. In fact, we’re almost finished building a brand new multi-million dollar headquarters just west of Philly in a town called Conshohocken. Aardvark was one of 38 companies on the Best Places to Work in Events list from 2015-2017.

Aardvark executes hundreds of marketing events across the country each week utilizing a large and diverse set of custom show vehicles, each designed to embody our customer’s brand and effectively achieve our customer's objectives. These show vehicles are created by our Production Team which leverages both internal and external resources to design and build beautiful, reliable and cost-effective mobile brand experiences that accomplish our customer’s mission.

The primary function of the Director of Production position is to serve as the leader of the production group, acting as a player/coach to evaluate and review the existing production operation and devise a strategic short and long-term recommendations to streamline production to create a highly efficient system and process that yields the best possible quality solution yielding consistent on-time and at or under budget results. Your team is also responsible for designing and managing the process for troubleshooting and engaging appropriate vendor assistance to address mechanical breakdowns that occur on the road. The ideal candidate for this position will come from a similar customized production environment and be able to employ tested systems and processes to streamline and improve delivery timeliness without sacrificing quality in a highly customized production environment.

The Aardvark culture is demanding and performance driven. Our promise to our customers is that we will never ever let them down, and as a result, we’re all in and expect you to be.

Specific Responsibilities

Direct and coordinate all production department activities to ensure effective and efficient attainment of company goals and to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed
Ensure that all established cost, quality and delivery commitments are achieved
Determine responsibilities of assigned organization and staff positions to accomplish business objectives
Develop quantitative production and quality control standards, cost controls and budgets
Partner with the sales and client services team to translate customer’s vision into a vehicle design that delivers a superior brand experience while simultaneously functioning efficiently and reliably in the real world
Work with the CEO and other senior leaders to establish processes and communications that enable the client services team to set proper expectations for customers regarding deployment, scheduling, service and maintenance of vehicles
Facilitate strong and consistent communication between the production team and the other internal departments
Build and deploy vehicles that meet DOT and other applicable safety standards
Coordinate and manage subcontractors as warranted by demand needs
Negotiate with suppliers to ensure timely and accurate delivery schedules
Develop training materials and facilitate training for production team
Responsible for overall Production Department P&L

Supervisory Responsibilities

Player coach leading a team of 3-6 Production Managers

Experience / Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

Experience successfully managing a production team - employing and overseeing the production process to achieve timely and profitable results
Experience working in a the trade show or vehicle customization production environment
Experience successfully working as a player/coach, working to put systems and processes in place, working as a member of the team
Experience building and growing a production team
Bachelor’s degree

Desired Characteristics

A fully formed adult – self-motivated, reliable and requiring of minimal daily supervision
Strong business acumen with the ability to understand business implications of decisions and actions
Strong appreciation for the importance of professionalism with a strong desire to inherently protect the company’s excellent image and reputation
Superior leadership skills with an ability to develop, mentor, coach and empower team members
Strong creative mindset to envision out-of-the-box solutions
Ability to identify, attract, hire and integrate new highly effective team members
Ability to work effectively on a dynamic leadership team where personalities are strong and team members are not afraid to speak their mind and challenge one another
Superior written and verbal communications skills
Strong project management capability to keep all team members aware of project status and plan
Strong creative and strategic mentality
Strong analytical mindset with the ability to analyze problems and propose solutions quickly
Ability to effectively communicate within the organization at all levels and with external constituents
Ability to deliberately and continually affect change over time in pursuit of the company vision
Ability to make justifiable decisions
Must have a “roll up your sleeves” mentality to do the work that needs to be done

Production Director

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Specific Responsibilities

Supervisory Responsibilities

Experience / Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

Desired Characteristics

215.441.0690