Vice President of Operations
Commercial Real Estate • Practice & Business Transitions • Valuations • An AI-Forward Firm
• Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
• Team: Lead and scale the operations team - currently lean; building toward ~20-25 across transaction managers / junior brokers, virtual assistants, financial analysis, and office operations - plus operational support to broker and advisor teams in both practice areas
• Practice areas: Practice & Business Transitions (M&A advisory) • Commercial Real Estate • Valuations & Appraisals
• Location: Tempe, Arizona - on-site / in-person (not remote)
• Employment type: Full-time, exempt
• Compensation: Commensurate with experience
POSITION SUMMARY
The Vice President of Operations is the operational leader of Menlo Group and the CEO's integrator. This person translates the CEO's vision into clear priorities, processes, accountability, and execution across the company - and provides oversight, standards, and accountability for the transaction lifecycle from signed engagement to closing.
This role arrives at a defining moment. Menlo Group is entering a period of significant growth and organizational change, and the VP of Operations will lead the operational side of that change: aligning teams, systems, workflows, terminology, and expectations across our practice areas while respecting the real differences between selling a dental practice, a privately held business, and a commercial building. The guiding principle is simple: standardize where possible, specialize where necessary.
Just as important, this person will be the architect of an AI-powered operating model. We are looking for a leader who is fluent in today's major AI platforms, who builds automated, AI-driven workflows hands-on, and who will make AI a core part of how every transaction is processed - so our team can handle more volume, deliver a better client experience, and scale without adding proportional headcount.
Scope: This role owns operations, not sales. Sales KPIs, sales scorecards, and sales training are owned by the sales manager, and HR administration such as payroll and benefits is handled elsewhere in the organization.
Location: This is an on-site / in-person role based at our Tempe, Arizona office - not a remote position.
We are looking for a builder - someone energized by creating the infrastructure for the firm Menlo Group intends to become, not someone expecting a mature corporate structure to already exist.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Organizational Change Leadership
• Lead the operational changes that come with growth and reorganization, including new structures, roles, reporting lines, and ways of working across the firm.
• Align teams across practice areas on common systems, processes, terminology, roles, and performance expectations, and strengthen a shared culture in the process.
• Determine where transaction workflows should be unified and where practice-area specialization should remain, and document both.
• Communicate change clearly and steadily to staff and advisors, especially as roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines evolve.
AI Strategy, Automation & Adoption
• Own Menlo Group's AI and automation roadmap: identify where AI can remove manual work, speed up transactions, and improve quality, then prioritize, build, and deploy those solutions.
• Personally design and build AI-powered workflows - not just purchase tools. Use leading AI platforms (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini) together with automation platforms (such as Zapier, Make, n8n, or Power Automate) to connect systems and automate multi-step processes end to end.
• Deploy AI agents and assistants that take on real operational work: drafting CIMs, prospectuses, offering memorandums, and marketing packages; summarizing financials, leases, and diligence documents; organizing data rooms and needs lists; answering routine buyer and tenant inquiries; preparing valuation and appraisal drafts; tracking deal milestones; and generating client updates and management reports.
• Integrate AI with the CRM, transaction management, and document systems so information flows automatically from lead to close with minimal re-keying.
• Build AI fluency across the organization: train transaction managers, junior brokers, VAs, and advisors to use AI tools effectively every day, and create shared prompt libraries, templates, and playbooks.
• Stay ahead of rapidly advancing AI capabilities, including increasingly autonomous agents, and continuously evaluate new tools and models for practical value to the firm.
• Establish AI governance: protect client confidentiality and sensitive financial data, set human-review standards for anything client-facing or contractual, and ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Measure the impact of every AI initiative - hours saved, cycle time reduced, capacity gained, error rates - and report results to the CEO.
Transaction Operations
• Provide oversight, guidance, standards, and accountability for the end-to-end transaction lifecycle across all practice areas - engagement and onboarding, valuation, marketing package and prospectus/CIM preparation, buyer and tenant inquiries, NDAs, data rooms, offers and LOIs, due diligence, financing, escrow, and closing - led day-to-day by transaction managers and the operations team.
• Ensure the transaction operations function effectively coordinates the many parties involved in a closing - attorneys, CPAs, lenders (including SBA lenders), title and escrow, landlords, appraisers, buyers, and sellers - so deadlines and conditions are met, intervening on escalations rather than running day-to-day deal coordination.
• Manage deal-flow capacity across the transaction management team, balancing dedicated advisor support with shared overflow support as volume shifts.
• Oversee the valuation and appraisal workflow so reports are timely, consistent, and high quality.
• Establish standard checklists, timelines, and milestone tracking for practice sales, business sales, CRE sales, and leasing transactions.
• Step in to resolve escalated deal issues, stalled timelines, and difficult multi-party situations.
Process Architecture & Continuous Improvement
• Map current workflows across the firm; identify bottlenecks, duplication, handoff failures, and inefficiencies.
• Design scalable, documented processes and standard operating procedures without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Build processes that support geographic expansion, additional brokers and advisors, higher transaction volume, and potential new service lines.
• Continuously ask how every process can be easier, faster, more consistent, more profitable, and better for the client.
Systems & Technology
• Evaluate, consolidate, and optimize the firm's technology stack - CRM (e.g., Pipedrive), transaction and project management, document management and data rooms, communication, and reporting tools - with AI-readiness and integration as core selection criteria.
• Keep systems connected and data clean so that automation and AI tools have reliable information to work from.
People Leadership
• Lead, coach, and develop the operations team - currently lean and scaling toward ~20-25 - including transaction managers / junior brokers, virtual assistants, financial analysis, and office operations.
• Define clear roles, ownership, and expectations; hold people accountable while maintaining trust and strong relationships.
• Build career paths within operations - including the transaction manager to junior broker to broker/advisor progression.
• Partner with the CEO and outside providers on staffing plans and hiring decisions for the operations team.
Operating Rhythm, KPIs & Accountability
• Serve as the integrator in the company's operating system. Familiarity with EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System) is a significant plus - including Level 10 meetings, Rocks, the company Scorecard, the Accountability Chart, and IDS problem solving.
• Establish and run the weekly, quarterly, and annual operating cadence that keeps leadership and teams aligned on priorities, owners, milestones, and deadlines.
• Build and maintain operations scorecards (transaction timelines, capacity, closing performance, client experience); follow up consistently when commitments are not met.
• Sales KPIs and scorecards are outside this role: setting, tracking, and coaching to sales metrics belongs to the sales manager. The VP of Operations may draw on sales data to improve processes and handoffs, but does not own sales performance.
• Prepare operational reporting for the CEO, leadership team, and board.
Financial & Capacity Management
• Manage the operations budget and partner with the CEO and fractional CFO on forecasting, margins, staffing models, and resource allocation.
• Understand transaction economics and commission structures; provide oversight of invoicing, accounts receivable, and commission tracking for accuracy and timeliness - partnering with finance and operational owners (and automation or virtual AR support where appropriate), not personally processing invoices or AR day-to-day.
• Use pipeline and capacity data to anticipate staffing needs before the team is overloaded.
Client Experience
• Design operations around a consistent, professional, high-touch experience for every client from first call to closing - and beyond, as a source of referrals.
• Serve as a professional, client-facing leader when needed: meeting with clients, advisors, and referral partners, and representing Menlo Group with credibility.
• Implement client feedback and satisfaction measurement and act on what it reveals.
Cross-Functional Partnership
• Work closely with the CEO and business development, marketing, and finance leaders so operations directly supports revenue growth, transaction success, and enterprise value.
• Ensure smooth handoffs between lead generation, advisors, transaction management, and closing - including cross-referrals between practice transition and commercial real estate clients.
• Partner with the sales manager, who owns sales KPIs, scorecards, pipeline targets, and sales training; use sales data as an input to process improvement, not as a performance area this role manages.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
First 90 Days
• Learn every practice area, team member, and active deal pipeline; build trust with staff and advisors.
• Complete a current-state assessment of workflows, systems, and capacity across all practice areas and teams.
• Launch the operating rhythm and an initial operations scorecard.
• Deliver an operations roadmap with priorities, owners, and milestones, approved by the CEO.
• Deliver an AI and automation roadmap and launch the first AI-powered workflows (quick wins) in live use.
First 12 Months
• Aligned operations across the firm: common core systems, unified transaction workflows (with practice-specific variations documented), and consistent role definitions.
• Measurable improvements in transaction cycle time, closing rates, and team capacity.
• AI embedded in the core transaction workflow across all practice areas, with multiple automated workflows in production and documented time savings and capacity gains.
• An operations team that uses AI tools daily as a standard part of how work gets done.
• A scalable operations structure ready to support new advisors, new markets, and higher transaction volume.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
• 10+ years of operations leadership experience, including 5+ years leading teams of 15 or more.
• Meaningful operational experience in commercial real estate and in mergers & acquisitions, business brokerage, or practice transitions - deep expertise in one and strong working fluency in the other at minimum.
• Experience leading operations through major organizational change, such as a merger, acquisition, or significant restructuring, including aligning teams, systems, and processes.
• A proven track record of process improvement: mapping, redesigning, documenting, and scaling workflows with measurable results.
• Demonstrated AI-forward leadership: daily, hands-on use of major AI platforms (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini) and a track record of personally building and deploying AI-driven automated workflows in a business setting.
• Experience with workflow automation and integration platforms (e.g., Zapier, Make, n8n, Power Automate) and connecting business systems such as CRMs and document management tools.
• Proven ability to drive AI adoption across a team, with measurable results in time sa
