About This Role
This Chief of Staff role is a high-impact executive opportunity, putting you directly at the table where major business decisions are made. You will support the CEO-chaired Transformation Steering Committee and lead the Administrative Transformation Team, working closely with various executive leaders to drive the company's transformation plan.
Responsibilities
- Support the CEO-chaired Transformation Steering Committee with a monthly steering pack and eventually support development of a monthly business review pack with the CEO and group-level team
- Lead the Administrative Transformation Team day to day with outside consulting partners
- Work with the COO and Operations Transformation Team, EVP Transformation, Chief Counsel, CFO, and the named owner of each administrative and operating area
- Manage the President’s Executive Assistant and external advisors
- Keep the integrated transformation plan and track both teams and every area owner against it
- Collect weekly status updates, risks, and decisions needed from each owner; escalate issues to the President
- Lead the Administrative Transformation day to day with the consulting partner across finance, contracts, supply chain, HR, IT, and growth
- Hold teams to the sunset criteria: approved future-state processes, controlled policies, trained staff, and a completed self-assessment
- Drive teams to execute against commitments and step in to help before failure occurs
- Set and run the calendar of team, steering, and leadership meetings
- Prepare agendas, pre-reads, and decision papers; record decisions and actions and follow them to closure
- Keep one integrated schedule across both transformation teams
- Stand up and own the business system repository, including policies, procedures, desk guides, process maps, controls, and records
- Capture every transformation artifact as it is approved; format, number, version, and file it
- Chair a Policy Control Board that approves and releases every new or changed policy and procedure
- Complete a baseline audit of current business practices within the first 90 days
- Keep every artifact audit-ready for customers, government reviewers, and external auditors
- Plan and run the internal audit and control-testing program; track findings and corrective actions to closure
- With the Chief Counsel, check new practices against FAR principles and the specific requirements in company contracts
- Set the templates and documents for internal reports to the President
- Consolidate owner status into a weekly brief for the President and a monthly pack for the Steering Committee
- Keep a single register of open gaps, with owners and due dates
- Help the President manage priorities, correspondence, follow-ups, and decisions
- Prepare the President for internal and external meetings
- Act as a trusted channel between the President and the leadership team and handle sensitive matters with discretion
- Keep the leadership rhythm, repository, and Policy Control Board running as permanent business processes after the transformation teams sunset
- Run the annual internal audit plan and support customer reviews and corrective actions after the transformation teams sunset
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, or a related field
- At least seven years of experience in complex manufacturing, investment banking, or consulting, ideally including experience as a Chief of Staff or in a PMO, internal audit, business systems, or operations leadership role
- Experience building or running a controlled document, policy, or configuration management system
- Experience preparing executive or board-level reporting and running recurring leadership meetings
- Experience planning or running internal audits or control testing
- Able to access export-controlled (ITAR/EAR) information
- Discretion: Handles sensitive leadership matters and information with care
- Organization and follow-through: Turns decisions into owned actions and closes them
- Influence without authority: Holds senior owners to plan through clarity, not title
- Clear writing: Produces short, decision-ready briefs and reports
- Controls mindset: Builds right-sized controls, applying as much as company contracts require and no more
- Steadiness: Keeps the rhythm under schedule pressure on a live ship program
Nice to have:
- MBA or related master's degree
- Shipbuilding or ship repair experience
- Experience with an ERP implementation or a major business transformation
- Experience in a foreign-owned U.S. company operating under FOCI mitigation
Benefits
- Exceptional compensation
- Bonus structure
Important Details
- Schedule: Occasional extended hours around steering reviews, audits, and customer reviews
- Travel: Approximately 15-25% among the Galveston, Port Arthur, and Corpus Christi sites, with occasional international travel to the parent company
Success in the First Year
- 30 days on board: Meeting calendar, status templates, and weekly owner reporting in place
- February 2027: Repository live; baseline audit of current business practices complete
- Every month: Steering pack delivered on time, with every owner reporting
- June 2027: Administrative team sunsets with all criteria met; its artifacts under control
- September 2027: Operations team sunsets; steady-state governance running
- Ongoing: Every approved artifact controlled in the repository; internal audit findings closed on schedule
About the Company
Gulf Copper is a company that operates on the Texas Gulf Coast, with sites in Galveston, Port Arthur, and Corpus Christi.
