Operations Manager

Salary: $100,000–$120,000, depending on experience

About DDSI

Full-time, on-site | Carlton, Minnesota

Don Dens Sales, Inc. was founded in 1985 to serve local loggers. In 2021, DDSI was purchased by a family-owned Christian company committed to operating with integrity and treating people well.

Today, our primary business is truck upfitting—especially dump-truck upfitting—along with trailer service, repair, and custom fabrication. We are the sole American distributor for Neustar dump bodies and also carry Beau-Roc dump bodies. We continue to support the logging industry and manufacture our own logging pup trailers.

The Position

We are looking for a hands-on Operations Manager to oversee our shop and daily business operations.

The first priority is creating a highly organized and efficiently scheduled shop. Jobs should be ready before entering a bay, with the necessary parts, materials, information, equipment, and people available. The Operations Manager will work closely with our employees to reduce delays and rework while maintaining the high-quality standards DDSI already achieves.

Responsibilities include:

• Managing shop scheduling, workflow, staffing, and resource allocation.
• Ensuring parts and materials are available before work begins.
• Keeping bays organized, scheduled, and productive.
• Applying practical 5S organization principles.
• Providing employees with clear direction and accountability.
• Improving inventory, purchasing, labor tracking, and job costing.
• Developing and training standard operating procedures.
• Monitoring productivity, efficiency, and job profitability.
• Supporting customer and vendor relationships.
• Maintaining a safe working environment.
• Working with ownership on priorities, budgets, and capital spending.

During the first 90 days, the Operations Manager will be expected to learn our people, processes, and current systems while making practical improvements where the need is clear. Major system changes or significant expenditures should be recommended only after the operation is fully understood and reviewed with ownership.

Qualifications

• Operations leadership experience in manufacturing, fabrication, truck upfitting, heavy equipment, or trailer service.
• Practical knowledge of hydraulics, pneumatics, PTOs, and hydraulic pumps.
• Strong scheduling, workflow-management, and organizational skills.
• Experience leading employees and maintaining accountability.
• Familiarity with inventory, purchasing, job costing, ERP systems, and operating metrics.
• Strong communication and problem-solving skills.
• Commitment to quality, safety, customer service, and responsible spending.
• The right person will be confident enough to lead but humble enough to listen and learn. Our Christian faith and family-company culture are important to us. We want someone who treats people with respect, works well alongside employees and ownership, and wants to help build a strong company for the future.