Manager, Strategic Programs & Operations

Crystal Clean is a leading provider of parts cleaning, used oil re-refining, and environmental services to industrial and automotive customers across North America. Backed by a private equity sponsor with an active value creation agenda, we are in the middle of an ambitious multi-year growth program — expanding service lines, acquiring and integrating businesses, deploying enterprise technology, and driving EBITDA performance across a growing national operation. This is not a company in maintenance mode. This is a company building.

 

The Manager, Strategic Programs & Operations will sit at the center of that work. Reporting directly to the Director of Corporate Development & Strategic Initiatives, this is a high-visibility individual contributor role with direct C-suite exposure from day one. You will own major strategic workstreams end-to-end — not support them, not coordinate around them — own them. That means driving outcomes, managing executive stakeholders, building the materials that inform major decisions, and ensuring that the company's most critical initiatives actually land.

 

This is not an administrative or project coordination role. It is an execution and judgment role. The right candidate will be someone who has built the analytical and communication toolkit in consulting or a similar environment, and is now ready to apply it with real operating ownership — where the work you do directly shapes how the business performs and how it grows.

What You'll Own

Value Creation Program Execution

• Take direct ownership of execution management for Crystal Clean's highest-priority strategic growth initiatives — translating leadership direction into structured programs with clear milestones, accountability, and measurable EBITDA impact.
• Drive workstream-level execution across multi-year value creation programs, coordinating across commercial, operational, and functional leaders to ensure initiative commitments are met on time and on target.
• Build and maintain the program infrastructure — governance cadences, progress reporting, risk tracking, and stakeholder alignment — that gives leadership real-time visibility into initiative health.
• Operate without formal authority across a matrixed organization; move work forward through relationships, credibility, and the quality of your thinking.

M&A & Corporate Development

• Support active M&A deal execution: target screening, financial analysis (EBITDA normalization, acquisition multiples, return modeling), due diligence coordination, and preparation of deal materials for senior leadership review.
• Maintain pipeline tracking and coordinate across legal, finance, and operations on live processes, serving as the connective tissue that keeps deal timelines intact.
• Contribute to acquisition memos, investment summaries, and post-close integration planning.

Executive Communication & Strategic Materials

• Develop C-suite and board-level deliverables independently — strategy memos, leadership presentations, operating review materials, and analytical frameworks — that drive alignment and inform major decisions.
• Translate complex, multi-workstream initiatives into clear, structured narratives that land with senior executives and PE sponsors.
• Prepare materials for leadership operating reviews, strategic planning sessions, and sponsor meetings with minimal oversight.

Enterprise Program Ownership

• Own the execution of major enterprise deployments — including technology platform rollouts, CRM implementations, and AI program workstreams — from planning through adoption measurement.
• Manage vendor relationships, milestone accountability, and stakeholder communications; surface risks early and drive resolution.

Strategic Analysis & Decision Support

• Build the analytical frameworks and financial analyses that underpin major strategic decisions: business cases, scenario models, initiative ROI, and market benchmarking.
• Synthesize inputs from across the business into clear, structured outputs that inform where leadership places its bets.

What We're Looking For

Experience

• 4–7 years of progressive experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, or corporate development. Big 4 or strategy consulting backgrounds are strongly pref