Senior Operating Partner · Southern California & Remote

A senior operating partner
for founder-led manufacturers and distributors.

We tighten margins, recover throughput, and install the operating discipline that scales the business.

Schedule a Strategy Conversation How We Work
Eric Sanchez, Principal Consultant at Vantage Ops Group
Eric Sanchez, Principal Consultant
Who we work with

If this sounds familiar.

The operation runs through you.

Decisions stack on your desk because the discipline lives in your head. The team is good. They just need a system that does not need you in the building.

The operation grew faster than the discipline did.

What worked at ten million does not work at forty. Systems are improvising. Quality is starting to slip. You can feel the ceiling.

You have hired consultants before.

They left a deck and a roadmap. Six months later nothing had changed because no one ever owned the execution.

A full-time COO is not the answer yet.

The role is not big enough. Or the right person is not on the market. Or the risk on a $300K hire that might not work out is too high.

Services

Four ways the operation gets sharper.

01 / DIAGNOSTIC

Find the bottleneck
worth fixing first.

The most expensive operational gaps, ranked by payback period and difficulty. You leave with a quantified roadmap, not a binder.

02 / PROJECT

Rebuild the workflow
that runs everything.

From procure-to-pay to order-to-cash, the critical workflows your team runs a hundred times a week, redesigned with the people who actually run them.

03 / SYSTEMS

Make the data match
the reality on the floor.

ERP, CRM, WMS, and the reporting layer above. Wired so the numbers you see in the dashboard match what is actually happening in the operation.

04 / PARTNERSHIP

A senior operating partner,
on retainer.

For founders ready to stop being the operational bottleneck. A senior advisor, embedded on a cadence that fits the business, building toward your permanent COO.

Process

From conceptual agreement
to compounding outcomes.

01

Agree

Before any fee is quoted, we establish conceptual agreement. What success looks like, how we will measure it, what it is worth to the business.

02

Diagnose

An immersion phase. Interviews, ride-alongs, data pulls, shadowing. We listen and observe before we prescribe a single change.

03

Design

New processes, dashboards, SOPs, and accountability structures, co-built with the people who will run them after we leave.

04

Deploy

On-site through go-live. We stay long enough to transfer the muscle, not just the playbook. The deliverable is capability, not dependency.

Clients

Founder-led businesses
are our sweet spot.

We work best with founder-led manufacturers and distributors at the inflection point where the operation is outgrowing the founder. We also work with family-owned operations and private equity portfolio companies where the operating context is similar. The common thread is a buyer who is ready to be honest about where the operation is breaking and ready to invest in the partnership that fixes it.

Contact

Tell us what success
would look like.

The first conversation is about you, not us. What is breaking, what it is costing, what you would change if you had the right partner. If there is a fit, we will scope an engagement together. If there is not, we will tell you so.

Email eric@vantageopsgroup.com
Phone (818) 429-4925
Hours Mon–Fri, 8am – 5pm PT

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About

An operator who became
an operating partner.

Vantage Ops Group is a senior operating partnership built on a simple conviction. The gap between knowing what to do and actually getting it done is where most operations break. Closing that gap is the work.

Why Vantage

The pattern repeated everywhere we went.

Leaders knew what needed to change. They didn't lack ideas. They didn't lack data. What they lacked was someone to stand next to them long enough to make the change stick.

Most consulting firms aren't built for that work. They sell decks and roadmaps and disappear. The work that actually moves an operation is the work nobody wants to do, the unglamorous, weeks-on-the-floor, conversation-after-conversation work of installing new operating discipline into a team that has been doing it the old way for years.

That is the work Vantage Ops Group exists to do.

What we believe

The job is to make the operation run without us, faster than the team thinks possible.

We believe most operations don't need a new strategy. They need someone willing to do the unglamorous work of installing operating discipline that outlasts the consultant. The deck is not the deliverable. The team running better six months after we leave is the deliverable.

We believe in value-based engagements because hourly billing aligns the wrong incentives. The fee should be anchored to what the work is worth to the business, not how long it takes us to do it. That makes both sides of the table accountable to the outcome.

We believe the test of an operating partner is whether the founder still needs us a year later. If the answer is yes, we have failed. The work is to build the muscle, hand over the dashboard, and walk out a door we are no longer needed on the other side of.

We believe in honest answers, especially the inconvenient ones. If a strategy conversation reveals there is no fit, we say so. If a diagnostic finds the bottleneck is not where the founder thought it was, we say so. If we believe a different consultant or a different path serves you better, we point you there.

Eric Sanchez, Principal Consultant at Vantage Ops Group, a senior operating partner based in Southern California
Eric Sanchez · Principal Consultant

Eric has spent the last fourteen years running operations, most of it inside manufacturing, but the work travels. The same disciplines that fix a production floor fix a distribution hub, a service business, or a back office. He has worked every level of the operation, from shop-floor supervisor to Vice President of Operations. Most recently he led a 100-person team through a full operational turnaround at a specialty industrial products manufacturer.

Lean and Six Sigma trained, but the work is rarely about which methodology applies. It is about whether the discipline gets installed and stays installed after we leave.

Vantage Ops Group exists to be that someone. This is a deliberately senior practice. You hire a senior operating partner, not a team of associates, not a pitch deck with our name on the cover and a junior analyst doing the work. When you engage Vantage, the principal is the one walking your floor, pulling your data, and sitting across from your leadership team.

We work with operators and leadership teams who know the next chapter requires a different operating cadence. Engagements are scoped to a clear outcome and measured against it. The proof is in the throughput numbers, the margin, and the cadence of the operation after we leave.

Our experience spans publicly traded industrials, privately held manufacturers, and private equity portfolio companies. We have worked inside businesses preparing for transactions and supported the operational discipline that makes those transactions go well for everyone at the table.

Eric is based in Southern California with his wife and two daughters. Between the three of them there is soccer, golf, and track year-round, so when he is not on a shop floor he is usually on a sideline.

Principle 01

Outcomes, not deliverables

We agree on what success looks like, how we measure it, and what it is worth before any fee is quoted. The artifact is a means, not the end.

Principle 02

Build the muscle

We refuse engagements where the client cannot own the outcome when we leave. The deliverable is capability, not dependency.

Principle 03

One senior pair of hands

You work with us directly, from first call to final read-out. No handoffs, no junior associates running the engagement.

Principle 04

Walk away before discounting

If the engagement is not worth the fee, we will not reduce the fee. We will find a smaller scope that still delivers value, or we will part ways respectfully. Discounted work delivers discounted outcomes.

Services

What changes for you.

Every engagement starts with conceptual agreement on three things, what success looks like, how we will measure it, and what it is worth to the business. Only then do we scope. Below are the four ways the operation typically gets sharper. The exact shape we figure out together.

01

Find the bottleneck worth fixing first.

A diagnostic engagement

Most operations have ten things that could be fixed and three that actually move the business. The diagnostic finds the three. We interview the team, walk the process, pull the data, and surface the most expensive operational gaps, ranked by payback period and implementation difficulty.

You leave with a quantified opportunity register, a board-ready summary, and a remediation roadmap your team can execute against. Most clients self-implement 40 to 60 percent of the findings. We partner on the rest.

  • Value-stream mapping
  • Throughput & capacity analysis
  • Cost-to-serve modeling
  • Organization & RACI review
  • Quantified opportunity register
  • PE diligence and exit readiness reviews
  • Executive read-out & board deck
02

Rebuild the workflow that runs everything.

A project engagement

The critical workflows, procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, quote-to-invoice, incident-to-resolution, are the ones your team runs a hundred times a week. When they are broken, every other improvement is fighting upstream. We rebuild them from first principles, alongside the people who run them every day.

The deliverable is a workflow that ships work faster, with fewer errors, with less heroics. Updated SOPs, dashboards, and RACI matrices, plus the training to make it stick. We circle back after go-live to confirm the new process is actually being followed.

  • Current-state process mapping
  • Lean / Six Sigma redesign
  • SOPs & work instructions
  • KPI & dashboard design
  • Change management plan
  • Post-launch adherence review
03

Make the data match the reality on the floor.

A project engagement

Most operations have a dashboard that says one thing and a floor that says another. The result is a leadership team flying half blind. We help you select, configure, and deploy the systems stack so data flows cleanly across every function and the numbers match what is actually happening.

Vendor-agnostic. We have led ERP implementations and integrated the surrounding stack, CRM, WMS, BI, custom tools, so the data actually moves. Our job is to reduce your vendor's billable hours, not increase them.

  • Systems selection & RFP
  • Data migration planning
  • Integration architecture
  • UAT & cutover oversight
  • Reporting & BI layer
  • Post-go-live stabilization
04

A senior operating partner, on retainer.

An ongoing partnership

For founder-led businesses where a full-time COO does not yet pencil out but the operation is outgrowing the founder's bandwidth. A senior advisor, embedded on a cadence that fits the business, running the weekly rhythm, owning hiring, and building toward the founder's eventual permanent successor.

Structured as a monthly retainer. Tiered based on intensity, with a clear path to step up during transformational moments and step down once the operation runs itself. We exit by placing and onboarding the permanent operations leader.

  • Weekly operating cadence
  • Hiring & team design
  • Board & investor reporting
  • KPI dashboard ownership
  • PE portfolio company operating leadership
  • Successor search & handoff
  • On-call leadership
Frequently asked

Questions buyers ask before
the first conversation.

How is this different from a traditional management consultant?

Most consultants deliver a deck and a roadmap. We embed alongside the team to install the operating discipline that the roadmap calls for. The deliverable is capability, not a binder. Every engagement starts with conceptual agreement on what success looks like, how we will measure it, and what it is worth to the business. Only then do we scope.

Do you charge hourly or by project?

We work on value-based engagements, not hourly fees. Diagnostic engagements are fixed-fee. Project engagements are scoped to outcome. Operating partnerships are monthly retainers tied to the intensity of the cadence. The fee is anchored to the value the work delivers, not the hours we put in.

What kinds of businesses are best suited to your work?

Founder-led manufacturers and distributors at the inflection point where the operation is outgrowing the founder. Typical revenue range is $5M to $75M. Family-owned operations and private equity portfolio companies in the same operating context also fit. The common thread is a buyer ready to be honest about where the operation is breaking and ready to invest in the partnership that fixes it. Engagements typically range from $25,000 for a diagnostic to $4,000 to $10,000 monthly for an operating partnership, anchored to the value at stake. We can scope a fit on the strategy conversation.

How does an engagement typically start?

A 30-minute strategy conversation. We talk through what is happening in the operation, what success would look like, and what it would be worth to the business if it worked. If there is a fit, we draft a written proposal with a clear scope, timeline, and fee. If there is not, we tell you so and where appropriate, point you to someone who is a better fit.

What is the typical engagement length?

Diagnostic engagements run four to six weeks. Project engagements run three to six months depending on scope. Operating partnerships are monthly retainers with a 30-day exit notice, typically running 12 to 24 months as the operation builds toward a permanent senior hire.

What is the difference between your retainer and a fractional COO?

Fractional COO models typically commit a fixed number of hours per week running the operation directly. Our operating partnership is structured around outcomes and cadence, not hours. We embed at the intensity the business needs, run the weekly operating rhythm, own hiring and dashboards, and build toward your permanent operations leader. The exit is a successful handoff, not a renewal pitch.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes. Every engagement is covered by a written agreement that includes confidentiality. We sign mutual NDAs at the proposal stage as needed. Client information is treated as confidential by default.

Do you travel?

Yes. We are based in Southern California and most engagements include on-site time. For clients within driving distance, we are typically on-site weekly during active phases. For clients outside the region, we structure visits in concentrated blocks. Travel and lodging are billed at cost.

Next step

Not sure which fits?
Start with the conversation.

Thirty minutes. We will talk through what is happening in the operation, what success would look like, and what it would be worth to fix. If there is a fit, we will scope an engagement together. If there is not, we will tell you so.

Schedule a Strategy Conversation
Schedule

Schedule a strategy
conversation.

Thirty minutes. Pick a time that works. We will send a calendar invite with a video link and a short pre-call note shortly after. The conversation is yours, no agenda we are pushing, no obligation on the back end.

Session

Strategy Conversation

A focused conversation about your operation. What is breaking, what success would look like, and what it would be worth to fix.

30 minutes
Mon–Fri · 9am – 5pm PT
Google Meet (sent on confirm)
Pacific Time · America/Los_Angeles
What we will cover
We will spend the first ten minutes on what is happening in the operation, the next ten on what success would look like and how you would measure it, and the last ten on whether there is a fit and what the next step would be. Honest answers either way.
Contact

Tell us what success
would look like.

The form is the fastest way to start. Tell us where the operation is breaking, what success would look like if it worked the way you wanted, and what it would be worth to the business. We will reply personally within one business day. If it is time-sensitive, call or email directly.

Direct channels
Email · Direct
eric@vantageopsgroup.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/company/vantage-ops-group
Phone
(818) 429-4925
Schedule · Self-serve
Schedule a 30-min strategy conversation
Based in

Vantage Ops Group
Southern California
Serving clients nationwide · On-site & remote

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We typically reply within one business day.

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Privacy Policy.

This policy explains what information Vantage Ops Group, LLC collects when you use this website, how we use it, and the choices you have.

Effective March 1, 2026
Last updated March 1, 2026

1. Who we are

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This policy is provided for informational purposes and is not legal advice. It should be reviewed by qualified counsel before you rely on it.
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These terms govern your use of the Vantage Ops Group website. They do not govern any consulting engagement — those are covered by a separate written agreement.

Effective March 1, 2026
Last updated March 1, 2026

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These Terms are provided for informational purposes and are not legal advice. They should be reviewed by qualified counsel before you rely on them.