Executive Summary
G. Joel Hager
Strategic Operations Leader · Regional Venture-Coordinator (Volunteer) · Founder & CEO, Workers’ Rebellion LLC
Who I Am
Strategic operations leader who builds systems, not just processes
I am a strategic operations professional with a corporate background spanning telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare technology, and financial services, plus large-scale volunteer community operations. My career follows a consistent pattern: I identify what’s missing, design a solution, and make it sustainable — whether that’s a service catalog workstream inside an enterprise ServiceNow transition, a production regional health dashboard, or a 13-applet automated community information network.
I serve as Regional Venture-Coordinator for the Appalachian Region of Paizo Organized Play, an unpaid volunteer role comparable in scope to a Regional Operations Director. My volunteer service with the Organized Play Foundation dates to 2018, and I have held this role since September 2025. Across a six-state footprint, I directly oversee Venture-Captains and indirectly oversee approximately 60 volunteers, with authority to appoint, promote, and remove volunteers within the organization’s Venture-Officer structure, and I report to the Organized Play Foundation with operational accountability to Paizo Organized Play. I also chaired the Paizo Organized Play Onboarding Committee, a global volunteer body serving 18 international regions, from 2023 until July 2026. I provide unpaid operations consulting for a media company, and I founded Workers’ Rebellion LLC, whose first product, a job search tracking application, launched in August 2026.
I am available immediately for remote, hybrid, and on-site roles.
Leadership Approach
How I lead
My leadership philosophy centers on building high-performing, autonomous teams through data-driven decision making and systematic process design. I believe the best operational leaders make themselves less necessary over time — not by stepping back, but by building infrastructure that runs reliably without constant intervention.
Strategic Vision
Translate organizational goals into executable systems. Maintain flexibility to adapt while keeping long-term outcomes in focus.
Operational Excellence
Design processes that reduce inefficiencies, surface performance data, and ensure compliance — built in from the start, not bolted on after.
Team Development
Build capabilities within team members. Create succession pathways. Foster continuous improvement cultures that outlast any individual’s tenure.
Proactive Infrastructure
I look for gaps and build to close them. The regional hub website, the health dashboard, and the communications network came from spotting needs, not waiting for assignments.
Track Record
Transformational results across every environment
Regional Operations Leadership
At DragonCon, the weighted count of reported tables grew 183% from 2022 to 2024, and the convention returned to Tier 1 status for the first time since the pandemic. Atlanta game cancellations declined as scheduling moved toward a two-week minimum lead time. Sole planner for Atlanta Pathfinder Society’s DragonCon program. Manage the Atlanta Pathfinder Society partnership with the City of Marietta Department of Parks & Recreation (annual since 2023).
Operational Intelligence Platform
Product owner, specification author, and QA lead for a production regional health dashboard, directing development on React/JSX, Supabase, Node.js, Vercel, Cloudflare, and GitHub with $0 incremental production spend. Designed for replication by other regional coordinators. QA and later-phase improvements continue.
Global Committee Leadership (Volunteer, 2023–2026)
Chaired the Paizo Organized Play Onboarding Committee serving 18 international regions worldwide from 2023 until stepping down in July 2026. Co-authored the VO Handbook. Successfully consolidated VO Handbook Task Force into the committee, eliminating organizational redundancy at the national level.
Financial Technology Delivery
Supported product delivery at JPMorgan Chase within regulatory requirements: ran UAT cycles, resolved delivery blockers, and managed cross-functional dependencies across product, engineering, and business stakeholders.
Healthcare Technology Operations
Documented the Teladoc Health TeamSupport platform and Sales Demo environment and served as the incident coordination contact for the Denmark office within HIPAA/GDPR frameworks. Identified and escalated a video codec issue affecting physician calls; the resulting codec change prevented broader service disruption.
Enterprise Service Management
One of six Tier 2 support leads at Amtrak for 400+ applications serving 20,000+ employees, with a shared on-call rotation supporting 24/7 operations. Contributed to the team-wide ServiceNow transition; the team collectively owned the service catalog workstream, including requirements gathering and implementation discussions with IBM.
Entrepreneurial Leadership
Founded Workers’ Rebellion LLC: formed the legal entity, built the brand and financial model, and filed a trademark application for the software. The first product, a job search tracking application, launched in August 2026. C2C / 1099 IT consulting engagements are available through the LLC.
Differentiators
What sets me apart
My combination of regulated-industry delivery discipline, technical product ownership, and active multi-state volunteer leadership is unusual. Most operations leaders have one or two of these. I have worked across all three, with live, publicly accessible work product to show for it.
What I’m Looking For
Target role & requirements
Role Types
- Regional Operations Director
- Strategic Operations Manager
- Senior Operations Manager
- Program Director / Manager
- IT / Service Desk Manager
- Technical Program Manager
- Operations Excellence Manager
Work Arrangements
- Remote — available immediately
- Local hybrid or on-site considered — available now
- MARTA-accessible considered
- No overnight travel
- W2 preferred; C2C / 1099 consulting available via Workers’ Rebellion LLC
- Contract-to-hire acceptable
Compensation
- Target: $110K+ annualized
- W2 preferred
- Permanent or defined contract-to-hire
- Degree-or-equivalent-experience roles welcome
Ready to discuss your strategic operations needs?
Let’s explore how this track record of operational excellence, team leadership, and systems-building can drive results for your organization.