Vice President of Operations - High Growth Market Leader

Vice President of Operations

Confidential Search | Leading High-Growth Manufacturer

ocation: Auburn, Massachusetts, south of Worcester

On-site Manufacturing Leadership Role

The Avery Point Group has been retained to conduct a confidential search for a Vice President of Operations for a leading, high-growth multi-site manufacturer in its industry. This is a hands-on senior manufacturing leadership role for an operations executive who can lead daily execution, strengthen operational discipline, mature a Lean manufacturing operating system, and help scale the business through improved safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, reliability, and leadership capability.

This is not a purely strategic or office-based executive role. The successful candidate must be highly visible on the plant floor, comfortable engaging directly with frontline leaders and employees, and capable of translating business priorities into clear operating routines, measurable KPIs, disciplined follow-through, and sustained performance improvement.

The company has a strong foundation and is positioned for continued growth. The opportunity now is to build greater consistency, accountability, leadership depth, production flow, maintenance reliability, planning discipline, and Lean operating system maturity across the manufacturing organization.

Key Responsibilities:

The Vice President of Operations will have broad responsibility for manufacturing execution via 8 direct reports covering: operations, maintenance and reliability, purchasing, inventory control, production planning, quality, delivery performance, labor productivity, material yield, cost performance, and continuous improvement.

This leader will be expected to strengthen daily, weekly, and monthly operating routines across production and support functions, ensuring that priorities are visible, issues are escalated appropriately, countermeasures are followed through on, and performance improves in a measurable and sustainable way.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Leading a safety-first manufacturing culture with strong floor engagement, proactive safety routines, audit discipline, near-miss reporting, and corrective action closure.
• Owning daily manufacturing execution across production lines and shifts, with a focus on schedule adherence, throughput, labor productivity, quality, and customer delivery.
• Maturing the company’s Lean manufacturing operating system beyond tools and projects into a more consistent way of running the business every day.
• Strengthening daily management, tiered meetings, visual KPI reviews, leader standard work, 5S, escalation routines, structured problem-solving, and accountability cadence.
• Improving equipment uptime, preventive maintenance discipline, maintenance planning, spare parts control, reliability metrics, and root cause problem-solving.
• Driving right-first-time quality through process discipline, standard work, training, audit routines, corrective actions, and quality-at-the-source behaviors.
• Improving material flow, purchasing discipline, supplier performance, inventory accuracy, production planning, and working capital performance.
• Building operating scorecards that connect safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, yield, uptime, inventory, service, and labor performance to daily leadership behavior.
• Reducing recurring operational issues through root cause analysis, permanent countermeasures, and verification that improvements are sustained.
• Partnering closely with Finance to improve visibility to labor, materials, scrap, rework, inventory, maintenance cost, conversion cost, manufacturing variances, and other P&L drivers.
• Developing frontline and mid-level manufacturing leaders who can sustain standards, engage employees, solve problems, and drive performance without constant executive intervention.
• Building a culture where problems are visible, facts drive decisions, commitments are kept, and leaders are accountable for results.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on manufacturing executive who has led plant-level operations in a multi-shift environment and has direct experience improving performance through Lean manufacturing, daily management, leader standard work, 5S, visual management, structured problem-solving, maintenance discipline, and operating cadence.

This person should be equally comfortable in a boardroom, production meeting, maintenance review, KPI discussion, and on the plant floor. The right leader will bring operational depth, financial understanding, practical Lean experience, and the leadership presence needed to raise expectations while building trust across the organization.

The company is looking for a leader who can improve execution, reduce variability, strengthen leadership capability, improve customer performance, and build a more mature operating system that supports continued growth.

Required Experience:

• 12–15+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• Proven success leading plant-level operations with responsibility for production, maintenance, planning, purchasing, inventory control, quality, delivery, and cost performance.
• Demonstrated experience maturing Lean manufacturing operating systems in a practical, hands-on production environment.
• Strong experience with daily management, leader standard work, visual KPIs, tiered meetings, 5S, standard work, flow, waste elimination, and structured problem-solving.
• Demonstrated ability to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, yield, uptime, inventory accuracy, and customer service.
• Experience leading maintenance and reliability improvement in a multi-shift manufacturing environment.
• Strong operational finance capability, including labor productivity, material usage, scrap, rework, inventory, conversion cost, maintenance cost, manufacturing variances, and cost reduction.
• Proven ability to develop frontline and mid-level manufacturing leaders.
• Hands-on, floor-oriented leadership style with the executive presence to lead through influence, accountability, and disciplined execution.
• Non-union, multi-shift manufacturing leadership experience strongly preferred.

Education

A bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field is required. An MBA, master’s degree, Lean, Six Sigma, or related operations/manufacturing certification is preferred but not required.

Location:

This is an on-site, multi-site role based in Auburn, Massachusetts, just south of Worcester, and Operations in CT. Candidates should be within a reasonable commuting distance or open to relocating for the right opportunity.