Vice President at Des Plaines, Illinois

Vice President Operations North America (M/F/D)

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape and further develop one of the company's most strategically important international markets while driving operational excellence, organizational growth, and customer satisfaction.

Your Responsibilities

In this position, you will oversee all operational activities across supply chain management, assembly and production operations, project management, quality assurance, procurement, and EHS functions within the North American organization. A key focus of your role will be the continuous improvement of operational processes to ensure the efficient execution of complex automation and capital equipment projects within budget, timeline, and quality expectations. By implementing operational excellence initiatives across manufacturing, automation, and machine assembly environments, you will contribute significantly to improving scalability, efficiency, and operational performance. Strategic business objectives will be translated by you into measurable operational plans and sustainable execution strategies aligned with both regional and global company goals. Together with your teams, you will further develop procurement and sourcing strategies by strengthening supplier networks, reducing lead times, optimizing vendor performance, and mitigating operational bottlenecks. Building and maintaining strong strategic relationships with suppliers, customers, and key business partners will be an essential part of supporting long-term operational stability and sustainable growth. Close collaboration with engineering, sales, project management, and executive leadership teams will enable you to align operational capabilities with customer and market requirements. In addition, you will establish, monitor, and optimize operational KPIs to ensure transparency, accountability, and continuous performance improvement across all operational functions. Driving cost optimization, margin improvement, disciplined resource allocation, and operational efficiency throughout the organization will also form part of your responsibilities. Through your leadership, mentoring, and development of a high-performing operations leadership team, you will foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, hands-on leadership, and continuous improvement. As a visible and approachable leader, you will engage directly with operational teams both on the shop floor and at executive management level. Furthermore, you will ensure the alignment of North American operations with global standards, processes, and best practices in close cooperation with international leadership teams. Responsibility for compliance with all relevant U.S. regulatory requirements, including labor laws, export controls, environmental regulations, and health and safety standards, will also be part of your role. By proactively identifying operational risks and implementing effective mitigation strategies, you will support sustainable business growth and operational reliability.

Your Profile

You hold a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Business Administration, or a related technical discipline; an MBA or advanced technical degree is considered a strong advantage. Over the course of your career, you have gained a minimum of 15 years of progressive leadership experience within aerospace, automation, advanced manufacturing, capital equipment, or related industrial environments. A strong background in automation systems, machine assembly, industrial manufacturing, and OEM-driven project organizations distinguishes your professional expertise. You have successfully led large-scale operations and delivered highly complex technical projects within demanding customer environments. Extensive experience in operational excellence, process optimization, supply chain management, procurement strategy, and organizational scaling rounds out your operational background. In addition, you bring solid P&L management expertise with responsibility for operational KPIs, budgets, financial performance, and resource planning. Familiarity with aerospace OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, ideally within North American markets, would be highly beneficial in this role. Ideally, you have already worked within international and preferably German or European engineering and manufacturing organizations. Your leadership style is characterized by a hands-on mentality combined with the ability to motivate, develop, and retain high-performing teams. Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving capabilities paired with a highly execution-oriented mindset define the way you approach operational challenges. Excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills allow you to interact confidently across all organizational levels. A high level of professionalism, operational ownership, customer orientation, and resilience enables you to succeed within dynamic and fast-paced business environments. Flexibility and willingness to travel domestically and internationally are expected. You are fluent in English; German language skills are considered a strong advantage.