Senior Engineering & Operations Manager

Job Description

Job Description

The Head of Engineering & Operations is a newly established role on the General Manager's staff, created to bring integrated leadership across Product/Application Engineering, Manufacturing, Maintenance & Facilities, and Continuous Improvement. This leader will serve as a key member of the site leadership team and will be accountable for operational performance, engineering execution, and a culture of disciplined, data-driven improvement.

Core Responsibilities:

• Provide unified leadership and full accountability for both the Engineering and Operations functions, aligning product development and application engineering with production execution and cost performance to deliver on Hyson's business and customer commitments.
• Lead the Product and Application Engineering team in the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement across Hyson's product lines.
• Oversee engineering support for customer applications, including quote-to-delivery technical execution and application-specific design.
• Drive design-for-manufacturability principles that connect engineering decisions to production efficiency and quality outcomes.
• Own quality outcomes at the engineering-manufacturing interface; ensure design intent is fully translated into producible, well-documented standards that minimize internal escapes, rework, and defects reaching the production floor.
• Partner with Sales on technical proposals, customer escalations, and new product introduction.
• Hold full accountability for production output, on-time delivery, labor efficiency, and manufacturing cost performance.
• Set and sustain operating standards across the production floor, ensuring safe, compliance, and consistent execution of standard work that is aligned with business expectations.
• Lead capacity planning and resource allocation to meet demand while optimizing throughput and minimizing waste.
• Oversee preventive and corrective maintenance programs to maximize equipment uptime and reliability.
• Manage facilities operations to ensure a safe, well-maintained, and compliant working environment.
• Champion capital planning for equipment and infrastructure, building business cases and managing project execution.
• Cultivate a high-performing team through clear expectations, coaching, and accountability.
• Establish and lead a CI/Lean strategy, driving a culture of problem-solving and waste elimination
• Translate improvement initiatives into measurable operational and financial outcomes, reporting progress to the GM and leadership team.
• Serve as a senior member of the Hyson site leadership team, contributing to strategic planning, budgeting, and business performance discussions.
• Building strong working relationships with Sales, Finance, HR, and Quality to ensure Engineering & Operations is an enabler of commercial and organizational goals.
• Model Hyson's values and create a workplace where people are developed, heard, and held to high standards.

Competencies:

• Owns outcomes; sets clear metrics and drives follow-through.
• Connects technical decisions to business and customer value.
• Initiates and sustains change in people, processes, and systems.
• Build team capability through coaching, feedback, and opportunity.
• Gains alignment and moves work forward across functions and levels.
• Applies structured thinking and data to root cause and resolution.
• Communicates clearly to shop floor associates and C-suite stakeholders alike.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in engineering and/or manufacturing operations.
• Experience delivering across engineering and operations functions simultaneously, or strong functional depth in one with meaningful exposure to the other.
• Demonstrated track record of driving measurable operational improvement in a manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of Lean/CI principles and tools (VSM, kaizen, 5S, standard work, etc.).
• Strong financial acumen; comfortable owning budgets, analyzing variances, and building business cases.
• Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrixed or cross-functional environment.
• Exposure to capital project management, tooling and equipment procurement.
• Background in precision manufacturing, metalworking, fluid power, or related industrial sectors preferred.
• Familiarity with automotive or aerospace supply chain requirements (PPAP, APQP, IATF 16949, AS9100) preferred.
• Experience with gas spring, hydraulic, or motion control products a plus.

Education Requirements and Preferences:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline required.
• Lean or Six Sigma certification (Green Belt, Black Belt, or equivalent) strongly preferred.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The characteristics listed below are representative of the physical demands required by an individual to successfully perform the essential duties of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk and sit; use hands to handle, or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
• The employee is frequently required to talk and/or hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The characteristics listed below are representative of the work environment typically encountered by an individual while performing the essential duties of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is able to perform functions that require manual and finger dexterity.