Senior Director of Operations - Manufacturing

Job Description

Job Description

Senior Director of Operations – Manufacturing

Southeast Wisconsin

Base Salary: $120,000–$160,000 Depending on Experience
Annual Executive Bonus: Target 30% of Base Salary, with Opportunity up to 50%
Full-Time | On-Site | Direct Hire

TLS Partners is partnering with a growing, privately held specialty manufacturer in Southeast Wisconsin to identify an experienced Senior Director of Operations.

The company provides specialized production, paint, coatings, graphics and finishing services for well-known OEM manufacturers, including customers within the automotive and powersports industries.

This is a high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment where quality and attention to detail are extremely important. Products move through multiple specialized processes including preparation, paint and coatings, graphics, finishing, inspection and related manufacturing operations before reaching the customer.

This isn't a traditional repetitive production plant producing thousands of identical parts every day. Customer requirements vary, production schedules can change quickly, and the operation has to balance craftsmanship and customization with the discipline, quality and consistency expected by major OEM customers.

The company continues to grow, and this position will play an important role in building a stronger, more predictable and scalable manufacturing operation.

The Opportunity

The Senior Director of Operations will report directly to executive ownership and have overall responsibility for the performance of the manufacturing operation.

This person will lead the managers responsible for areas including production, quality, procurement, facilities and the manufacturing workforce.

This goes well beyond managing day-to-day production.

We need someone who can look at the entire operation—people, production, quality, scheduling, equipment, capacity, inventory, costs and customer commitments—and understand where improvements need to happen.

More importantly, we need someone who can build the leadership team and get the organization behind those improvements.

Ultimately, this person will be responsible for helping the company deliver profitable, on-time, OEM-quality results while building an operation capable of supporting continued growth.

What You'll Own

Manufacturing & Operational Performance

• Overall performance of the manufacturing operation

• Production planning, scheduling and resource allocation

• Capacity planning and operational scalability

• Production efficiency and throughput

• On-time delivery and schedule reliability

• Quality performance and customer requirements

• Scrap, rework and waste reduction

• Labor efficiency and productivity

• Workflow and process improvement

• Equipment, facilities and operational readiness

• Procurement, supplier performance and inventory management

• Continuous improvement throughout the operation

• Implementation and ownership of meaningful operational KPIs

This person should be able to walk the production floor, understand how work is moving through the different departments and recognize where capacity, scheduling, quality, labor, equipment or workflow problems are affecting results.

Then we need someone who can work through the leadership team to fix them.

Coatings & Finishing Environment

Experience within the coatings, industrial paint or finishing industry would translate very well to this operation.

Someone who understands how surface preparation, paint and coating application, curing, finishing, quality and rework can affect production flow, labor, cost and delivery would bring valuable experience to the organization.

Direct coatings experience, however, is not an absolute requirement.

We are equally interested in strong manufacturing leaders who have successfully managed high-mix, low-volume, make-to-order or custom manufacturing environments and understand how to bring structure, accountability and continuous improvement into a complex operation.

Building a Stronger Leadership Team

A major part of this position is developing the managers and supervisors underneath you.

We are not looking for someone who measures success by how many problems they personally solve.

We want someone who builds leaders who can solve problems.

You will be expected to:

• Coach and develop department leaders

• Establish clear ownership and accountability

• Strengthen communication between departments

• Create consistent performance expectations

• Build stronger management operating rhythms

• Improve employee retention and development

• Support training and succession planning

• Hold leaders accountable for the performance of their departments

• Improve collaboration between operations, quality, procurement, sales and executive leadership

Success means having capable leaders throughout the organization who understand their responsibilities, own their results and know how to lead their teams.

The Numbers Matter Too

This is an executive operations position, so the person we hire needs to understand how manufacturing performance impacts the financial performance of the business.

You should be comfortable understanding and improving areas such as:

• Operational costs

• Labor efficiency and productivity

• Gross margin

• EBITDA and profitability

• Inventory management

• Working capital

• Scrap and rework costs

• Capacity utilization

• Revenue growth

• Profitable and scalable company growth

You don't need to be the CFO, but you do need to understand the numbers behind the operation and how decisions being made on the production floor ultimately impact the bottom line.

KPIs, Measurement & Accountability

The company is continuing to strengthen how operational performance is measured.

The Senior Director will help establish and utilize meaningful KPIs, scorecards and operational metrics around areas such as throughput, schedule attainment, on-time delivery, quality, scrap and rework, labor efficiency, capacity, inventory, operational costs and department performance.

We want someone who uses data to make decisions but doesn't try to run a manufacturing operation entirely from a spreadsheet.

The numbers should tell you where to look.

Then you need to get onto the floor, understand what's really happening and work with your leaders to improve it.

The Leadership Piece Is Extremely Important

The company uses the Working Genius framework as part of its leadership philosophy, and one characteristic is especially important for this position: Galvanizing.

In everyday terms, a Galvanizer is someone who gets people moving.

When an operational change needs to happen, this person doesn't simply identify the problem, create a plan and hand it to someone else.

They bring the right people together, explain where the organization needs to go and why, establish ownership, get people engaged and keep the momentum going until the objective is accomplished.

This doesn't mean being the loudest person in the room.

It means having the ability to influence people, create energy around an objective and turn plans into action.

You don't need previous experience with the Working Genius framework. What matters is that this style of leadership comes naturally to you.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience

• Experience as a Director of Operations, Plant Manager, Manufacturing Director, General Manager, Senior Operations Manager or comparable senior manufacturing leader

• Proven experience leading and developing managers and supervisors across multiple manufacturing functions

• Experience in high-mix, low-volume, make-to-order, custom or similarly complex manufacturing is strongly preferred

• Demonstrated success improving throughput, efficiency and on-time delivery

• Strong understanding of production planning, scheduling and capacity

• Experience improving quality and reducing scrap, rework and waste

• Experience establishing and managing KPIs and operational scorecards

• Strong financial understanding of manufacturing operations, including labor, cost, margin and profitability

• Experience developing managers and creating accountability throughout an organization

• Ability to work directly with ownership and executive leadership

• Strong continuous improvement and problem-solving background

• Experience within coatings, industrial paint, finishing, automotive, powersports or another quality-driven manufacturing environment is highly desirable

Who Will Thrive Here

• You are a manufacturing leader who wants to have a real impact on a business.
• You enjoy being part of the operation and aren't afraid to spend time on the production floor, but you can also sit down with ownership and have a meaningful conversation about capacity, profitability, leadership development and growth.
• You understand that in this type of manufacturing environment, quality isn't simply whether a component functions. Appearance, consistency, craftsmanship and attention to detail matter too.
• You can look at a production problem and understand both the operational and financial impact.
• You develop the people underneath you rather than trying to do everything yourself.
• You establish expectations, measure results and hold people accountable, but you also know how to get people engaged and working toward the same goal.
• You don't need a large corporate infrastructure around you to get things accomplished, and you are comfortable addressing difficult issues directly.
• Most importantly, when something needs to change, you can get people moving.

What Success Looks Like

During the first 12–18 months, success should look like:

• Improved on-time delivery and schedule reliability

• Reduced scrap, rework and operational waste

• Meaningful KPIs established and consistently utilized

• A stronger and more consistent operating cadence

• Department leaders who own their areas and are accountable for results

• Improved communication and coordination between departments

• A more predictable and scalable manufacturing operation

Compensation & Executive Incentive

Base Salary: $120,000–$160,000 depending on experience

Target Annual Incentive: 30% of Base Salary

Maximum Annual Incentive Opportunity: Up to 50% of Base Salary

Annual incentive compensation is tied to company performance, operational improvement, leadership effectiveness and achievement of agreed-upon objectives.

Performance measures may include production efficiency, throughput, schedule attainment, quality, scrap and rework reduction, capacity planning, KPI implementation, leadership development, profitability, gross margin, operational costs, inventory management and scalable company growth.

If you are a natural leader who enjoys developing people, improving operations and getting teams moving in the same direction, we want to hear from you. This is an opportunity to make a real impact and help take a growing manufacturing operation to the next level.