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 Incentive: Target 30% of Base Salary, with Opportunity up to 50%
Full-Time | On-Site | Direct Hire

TLS Partners is working with a well-established, privately held manufacturing company in Southeast Wisconsin to identify an experienced Senior Director of Operations.

The company provides specialized production, finishing and value-added manufacturing services to OEM customers. Their operation includes specialized coatings, paint and graphics applications, detailed masking, finishing and other manufacturing processes where quality, consistency and meeting customer specifications are extremely important.

They support recognizable manufacturers within the automotive, powersports and related industries and continue to grow their capabilities and operation.

This is a significant leadership position within the organization and goes well beyond simply managing day-to-day production.

The Senior Director of Operations will be expected to strengthen the company operationally, financially and culturally while helping build an organization that can continue to scale and grow.

We are looking for someone who understands the entire operation: people, production, quality, equipment, capacity, costs, margins, inventory, customer commitments and ultimately the financial performance of the business.

Just as importantly, this person needs to be able to lead people through change and turn operational goals into actual results.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

Operational Performance

You will have responsibility for driving measurable improvement throughout the manufacturing operation, including:

• Production efficiency and throughput

• Production scheduling and schedule attainment

• Quality performance

• Scrap and rework reduction

• Workflow and process improvement

• Capacity planning and utilization

• Equipment and facility reliability

• Labor utilization and productivity

• Operational scalability as the company continues to grow

• Implementation and ownership of meaningful KPIs

• Creating accountability around operational results

This person should be able to look at the operation as a whole, identify where time, labor, capacity or money is being lost and work with the leadership team to make measurable improvements.

Leadership & Management Development

This role is not about one person coming in and trying to fix everything themselves.

A major responsibility will be developing the managers and supervisors underneath you so the organization becomes stronger at every level.

That includes:

• Developing managers and supervisors

• Creating clear accountability and ownership

• Strengthening the effectiveness of the leadership team

• Improving communication throughout the organization

• Establishing consistent performance expectations

• Improving employee retention and engagement

• Building training and development programs

• Supporting succession planning

• Improving cross-functional collaboration

• Creating stronger ownership and accountability within individual departments

The goal is to build a leadership team that can effectively run the operation, solve problems and continue developing the people underneath them.

Financial & Business Performance

This is a senior operations position, so we need someone who understands that operational decisions ultimately have a financial impact.

You should be comfortable understanding and improving areas such as:

• Revenue growth

• EBITDA and profitability

• Gross margin

• Operational costs

• Working capital

• Inventory management

• Labor and productivity costs

• Cost associated with scrap, rework and inefficiencies

• Capacity and resource decisions

• Supporting 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 made on the production floor ultimately impact the financial performance of the company.

Performance Measurement & Accountability

This organization wants to continue building a more measurable, accountable operation.

The Senior Director of Operations will help establish and utilize scorecards, KPIs, operational metrics and leadership measurements to understand what is working, where improvement is needed and whether initiatives are actually producing results.

We are looking for someone who uses data to make decisions but doesn't manage entirely from a spreadsheet.

You need to understand the numbers and then be able to get out into the operation, work with your people and turn those numbers into action.

The Leadership Style We’re Looking For

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 the person who gets people moving.

They can rally people around a goal, create momentum, communicate why something needs to happen and get others engaged in making it happen.

For example, if production is falling behind, quality is slipping or a new process needs to be implemented, this person isn't going to simply sit in a meeting, identify the problem and hand someone a list of action items.

They bring the right people together, explain the goal, establish ownership, get buy-in and keep everyone moving until the objective is accomplished.

That 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 ideas and plans into action.

You do not 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

• Strong senior-level manufacturing operations experience

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

• Proven experience leading and developing managers and supervisors

• Experience overseeing larger production teams and multiple operational functions

• Strong understanding of manufacturing workflow, production planning, scheduling and capacity

• Demonstrated success improving productivity, throughput, quality and delivery

• Experience reducing scrap, rework and operational costs

• Strong understanding of KPIs, scorecards and operational metrics

• Ability to connect operational performance to profitability, margins and overall business performance

• Experience building accountability throughout an organization

• Strong coaching and leadership-development skills

• Experience implementing process improvements and leading organizational change

• Ability to work cross-functionally across production, quality, maintenance, supply chain and other areas of the business

• Experience working directly with ownership or executive leadership is strongly beneficial

• Lean manufacturing, continuous improvement or similar process improvement experience is beneficial

• Experience with paint, coatings, finishing, automotive, powersports, fabrication or another quality-driven manufacturing environment is helpful, but we are equally interested in strong manufacturing leaders who can learn the operation

Who Will Do Well 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 profitability, growth, capacity, leadership development and where the company needs to go next.

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.

Most importantly, when something needs to change, you can get people moving.

If you have successfully led a manufacturing operation through growth, change, process improvement or operational challenges and enjoy building both the operation and the people within it, this could be a very strong opportunity.

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 overall company performance, leadership effectiveness, operational improvement and achievement of agreed-upon objectives.

Performance can include areas such as operational efficiency, throughput, quality, scrap and rework, capacity planning, KPI implementation, leadership development, employee retention, profitability, gross margin, operational costs, working capital, inventory management and scalable company growth.

The company is also focused on long-term growth and value creation and may consider future long-term incentive opportunities for executive leadership based on sustained performance, organizational impact, company growth and leadership alignment.

This is a direct-hire opportunity through TLS Partners.