Director, Manufacturing Operations

Director, Manufacturing Operations

Grainger Frictionless is transforming how businesses manage inventory through an innovative combination of hardware, software, computer vision, and automation. As one of Grainger's fastest-growing businesses, we're scaling rapidly and investing in the operational capabilities needed to support continued growth. We are seeking an accomplished manufacturing and operations leader to oversee our Santa Ana production operation while helping define the manufacturing model that will support the future as the business scales.

As Director of Manufacturing Operations, you will be responsible for delivering reliable, high-quality production performance today while building the systems, processes, and operating capabilities needed to scale tomorrow. This role requires a leader who can balance operational execution with long-term systems thinking, bringing together manufacturing, quality, engineering disciplines, workforce planning, and continuous improvement to support a growing business.

You will have broad influence across production operations, manufacturing strategy, quality, planning, operational excellence, compliance, organizational development, and future scalability while partnering directly with executive leadership to shape what's next.

This is an onsite position at our Santa Ana, California location.

What You'll Own

• Lead all aspects of production execution, manufacturing planning, quality, maintenance, process improvement, and operational readiness.
• Deliver efficient, and reliable manufacturing performance while driving continuous improvement across productivity, quality, throughput, and cost.
• Design and improve scalable production systems, material flow processes, labor models, standard work, and operating practices that support business growth.
• Develop manufacturing strategies that align capacity, labor, equipment, and operational resources with increasing customer demand.
• Build and institutionalize performance metrics, accountability systems, operating rhythms, and management processes that drive executional excellence.
• Lead and develop a team of managers and functional leaders while creating a culture of safety, accountability, quality, and continuous improvement.
• Identify operational constraints and implement solutions that improve scalability, efficiency, product quality, and customer outcomes.
• Evaluate when current production capabilities, equipment, facilities, or organizational structures no longer support business needs and recommend future-state solutions.
• Partner across engineering, supply chain, finance, procurement, HR, and executive leadership to drive operational and business performance.
• Help establish more mature demand planning, capacity planning, and S&OP-style processes that improve operational planning as the business scales.
• Ensure compliance with applicable manufacturing, product safety, quality, regulatory, and code requirements.
• Partner closely with Environmental Health & Safety leaders to maintain a strong culture of safety and operational compliance.

What Makes This Opportunity Unique

This role is about much more than running a manufacturing facility. You will inherit a growing operation with significant opportunity to strengthen systems, improve execution, and build long-term scalability. As the business grows, you will help define what manufacturing looks like for Grainger Frictionless in the future, influencing operating models, production capabilities, organizational design, and capacity strategies that support continued expansion.

You Have

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Operations, Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of senior manufacturing or operations leadership experience.
• Experience leading managers and other people leaders within a production environment.
• Demonstrated success leading manufacturing operations while improving productivity, quality, operational performance, and business results.
• Experience designing, improving, or scaling production systems, operating models, or manufacturing processes.
• Proven ownership of operating budgets, productivity initiatives, and cost-improvement efforts.
• Proven experience with operational transformation and scale in a complex environment.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to connect operational decisions to business outcomes.
• Preferred Qualifications:
• Experience applying Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, or related disciplines to improve production performance.
• Demonstrated ability to optimize material flow, labor productivity, quality systems, throughput, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Experience implementing standard work, performance management systems, and scalable operational processes.
• Experience with demand planning, capacity planning, S&OP, or demand-to-supply execution processes.
• Experience in high-growth manufacturing, automation, technology-enabled production, industrial products, or similarly evolving environments.

Leadership Profile

We're looking for a leader who can successfully balance strategic vision with operational execution. You build trust quickly, develop strong teams, and translate complexity into practical action. You're comfortable making decisions on the production floor while also helping executive leaders think through long-term capacity, investment, and growth strategies. You bring a systems mindset and understand how manufacturing, quality, planning, people, and process design must work together to create scalable business performance.

Why Grainger Frictionless

At Grainger Frictionless, you'll have the opportunity to shape a business that is redefining inventory management through technology, automation, and innovative physical solutions. You'll lead a critical production operation, influence strategic decisions, and help build the manufacturing capabilities, planning processes, and operational systems required for the next stage of growth. If you're passionate about building scalable operations, developing exceptional teams, and creating the systems that power future growth, we'd love to hear from you.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one's employment.