Director of Operations

Job Description

Job Description

Company Information

Organization Name: California Fine Wire Co.  

Website:

FLSA Status: Exempt
Prepared Date: 08/24/2026
Hiring Manager Job Title: Chief Executive Officer
Job Level: Executive
Employment Status: Full-Time Regular
Primary Location: 338 S. 4th Street Grover Beach, CA 93433

About Our Organization

California Fine Wire strives for a culture of working hard while enjoying California’s beautiful Central Coast. As a superior fine wire manufacturer that has been in business for over 60 years, we offer a wide variety of metals and alloys to meet our customers’ needs. We support the medical, electronics, semiconductor, resistance wire, and prototyping industries and pride ourselves on surpassing customers’ expectations in every phase of manufacturing.

Job Summary

The Director of Operations is responsible for leading and continuously improving all manufacturing operations to ensure the safe, efficient, and profitable production of products to meet customer requirements.

This executive leadership position is responsible for operational strategy, manufacturing performance, leadership development, continuous improvement, capacity planning, capital investment recommendations, and execution of the company's strategic objectives.

The Director of Operations develops department leaders, establishes accountability throughout the manufacturing organization, and partners with the CFO and CEO to support the long-term growth and success of the company.

Education and Experience  

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree is preferred in engineering, operational management, manufacturing, business or related field.
• Experience leading multiple manufacturing departments.
• 10+ years of experience in manufacturing leadership.
• Proficiency in ERP systems and lean manufacturing.
• Must have strong knowledge of managing capital projects.

Preferred:

• Experience with continuous improvement leadership in a manufacturing environment.
• Familiarity with lean manufacturing principles.
• Excellent problem-solving, organizational, and interpersonal skills.

Primary Job Duties  

Operational Leadership

• Provide overall leadership for all manufacturing operations.
• Develop and communicate operational goals and objectives.
• Ensure production schedules meet customer requirements.
• Balance safety, quality, delivery, productivity, and cost.
• Remove organizational barriers that impact production performance.

Capital Planning:

• Identify future equipment needs and requirements.
• Develop capital investment recommendations.
• Prepare business justifications for capital expenditures.
• Oversee equipment implementation.
• Ensure capital projects achieve expected operational results.

Leadership & People Development:

• Lead, coach, and develop department managers and supervisors.
• Conduct performance evaluations.
• Establish clear expectations and accountability.
• Develop succession plans for key operational positions.
• Mentor supervisors in leadership, communication, conflict resolution, and decision-making.
• Build a high-performing leadership team.

Strategic Planning:

• Participate in the development of the company's strategic plan.
• Develop annual operational objectives.
• Establish departmental KPIs and create accountability throughout the manufacturing organization.
• Identify opportunities for growth and operational improvement.
• Support long-term capacity planning.
• Develop manufacturing strategies supporting future business growth.

Continuous Improvement:

• Champion lean manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Remove process bottlenecks and improve workflow.
• Improve labor productivity and operational efficiency.
• Reduce manufacturing costs.
• Support automation and technology initiatives.
• Oversee the ERP system to ensure accurate data management and reporting.
• Recommend and implement improvements to operational systems and processes.

Language Skills

Must possess the ability to read and interpret documents in English such as safety rules, operating and production procedure manuals.  The candidate must have the ability to write routine reports and correspondence and should be able to speak effectively with internal customers or employees of the organization.

Mathematical Skills

The employee must have the ability to work with mathematical concepts such as percentages, angles, surface areas, ratios, proportions and volume calculations with training.

Computer Skills

Must possess computer skills to document activity in the ERP system’s text-based fields, mine for information in the ERP system, use the internet to research solutions to process problems, complete online forms and PDFs, and make basic functional use of the Microsoft Office® suite of products (Word, Excel, and Outlook at a minimum). The most successful candidate will already possess skills to effectively navigate an enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment such as XA® or SAP ®.

Physical Demands

Performing the duties of this job requires the dexterity to handle, feel and inspect fine wire.  The employee may be required to reach overhead, sit, stand, walk, and stoop. 20/20 vision with the use of corrective lenses is required.

Equal Opportunity Employer

California Fine Wire is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, drug free workplace, and complies with ADA regulations as applicable. You will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Note

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee(s) incumbent in this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the incumbents will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” relationship.