Director of Operations - Industrial Automation Group

DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS

Position Summary

The Director, Operations is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of IAG's operating locations, providing leadership through a regional management structure and ensuring consistent execution across the national operations network.

This position leads Regional Operations Managers and works through regional and site leadership teams to drive safety, quality, customer service, productivity, cost management, operational discipline, and continuous improvement across all Industrial Automation Group locations.

The Director is accountable for establishing consistent operating expectations while recognizing the unique requirements of individual markets, customers, and facilities. This leader will develop scalable operating practices, strengthen leadership capability, improve visibility through meaningful performance metrics, and ensure resources and capacity are aligned with current and future business requirements.

The successful candidate will combine strong multi-site operational leadership with the ability to develop leaders, standardize processes, drive accountability, and translate business strategy into consistent execution across a geographically dispersed organization.

Essential Functions

Operations Leadership

• Provide strategic and operational leadership across all assigned operating locations.
• Lead Regional Operations Managers and establish clear accountability for regional and site-level performance.
• Translate organizational strategy and business objectives into measurable operational priorities.
• Establish consistent operating expectations across regions while allowing appropriate flexibility for customer, market, and facility requirements.
• Develop and maintain an effective operating cadence that provides visibility into performance, priorities, risks, and required actions.
• Ensure regional and site leadership teams have the resources, tools, processes, and organizational support necessary to execute effectively.
• Serve as the senior operations escalation point for significant performance, customer, staffing, safety, quality, or operational issues.

Regional and Site Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop Regional Operations Managers responsible for geographically dispersed operating locations.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and performance expectations across the regional and site leadership structure.
• Ensure Regional Managers effectively lead and develop site-level operational leadership and support teams.
• Conduct regular regional and site business reviews focused on performance, priorities, risks, and corrective actions.
• Maintain appropriate visibility and presence across operating locations through regular site visits and leadership engagement.
• Identify leadership capability gaps and develop appropriate succession, development, or recruiting strategies.
• Promote effective communication and collaboration between regional leaders, site teams, and corporate functions.

Operational Performance and Accountability

• Establish and monitor key operational performance indicators across locations.
• Drive consistent accountability for safety, quality, service, productivity, labor efficiency, cost, inventory, and other established operational measures.
• Develop performance scorecards and management routines that provide visibility from the site level through regional and national operations leadership.
• Identify performance trends, operational risks, and opportunities requiring intervention.
• Ensure appropriate corrective actions are established for locations or regions performing below expectations.
• Share and scale successful practices across regions and operating locations.
• Partner with Finance to understand operating performance, cost drivers, variances, and opportunities for improvement.

Safety and Risk Management

• Establish a strong safety culture across all operating locations.
• Ensure Regional Managers and site leaders maintain consistent accountability for safe work practices and regulatory compliance.
• Partner with Environmental, Health and Safety and other appropriate functions to improve safety performance and reduce operational risk.
• Promote proactive safety practices, including leadership visibility, GEMBA walks, MDI reviews, hazard identification, corrective actions, and associate engagement.
• Monitor safety trends and ensure timely response to incidents, near misses, and emerging risks.
• Drive increased awareness and accountability related to material handling equipment, forklift operations, facility conditions, and other significant operational exposures.
• Ensure operational leaders understand and execute their responsibilities related to applicable company policies and regulatory requirements.

Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence

• Develop and execute an operational excellence strategy across the network.
• Identify opportunities to standardize processes, reduce variation, eliminate waste, improve productivity, and strengthen customer service.
• Establish scalable operating practices that can be implemented across multiple regions and locations.
• Promote continuous improvement methodologies and problem-solving disciplines throughout the operations organization.
• Partner with regional and site leadership to identify root causes of performance gaps and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Develop mechanisms for sharing best practices and operational improvements across the network.
• Evaluate workflows, facility layouts, technology, equipment, and processes to identify opportunities for greater efficiency and scalability.

Customer Service and Operational Execution

• Ensure operational teams consistently meet established customer service and delivery expectations.
• Partner with Commercial leadership to align operational capabilities with customer commitments and growth strategies.
• Address significant operational issues that impact customers, service levels, or strategic relationships.
• Ensure new customer requirements and commercial opportunities are appropriately evaluated for operational feasibility, capacity, and resource needs.
• Balance customer responsiveness with operational discipline, cost management, and sustainable execution.
• Develop processes that improve communication and handoffs between Commercial and Operations teams.

Capacity, Labor and Resource Planning

• Develop a consistent approach to capacity and resource planning across operations.
• Evaluate labor requirements, productivity, utilization, facility capacity, equipment, and other operational resources.
• Partner with Regional Managers to align staffing levels with business demand and productivity expectations.
• Ensure requests for additional or replacement resources are supported by appropriate operational and financial data.
• Identify opportunities to redeploy resources, improve utilization, or modify operating models before adding incremental cost.
• Partner with Human Resources on workforce planning, organizational design, talent acquisition, retention, and succession.
• Support evaluation of temporary, permanent, outsourced, and other workforce models based on business requirements.

Financial and Cost Management

• Partner with Finance and regional leadership to establish operating budgets and performance expectations.
• Maintain accountability for controllable operating expenses across assigned locations.
• Monitor labor costs, overtime, productivity, facility expenses, freight, inventory-related costs, and other significant operating expenses.
• Identify and execute cost-improvement opportunities without compromising safety, quality, or customer service.
• Review significant operating variances and ensure corrective actions are developed and executed.
• Evaluate capital and operating investment requests based on business need, financial return, capacity, risk, and strategic alignment.
• Support annual budgeting, forecasting, and long-range operational planning.

Quality and Process Discipline

• Establish consistent expectations for operational quality across the operations network.
• Ensure operating locations maintain appropriate processes, documentation, controls, and accountability.
• Partner with Quality and other functional leaders to address systemic issues and implement corrective actions.
• Monitor quality trends, customer complaints, rework, errors, and other indicators of operational effectiveness.
• Promote root-cause analysis and sustainable corrective action rather than short-term resolution.
• Drive greater consistency in operational processes and controls across locations.

Organizational and Talent Development

• Build a strong operations leadership pipeline across regional and site-level roles.
• Assess organizational capabilities against current and future business requirements.
• Develop Regional Managers and other key operational leaders through coaching, feedback, exposure, and formal development planning.
• Identify high-potential talent and establish meaningful succession plans for critical operations positions.
• Partner with Human Resources to address performance, organizational effectiveness, engagement, retention, and leadership-development needs.
• Establish expectations for leadership presence, associate communication, accountability, and engagement.
• Support recruiting and selection of critical regional and site operations leadership positions.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Commercial, Supply Chain, Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Safety, Quality, and executive leadership.
• Ensure operational priorities remain aligned with overall business strategy and customer requirements.
• Participate in strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, organizational planning, and business reviews.
• Provide executive leadership with clear visibility into operational performance, risks, capacity, talent, investment requirements, and improvement initiatives.
• Lead or participate in significant cross-functional initiatives affecting multiple locations.
• Support integration of acquisitions, new locations, consolidations, expansions, or other changes to the operating network as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Operations Management, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Seven (7) or more years of progressive operations leadership experience within industrial distribution, manufacturing, industrial automation, supply chain, or a related environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading multi-site operations across a geographically dispersed organization.
• Experience leading leaders, including Regional Managers, District Managers, multi-site leaders, or equivalent positions.
• Demonstrated success improving operational performance across safety, quality, service, productivity, and cost.
• Strong financial and business acumen with experience managing operating budgets, labor costs, productivity, and financial performance.
• Demonstrated experience with continuous improvement, operational excellence, and process standardization.
• Strong organizational leadership, coaching, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
• Ability to influence effectively across functions and levels of the organization.
• Ability and willingness to travel extensively throughout the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within industrial automation or industrial distribution.
• Experience leading a large network of distribution, assembly, value-add, warehouse, service, or manufacturing operations.
• Experience with Lean, continuous improvement, daily management, GEMBA, MDI, or similar operational excellence methodologies.
• Experience leading operations through significant growth, transformation, restructuring, or integration.
• Experience developing regional management structures within decentralized or multi-location organizations.
• Experience with ERP, warehouse, inventory, and operational performance-management systems.
• Experience supporting acquisition integration, site consolidation, new-site development, or operational network optimization.

Key Performance Indicators

• Safety performance
• Quality performance
• On-time delivery and customer service
• Labor productivity and efficiency
• Operating expense performance
• Overtime and labor utilization
• Inventory accuracy and management
• Operational capacity and utilization
• Regional and site performance against established targets
• Continuous improvement results and cost savings
• Corrective-action execution
• Associate retention and engagement
• Regional and site leadership development
• Succession-plan strength
• Standard operating process adoption
• Customer-impacting operational issues
• Budget and forecast performance

Decision-Making Authority

The Director, Operations is expected to exercise sound business and operational judgment and make decisions within established company policies and approved parameters.

The position has authority to establish operational priorities, performance expectations, management routines, regional accountability, improvement initiatives, and resource recommendations across assigned operations.

The Director may recommend changes to organizational structure, staffing, regional alignment, operating processes, facilities, equipment, and other resources necessary to improve operational performance.

Decisions involving significant