VP of Operations

VP of Operations

When you join Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Solutions, a part of the Spirax Group, you will be integrated into a cooperative and encouraging team, participate in challenging yet critical work, and experience ongoing growth opportunities to help you achieve your full potential. Visit our website to learn more.

The Vice President of Operations is a senior executive leadership role responsible for defining and executing the operations strategy for WMFTS USA. This position ensures alignment with global and divisional priorities while delivering best-in-class customer experience, operational performance, and financial outcomes.

Reporting directly to the President, the VP of Operations is a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, with accountability for shaping business strategy, driving enterprise-wide performance, and leading transformation across operations, customer service, and supply chain functions.

This role plays a critical part in enabling profitable growth through operational excellence, customer-centric execution, and scalable infrastructure, with an immediate focus on shipping backlog elimination and sustained on-time delivery performance.

Enterprise Leadership & Strategy

• Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to business strategy, growth planning, and performance management
• Define and execute the operations strategy aligned with WMFTS global and divisional priorities
• Act as a strategic partner to the President across commercial, operational, and organizational priorities
• Lead transformation initiatives to enhance scalability, agility, and customer experience

Operational Leadership

• Provide executive oversight across logistics, inventory, manufacturing/assembly, application engineering, technical services, customer service, returns/repairs, and facilities
• Drive a high-performance operating model with strong accountability, transparency, and execution discipline
• Establish and govern key performance indicators including service levels, backlog, inventory, cost, and quality

Customer Experience & Service Leadership

• Own and elevate the end-to-end customer service strategy, positioning it as a competitive differentiator
• Lead large, multi-site customer service teams to deliver a high-quality, responsive customer experience
• Define enterprise standards for order management, communication, and issue resolution
• Drive improvements in customer satisfaction, response times, and first-time resolution
• Ensure proactive and transparent communication with customers, including order status and backlog recovery
• Partner closely with Sales, Operations, and Engineering to deliver a seamless customer journey
• Leverage CRM systems and analytics to enhance visibility, forecasting, and decision-making

Shipping Backlog & Fulfillment Transformation

• Own enterprise backlog performance, ensuring both short-term stabilization and long-term improvement
• Lead cross-functional efforts to address root causes across supply chain, planning, and production
• Implement scalable processes, governance, and metrics to sustain on-time delivery performance
• Provide regular visibility and progress updates to senior leadership

Engineering & Technical Integration

• Provide leadership to application engineering and technical services teams, ensuring alignment with customer and commercial needs
• Partner with Product/Design Engineering to support manufacturability and lifecycle readiness (without direct design ownership)
• Oversee customer solution development, technical consultation, and product application support
• Lead field technical services, including installation, repair, and troubleshooting
• Drive technical capability development across internal teams, distributors, and channel partners
• Ensure consistent, high-quality technical support and customer engagement

Supply Chain, Logistics & Inventory

• Lead end-to-end supply chain strategy including logistics, warehousing, inventory, and distribution
• Optimize working capital and inventory performance while maintaining service levels
• Establish and drive S&OP and demand planning rigor
• Build scalable and resilient supply chain capabilities aligned with growth

Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence

• Champion a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence
• Lead Lean/CI initiatives to improve cost, efficiency, quality, and customer outcomes
• Leverage ERP, CRM, and data analytics to support data-driven decision-making

Returns, Repairs & Service Operations

• Transform aftermarket and service operations into a scalable, customer-focused capability
• Improve turnaround time, service quality, and reliability
• Align service model with long-term business and customer strategy

Safety, Compliance & Risk

• Own enterprise safety strategy and promote a strong safety culture across all sites
• Ensure compliance with all regulatory, health, and safety requirements
• Lead operational risk management and business continuity planning

Financial Leadership

• Own the Operations P&L, including cost management, productivity, and working capital
• Drive margin improvement through operational efficiency and service excellence
• Partner with Finance on forecasting, budgeting, and capital allocation

Organizational Leadership

• Build and lead high-performing, scalable teams across all operational functions
• Develop future leaders and succession plans aligned with WMFTS talent strategy
• Foster a culture of accountability, engagement, and performance

This is what you'll need to be successful in this role:

• Executive leadership experience across operations, customer service, technical services/application engineering, and supply chain
• Demonstrated success leading large, multi-functional, customer-facing organizations
• Strong commercial acumen, with direct or indirect customer-facing experience
• Proven ownership of P&L, including cost structure and working capital management
• Track record of leading transformation initiatives (e.g., operational scaling, service improvement, backlog recovery)
• Ability to influence and partner across executive leadership teams
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, or a related field
• Experience across Life Sciences and Process Industries environments
• Experience aligning operations strategy with commercial growth initiatives
• Strong ERP and CRM systems experience (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics or similar)
• Background in manufacturing, process, or technical product environments
• MBA or advanced degree

This position offers a salary range of USD 163,895.00 - 245,842.00 per year plus annual bonus and car allowance. Final salary offers are determined by multiple factors, including education, experience, internal equity, geographic location, and the candidate's expertise, and therefore may vary from the range listed. For roles based outside California, the applicable salary range may be lower.

At Watson-Marlow, we believe in taking care of our colleagues. We offer a generous benefits package, including:

• Robust Retirement Plan: Benefit from a 5% employer 401K contribution, plus a 50% match on up to 3% of your contributions for added financial security.
• Comprehensive and Supportive Parental Leave: Experience our inclusive, gender-neutral parental leave policy, offering 16 weeks at 100% pay. Upon your return, enjoy a gradual transition with a unique 80% work schedule while still receiving 100% of your pay for the first 6 months, ensuring a balanced reintegration into the workplace.
• Generous Time Off: Enjoy ample time off to recharge and attend to life's circumstances with generous vacation and well-being day, 9 observed holidays, 1 floating holiday day, up to 15 caregiver days, and 80 hours of annual sick leave.
• Community Engagement Opportunities: Make a difference with 3 paid volunteer days each year, encouraging you to give back to the community and causes you care about.
• And Many More Benefits: Such as an offering of 3 healthcare plans with HSA contributions along with other benefits designed to support your well-being and professional growth. We invite you to explore all the ways we strive to create a fulfilling and rewarding work environment.