Operations Director

The Operations Director– North America is responsible for leading, supporting, and improving operational performance across all North American manufacturing locations, including plants in the United States and Mexico. This position provides regional oversight to plant operations, drives operational excellence, ensures consistent execution of company standards, and partners closely with Plant Managers and functional leaders to achieve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and customer satisfaction objectives.

This role reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer – North America and serves as a key operational leader within the North America region. The Operations Director will be based at the North America headquarters in Troy, Michigan and must be willing and able to travel frequently to manufacturing locations throughout the United States and Mexico.

The ideal candidate will have current or prior experience as a Plant Manager in a manufacturing environment, preferably within the automotive industry, and will bring a strong combination of hands‑on plant leadership, multi‑site operational discipline, financial acumen, people leadership, and continuous improvement expertise.

Responsibilities of the Operations Director:

Regional Operations Leadership

• Provide operational leadership, guidance, and support to Plant Managers across all North American manufacturing locations.
• Ensure each plant is operating in alignment with company expectations for safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
• Partner with the COO to execute the regional operations strategy and ensure consistent deployment of business priorities across all sites.
• Monitor overall plant performance and identify risks, gaps, and opportunities requiring corrective action or leadership support.
• Promote a high-performance culture focused on accountability, urgency, teamwork, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.
• Serve as a key escalation point for significant operational issues, customer concerns, production disruptions, staffing constraints, capacity issues, and performance shortfalls.
• Support Plant Managers in developing and executing short‑term and long‑term operational plans.

Plant Performance and KPI Management

• Review and analyze key plant performance indicators, including safety, scrap, quality defects, customer complaints, on‑time delivery, labor efficiency, downtime, productivity, inventory, overtime, absenteeism, and cost performance.
• Drive consistent use of operational dashboards, plant scorecards, daily management systems, and standard reporting across all locations.
• Lead regular performance reviews with Plant Managers and regional leadership to evaluate progress against objectives.
• Identify underperforming areas and work with plant leadership to develop corrective action plans with clear ownership, timing, and measurable results.
• Ensure that plant leadership teams understand the financial and operational impact of their performance decisions.
• Support the development and achievement of annual budgets, forecasts, operational targets, and productivity goals.

Safety and Compliance

• Champion a safety‑first culture throughout all North American plants.
• Ensure plant leadership teams maintain strong safety programs, incident prevention practices, corrective actions, and compliance with company and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with EHS leadership to support safety audits, training, risk assessments, incident investigations, and corrective action follow‑up.
• Reinforce accountability for safe work practices at all levels of the organization.
• Support compliance with applicable federal, state, provincial, local, and country‑specific regulations within the United States and Mexico.

Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Delivery

• Support plant leadership in meeting internal and external quality expectations.
• Partner with Quality, Engineering, Program Management, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams to resolve customer issues and prevent recurrence.
• Ensure plants maintain strong customer focus, timely communication, and disciplined problem‑solving practices.
• Support launch readiness, production ramp‑ups, engineering changes, customer audits, and major operational transitions.
• Drive accountability for on‑time delivery, schedule adherence, production stability, and customer satisfaction.
• Help remove operational barriers impacting customer commitments.

Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence

• Lead and support continuous improvement initiatives across the North American region.
• Promote lean manufacturing principles, standard work, 5S, visual management, waste reduction, labor optimization, and disciplined problem solving.
• Identify best practices within individual plants and drive replication across the region.
• Support productivity improvement initiatives, cost reduction projects, material flow improvements, layout optimization, and efficiency improvements.
• Work with plant teams to identify root causes of recurring operational issues and implement sustainable countermeasures.
• Drive consistency in operating practices, procedures, reporting, and management routines across all North American locations.

Financial and Cost Management

• Partner with Plant Managers, Finance, and the COO to monitor plant financial performance.
• Support initiatives to improve profitability, reduce operating costs, control labor spend, reduce scrap, improve efficiency, and optimize overhead.
• Review plant budgets, forecasts, capital needs, cost reduction plans, and operational expense trends.
• Ensure plant leaders understand and actively manage financial performance drivers.
• Support business cases for capital investments, operational improvements, staffing changes, equipment needs, and facility improvements.
• Drive accountability for meeting approved financial and operational targets.

People Leadership and Organizational Development

• Provide coaching, guidance, and support to Plant Managers and plant leadership teams.
• Help strengthen leadership capability, accountability, communication, and decision‑making across the region.
• Partner with Human Resources and the COO on organizational structure, succession planning, talent development, leadership performance, and workforce planning.
• Support the identification and development of high‑potential operational leaders.
• Promote a culture of employee engagement, accountability, respect, and continuous learning.
• Assist plant leadership in addressing organizational challenges that impact performance, staffing, morale, or retention.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with regional and corporate leaders in Operations, Finance, Human Resources, EHS, Quality, Engineering, Program Management, Supply Chain, Purchasing, IT, and Commercial.
• Ensure alignment between plant operations and broader business objectives.
• Support cross‑functional problem‑solving for issues impacting production, customers, employees, cost, quality, or delivery.
• Communicate effectively with senior leadership regarding plant performance, risks, priorities, and recommended actions.
• Represent Operations in meetings, reviews, customer discussions, and internal initiatives as needed.

Mexico and United States Plant Oversight

• Provide leadership and operational support to manufacturing facilities in both the United States and Mexico.
• Understand and respect cultural, legal, labor, and business differences across the North American region.
• Promote consistency in operational expectations while adapting leadership approach to local business and workforce needs.
• Travel frequently to all assigned manufacturing locations to provide direct support, review performance, coach leadership teams, and ensure execution of regional priorities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Operations Management, Manufacturing, Industrial Technology, or a related field required.
• Current or prior experience as a Plant Manager in a manufacturing environment required.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive manufacturing operations leadership experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading plant‑level operations, with responsibility for safety, quality, delivery, cost, people, and financial performance.
• Experience supporting or overseeing multiple manufacturing sites strongly preferred.
• Automotive manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience managing operational KPIs, budgets, productivity initiatives, labor efficiency, cost reduction, and plant performance improvement.
• Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, root cause analysis, standard work, and operational excellence practices.
• Proven ability to lead through influence, coach plant leadership teams, and drive accountability across multiple locations.
• Experience working in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment with complex customer, production, quality, and delivery requirements.
• Ability to travel frequently throughout North America, including the United States and Mexico.
• Ability to work from the North America headquarters in Troy, Michigan when not traveling.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations Management, or a related field.
• Prior experience overseeing multiple plants, business units, or regional operations.
• Experience in Tier 1 or Tier 2 automotive manufacturing.
• Experience working with Mexican manufacturing operations or cross‑border business operations.
• Bilingual English/Spanish skills strongly preferred.
• Experience with union and non‑union manufacturing environments.
• Experience with launches, turnarounds, plant performance recovery, restructuring, footprint optimization, or rapid operational improvement.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience with budgets, forecasts, EBITDA, labor cost, scrap cost, productivity, and plant profitability.
• Experience using ERP systems, manufacturing reporting tools, KPI dashboards, and business intelligence tools.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
• Excellent judgment, business acumen, and decision‑making ability.
• Strong operational discipline and ability to drive results through others.
• Ability to identify performance gaps quickly and develop practical corrective action plans.
• Strong problem‑solving and root cause analysis skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to build trust and credibility with Plant Managers, senior leaders, corporate functions, and employees.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing cost drivers and plant financial performance.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities across several locations.
• High level of urgency, accountability, follow‑through, and attention to detail.
• Ability to work effectively in a multicultural and multi‑site environment.
• Comfortable spending significant time on the manufacturing floor.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands‑on operational involvement.

Travel Requirements

This position requires frequent travel to manufacturing facilities throughout North America, including plants in the United States and Mexico. Travel may be extensive based on business needs, plant performance, customer requirements, launches, audits, operational issues, and regional priorities.

Work Location

This position is based at the North America headquarters in Troy, Michigan. The Operations Director is expected to work from the Troy headquarters when not traveling to plant locations.

Reporting Relationship

This position reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer – North America.

Qualifications

Education

Required

Bachelors or better.

Experience

Required

3-5 years:

CI, Lean Manufacturing, HPPS, Six Sigma, Kaizen, cost savings, or productivity improvement initiatives

7-10 years:

Manufacturing, operations, engineering, operational excellence, or CI

Preferred

Prior experience as a plant manager, operations manager, value stream manager, or senior manufacturing leader in automotive

Equal Opportunity Employer
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