Director Operations III

Donaldson is committed to solving the world's most complex filtration challenges. Together, we make cool things. As an established technology and innovation leader, we are continuously evolving to meet the filtration needs of our changing world. Join a culture of collaboration and innovation that matters and a chance to learn, effect change, and make meaningful contributions at work and in communities.

The US Operations Director III role is a senior manufacturing leadership role with enterprise accountability for the performance, strategic direction, and operational excellence of multiple manufacturing facilities across the United States. This leader drives bestinclass outcomes across people leadership, safety, quality, delivery, and cost, while building scalable operating models that support sustained, profitable growth for the businesses served.

Serving as a key member of the operations leadership team, this role partners closely with commercial, product management, and supply chain leadership to align manufacturing capabilities with business strategy, customer expectations, and long-term growth objectives. Qualified candidates must be able to work a hybrid schedule at our Bloomington, MN office.

Role Responsibilities:

• Manufacturing Leadership: Provide strategic and operational leadership for multiple U.S. manufacturing plants, ensuring consistent execution, strong governance, and alignment to corporate objectives.

• Strategy Execution & Performance Management: Develop and lead the execution of manufacturing strategies that drive continuous improvement in operational performance, employee engagement, environmental health and safety, sustainability, quality, and supply chain effectiveness.

• Operational Excellence & Lean Transformation: Champion scalable, standardized manufacturing operating models and global lean initiatives. Ensure plants become leaders in lean manufacturing and quality systems, driving measurable improvements in productivity, throughput, and overall manufacturing effectiveness.

• Financial Stewardship: Maintain rigorous oversight of financial and operational performance to ensure achievement of profit plan expectations, including management of incremental and decremental performance. Lead cost reduction initiatives and disciplined capital investment planning.

• CrossFunctional Alignment: Partner with commercial, product management, and enterprise operations leaders to ensure manufacturing strategies support market demand, customer satisfaction, and ontime delivery performance while reducing past due shipments.

• Talent & Organizational Capability Development: Build strong leadership pipelines and operational capability through targeted employee development programs, succession planning, and cultural reinforcement of accountability and continuous improvement.

• Governance, Compliance & Risk Management: Ensure full compliance with all corporate policies, regulatory requirements, and local laws while proactively managing operational risk across all reporting plants.

• External Benchmarking & Thought Leadership: Continuously strengthen organizational capability through industry benchmarking and active participation in relevant professional and industry forums.

Travel: Up to 30%

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree

• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing operations or plant management experience

• 5+ years of senior leadership experience

• Experience overseeing and influencing performance across multiple manufacturing locations

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated success leading multisite manufacturing organizations

• Strong track record in strategic process design and enterprise deployment

• Deep expertise in Operational Excellence, including crossfunctional integration

• Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt certification

• Advanced capability in goal deployment, strategic planning, and organizational transformation

• Broad technical knowledge across manufacturing management, supply chain, and quality systems

• Proven ability to lead, influence, and align senior crossfunctional stakeholders

Annual Salary Range: $169,700 - 227,1000.

Actual salaries will vary based on several factors including, but not limited to applicable work experience, training, education, and performance.

In addition to the base salary, this position is eligible for:

• Annual incentive plan based on performance and company growth.

• Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Plan

Employee benefits are part of the competitive total rewards package that Donaldson Company, Inc. provides to you. Our comprehensive benefits program includes health benefits, retirement plan (401k), paid time away, paid leaves (including paid parental leave) and more.

Immigration Sponsorship Not Available:

• Applicants for this position must be currently and legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship (e.g., H-1B, J-1, F-1, CPT, OPT, etc.).

• Donaldson will not offer immigration sponsorship or assume sponsorship of an employment visa for this position.

• International relocation or remote work arrangements outside of the U.S. will not be considered.

Keywords: operations, director, manufacturing, strategic, senior, performance, quality, safety, collaboration

#LI-Hybrid

Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability and Veterans

Employment opportunities for positions in the United States may require use of information which is subject to the export control regulations of the United States. Hiring decisions for such positions are required by law to be made in compliance with these regulations. Applicants for employment opportunities in other countries must be able to meet the comparable export control requirements of that country and of the United States.

Donaldson Company has been made aware that there are several recruiting scams that are targeting job seekers. These scams have attempted to solicit money for job applications and/or collect confidential information, Donaldson will never solicit money during the application or recruiting process. Donaldson only accepts online applications through our Careers | Donaldson Company, Inc. website and any communication from a Donaldson recruiter would be sent using a donaldson.com email address. If you have any questions about the legitimacy of an employment opportunity, please reach out to View email address on click.appcast.io to verify that the communication is from Donaldson.

Our policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to race, gender, color, disability, national origin, age, religion, union affiliation, sexual orientation, veteran status, citizenship, gender identity and/or expression, or other status protected by law.