Factory Worker jobs in Canada

Vice President, Manufacturing Excellence CoE (Vice President of Operations)

Automotive / Metals Manufacturing

Location: Multi-site (North America)

Travel: Approximately 50–70%

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

The Vice President, Manufacturing Excellence leads the Manufacturing Center of Excellence (CoE) and is accountable for designing, governing, and continuously improving the manufacturing operating system across a multi-plant automotive manufacturing network.

This role defines how the network operates, establishing the standards, performance frameworks, and governance required to deliver consistent results, enable scalability, and support long‑term growth. The VP ensures that manufacturing execution is disciplined, repeatable, and resilient—reducing variability while strengthening performance, cost competitiveness, and operational maturity across all sites.

While Plant Directors retain full responsibility for day‑to‑day operations, the VP maintains daily operational visibility across the network through structured reviews and escalation mechanisms. This visibility ensures that critical safety, quality, delivery, and performance issues are surfaced, understood, and addressed within a 24‑hour cycle, allowing the organization to respond quickly while reinforcing system‑based execution rather than reactive management.

The role partners closely with Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, Strategy, Digital & IT, Quality, and Finance to ensure manufacturing performance is predictable, transparent, cost‑effective, and scalable as the organization grows.

This position is a critical enabler of long‑term growth, margin expansion, and leadership development.

• Own and govern the enterprise manufacturing operating model
• Enable consistent execution across multiple plants
• Drive operational performance through systems, standards, and discipline
• Support scale without linear increases in cost or headcount

• Design, deploy, and govern a standardized manufacturing operating system across all facilities.
• Define and enforce expectations for operating cadence, performance reviews, and management routines.
• Establish enterprise standards for OEE, cost deployment, labor efficiency, and loss analysis.
• Ensure standard work and operating disciplines are implemented consistently and sustained over time.

• Lead the enterprise KPI framework and performance review structure across all plants.
• Ensure operational data is timely, comparable, and actionable.
• Drive fact‑based decision‑making and root‑cause problem solving at both plant and network levels.
• Partner with Finance to translate operational performance into financial outcomes.

• Lead and develop Plant Directors through coaching, challenge, and accountability.
• Build a strong peer network across plants to accelerate best‑practice sharing.
• Ensure leadership expectations are consistent across all sites.
• Intervene decisively in underperforming facilities with structured recovery plans.

• Set expectations for CI maturity and depth of problem‑solving.
• Ensure continuous improvement is embedded into daily operations—not treated as a standalone function.
• Shift the organization from reliance on individual workarounds toward disciplined, system‑driven execution.
• Develop leadership capability in standard work, loss analysis, and execution discipline.

• Partner with Advanced Manufacturing on manufacturability, readiness, and capacity assumptions.
• Collaborate with Digital & IT to digitize performance management and standard enforcement.
• Support new plant launches and capacity expansions through standardized playbooks.
• Contribute to long‑term footprint, capacity, and investment strategy discussions.

The ideal candidate is a system builder and enterprise leader who:

• Thinks in networks, not individual plants
• Leads senior leaders without micromanaging
• Balances operational rigor with strategic thinking
• Is financially fluent and outcome‑oriented
• Is comfortable challenging the status quo to build scalable systems

This role is intentionally designed as a future enterprise leadership pathway, with exposure to strategy, finance, and cross‑functional execution.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, or a related field required.
• MBA or advanced degree a plus.
• Equivalent experience in complex manufacturing environments will be considered in lieu of a technical degree.

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in automotive or metals manufacturing with at least 10 years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Proven experience leading multi‑site operations or enterprise‑level manufacturing functions.
• Strong command of OEE, cost deployment, structured problem‑solving, and performance systems.
• Demonstrated success improving results through governance, standardization, and leadership systems.
• Financial acumen with the ability to translate operational performance into business outcomes.

• Experience in both unionized and non‑unionized environments.
• Exposure to digital manufacturing, analytics, or Industry 4.0 initiatives.
• Bilingual (English/Spanish) a plus

• Strategic and systems‑oriented mindset
• Strong analytical and data‑driven decision‑making
• Executive presence with plant‑floor credibility
• Change leadership and transformation capability
• High emotional intelligence and relationship‑building skills
• Relentless focus on operational excellence and execution