Director of Operations

ALAC HR Solutions; Lancaster (Lancaster County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ALAC HR Solutions represents a 100% employee-owned manufacturer seeking an operations leader to build discipline, speed, and scalability without sacrificing quality.

The role focuses on turning reactive execution into proactive operations, leading Lean initiatives, and translating strategy into actionable performance metrics for senior leaders.

Qualifications

• Proven operations leadership in a technical manufacturing environment (low-volume, high-mix, regulated).
• Track record of improving manufacturing performance with data-driven results.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing KPIs, Lean, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to operate on the manufacturing floor and with executive leadership.

Responsibilities

• Turn reactive execution into proactive operations through standards and daily operating discipline.
• Increase speed and productivity without sacrificing quality in a complex, low-volume environment.
• Use KPIs to drive safety, quality, delivery, productivity, labor, and financial performance.
• Lead change from the floor, developing managers and frontline leaders while driving Lean.
• Translate strategy into execution with visibility into performance, risks, priorities, and corrective actions.

Skills

Operations leadership

Lean / CI

KPIs & metrics

Executive communication

Job description

If you've ever walked into a technically complex manufacturing operation, seen the gap between what it is and what it could become, and wanted the authority to help close it, this is that kind of role.

We're representing a 100% employee-owned manufacturer supporting mission-critical defense programs. The business has a clear growth vision, and this leader will help build the operating discipline, speed, and scalability required to get there without compromising quality.

What You'll Take On

• Turn reactive execution into proactive operations through stronger standards, accountability, and daily operating discipline.
• Increase speed and productivity without sacrificing quality in a complex, low-volume, high-variety manufacturing environment.
• Use the numbers to drive the business, including safety, quality, delivery, productivity, labor, and financial performance.
• Lead change from the floor, developing managers and frontline leaders while personally driving Lean and continuous improvement.
• Translate strategy into execution, giving senior leadership clear visibility into performance, risks, priorities, and corrective actions.

What You'll Need to Bring

• Proven operations leadership in a technical manufacturing environment, ideally low-volume, high-mix, regulated, or highly engineered.
• A track record of personally improving manufacturing performance, with the ability to explain what changed, how you changed it, and what the data showed.
• Strong command of manufacturing KPIs, Lean, continuous improvement, and operational business drivers.
• The ability to operate equally well on the manufacturing floor and with executive leadership.

Strong Plus

• Aerospace, defense, or government-contract manufacturing.
• Electronics or electromechanical assembly and test.
• AS9100, IPC-A-610, or comparable regulated quality environments.

Electronics, electromechanical manufacturing, industrial equipment, electrical systems, medical devices, pharmaceutical, and other technically complex or regulated manufacturing environments.

The common thread is experience leading an operation where engineering, quality, materials, people, delivery, and measurable performance all matter.

Please do not apply if your operations leadership experience is primarily in:

Retail or non-manufacturing operations, food manufacturing, apparel manufacturing, or extremely high-volume commodity production where highly automated repetitive manufacturing is the core operating model.

Those environments are simply too far removed from the low-volume, technically complex assembly and test environment involved here.

If the challenge of building a better operation is more interesting to you than maintaining a finished one, it's worth a conversation.