Director of Operations

Pella Corporation; Pella (IA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading manufacturing company in Iowa seeks a Director of Operations to oversee manufacturing operations across multiple locations. This role emphasizes outstanding leadership, a customer-centric approach, and continuous improvement in productivity and quality. The ideal candidate will have a bachelor's degree in business or a related field and 7-10 years of relevant experience. Key responsibilities include building a high-performance team, ensuring safety, and driving operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7-10 years of progressively responsible work experience in manufacturing operations.
• Experience managing operations across multiple manufacturing locations.

Responsibilities

• Lead operations team and execute strategic plan for operational excellence.
• Build and develop a high performance and agile team.
• Ensure team member safety as a priority.
• Drive continuous improvement and leverage automation for productivity.

Skills

Outstanding leadership skills

Customer-centric approach

Continuous improvement

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or related field

MBA preferred

Job description

This role has responsibility for manufacturing operations that include multiple manufacturing locations. The position requires outstanding leadership skills, a broad business perspective, in-depth manufacturing experience, a customer-centric approach/mentality and the ability to effectively lead a large team to deliver key performance results while focused on continuous improvement.

As the Director of Operations, this leader will drive operational excellence by establishing a high-performance team, applying the latest technology, maintaining world-class safety performance and ensuring exceptional quality and delivery performance as viewed by our customers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the operations team across multiple manufacturing plants and execute the strategic plan for operational excellence.
• Build and develop a high performance and agile team capable of facilitating rapid change driven by product enhancements, productivity improvements and capacity expansions. Additionally, work cross-functionally to ensure alignment with the corporate growth strategy.
• Ensure a culture of caring, learning and results permeates the operations team and is grounded in the company leadership competencies and shared values as defined in the “Pella Way”.
• Make team member safety a priority always. Ensure that each team member’s behavior supports an accident-free workplace and the leadership team provides training, protective equipment, tools, properly safe-guarded machinery and accountability to produce a safe environment.
• Inspire the team to take a customer-centric approach to producing high quality products and providing reliable delivery that upholds our strong brand reputation.
• Passionately drive continuous improvement throughout operations. Leverage automation, process flow and team development to increase productivity and deliver margin improvements.
• Direct the capacity planning process to proactively add capacity using predictive indicators. Establish annual KPI targets and deliver these performance objectives within the established budget guidelines while prioritizing and balancing resources.
• Serve as an Operations representative on corporate cross-functional strategic teams to provide perspective and to gain insight on how the operations team can best support broader corporate initiatives. This includes active participation on the Sales & Operations planning and Portfolio Management teams.

Directly manages 5 to 10 people. Is responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of any direct reports. Coordinates business development initiatives and activities with the Human Resources, IT and Finance functions to ensure seamless execution. Carries out management responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree required in business, or related field. MBA preferred.
• 7-10 years directly related, progressively responsible work experience.