Vice President Operations

HIRE STANDARD; Lebanon (Lebanon County); On-site; USD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

HIRE STANDARD is seeking a Vice President of Manufacturing Operations to lead all manufacturing activities across the organization, delivering safe, high-quality, cost-efficient production while building a standardized operating system that scales profitability.

The role bridges enterprise strategy and plant execution, partnering with Maintenance, CI, Supply Chain, Food Safety & Quality, Finance and HR to create a reliable manufacturing platform, develop leaders, improve equipment reliability,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or related field.
• 15+ years progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• 5+ years leading multi-site manufacturing operations.
• Food manufacturing experience.
• Strong Lean Manufacturing background.
• Experience with Continuous Improvement systems.
• Demonstrated success improving operational performance.
• Ability to demonstrate strategic thinking, systems thinking, and data-based decision making.

Responsibilities

• Lead manufacturing operations across all facilities, embedding accountability and excellence.
• Drive consistent operating standards across locations.
• Ensure disciplined daily management systems.
• Develop high-performing plant leadership teams.
• Improve equipment uptime, asset utilization, and manufacturing performance.
• Promote a culture where reliability is core to the business.

Skills

Six Sigma Black Belt

Lean Certification

TPM/RCM knowledge

CMMS implementation

M&A/Private Equity experience

Bilingual English/Spanish

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or related field

Tools

CMMS platforms

Job description

The Vice President of Manufacturing Operations is responsible for leading all manufacturing operations across the organization to deliver safe, high-quality, cost-effective, and reliable production while building a standardized operating system capable of delivering profitable growth and long-term value creation.

About the Role

This role exists to bridge enterprise strategy and plant execution by ensuring that operational standards, leadership expectations, maintenance systems, and continuous improvement practices are consistently implemented across all manufacturing locations. This role provides direct leadership to operations manager and partners closely with Maintenance, Continuous Improvement, Supply Chain, Food Safety & Quality, Finance and Human Resources to build a safe, reliable, and scalable manufacturing platform. The primary focus of this role is leadership development, improving equipment reliability, strengthening systems, increasing manufacturing discipline, and maximizing uptime, productivity, and profitability.

Responsibilities

• Manufacturing Leadership:
• Lead manufacturing operations across all facilities, embedding a culture of accountability, ownership, and excellence in execution.
• Drive consistent operating standards across all locations.
• Ensure disciplined daily management systems.
• Develop high-performing plant leadership teams.
• Maintenance & Asset Reliability:
• Develop a strategic partnership with the Director of Maintenance to improve equipment uptime, asset utilization, and manufacturing performance.
• Champion reliability as a core business strategy rather than simply a maintenance function.
• Promote a culture where operators own basic equipment care and maintenance teams focus on reliability and precision.
• Establish enterprise maintenance standards across all facilities.
• Improve maintenance planning and scheduling including project and contractor management.
• Promote maintenance KPI visibility.
• Support spare parts optimization.
• Drive cross-functional prioritization of capital improvements based on reliability data, production constraints, food safety, and return on investment.
• Lead the transition from reactive maintenance to a planned, preventive, and predictive maintenance culture.
• Utilize CMMS and RedZone analytics to prioritize reliability improvements.
• Operational Excellence & Performance Management:
• Improve manufacturing flow and line balance.
• Eliminate chronic sources of downtime through structured problem solving.
• Conduct regularly scheduled operational reviews with plant leadership regarding: Safety, Quality, Service, Cost, Productivity, Labor Efficiency, Yield, Waste, Downtime, OEE.
• Lead implementation and sustainment of: Daily Management System, Leader Standard Work, Standard Work, Visual Management, Root Cause Problem Solving, Waste Reduction, OEE Improvement, Throughput Improvement.
• Ensure corrective actions are implemented and sustained.
• Leadership Development:
• Create a culture where leaders develop leaders.
• Establish clear expectations for Operations Managers, through coaching, performance management, and leadership development.
• Building succession plans by identifying high-potential employees.
• Develop frontline supervisors.
• Promote a culture where CI becomes "how we run the business."
• Partner with the Continuous Improvement Leader to prioritize improvement opportunities, remove barriers, lead kaizen events, and improve RedZone utilization.
• Ensure sustainability of improvements.
• Partner with functional leaders on manufacturing standardization to balance enterprise consistency with appropriate site flexibility.
• Partner with Food Safety & Quality leadership to maintain regulatory compliance, drive FSQA excellence, support audit-readiness and ensure food safety remains non-negotiable.
• Understand financial drivers, communicate operational impacts, and own manufacturing performance relative to EBITDA.
• Partner with Finance to identify opportunities for cost reduction and margin improvement.
• Drive disciplined use of systems and data (ERP, RedZone, MaintainX, Production Dashboards) for decision making, not just result reporting.
• Ensure enterprise alignment through cross-functional leadership collaboration with supply chain.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or related field.
• 15+ years progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• Minimum 5 years leading multi-site manufacturing operations.
• Food manufacturing experience.
• Strong Lean Manufacturing background.
• Experience with Continuous Improvement systems.
• Demonstrated success improving operational performance.
• Ability to demonstrate strategic thinking, systems thinking, and data-based decision making.

Required Skills

• Six Sigma Black Belt or other Lean Certification.
• TPM / RCM knowledge.
• CMMS Platform implementation.
• Private Equity experience and/or experience with M&A.
• Multi-site frozen food manufacturing experience.
• Bilingual (English/Spanish) is a plus for supporting diverse teams across locations.

Pay range and compensation package

Details regarding pay range or salary or compensation will be provided during the interview process.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are committed to diversity and inclusivity in our hiring practices and encourage all qualified candidates to apply.