Operations Director Jobs in Wisconsin

INTRODUCTION

This Jobot Job is hosted by: Amanda Preston
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Salary: $170,000 - $190,000 per year

A bit about us:

Highly respected manufacturer specializing in engineered stainless steel solutions for demanding industrial applications. Our work requires strong manufacturing discipline, technical precision, safety, quality, and continuous improvement across every part of the operation. As the business continues to grow, we are focused on strengthening our operating model, increasing installed capacity utilization, improving production flow, advancing automation, and building a scalable manufacturing environment that supports long-term growth.

Why join us?

This is a highly visible leadership opportunity for someone who wants to make a direct impact on the performance and future direction of a manufacturing operation. The Continuous Improvement / Operations Director will have full accountability for plant operations, including production, maintenance, EHS, production control, and continuous improvement. This person will help shape the company’s operating model, lead lean transformation, improve capacity utilization, support digital manufacturing initiatives, and drive measurable results across safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, and growth. It is a strong fit for a hands-on operations leader who enjoys being on the shop floor, building teams, improving systems, and connecting strategy to execution.

Job Details

The Continuous Improvement / Operations Director is responsible for leading and optimizing all plant operations with full accountability for continuous improvement, production, maintenance, EHS, and production control. This role drives the development and execution of operational strategies that align with the company’s financial objectives, strategic plan, annual operating plan, and long-term growth targets. This leader will partner closely with the Executive Team to establish performance metrics, operating standards, and management systems that improve operational efficiency, production capability, installed capacity utilization, and scalability. The role requires a strong manufacturing leader who can balance strategy, execution, shop-floor leadership, cost performance, safety, quality, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Operations & Performance Leadership:

- Establish, in partnership with the Executive Team, enterprise-wide quantitative and qualitative performance metrics, standards, and management systems across SQDCIG: safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, and growth.
- Own and drive Strategy Deployment and Annual Operating Plan execution, ensuring continuous improvement priorities are aligned to financial objectives, growth targets, and installed capacity utilization.
- Define and continuously improve the operating model to ensure production capability, demand planning, capacity, and business growth strategy are aligned.
- Build scalable systems that allow the organization to evaluate operational efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term manufacturing performance.

End-To-End Plant Operations Oversight:

- Provide full leadership and accountability for manufacturing, maintenance, EHS, production control, and continuous improvement functions.
- Ensure cross-functional alignment across departments and drive achievement of both departmental and enterprise-level goals.
- Lead the integration of operations with engineering, supply chain, and commercial teams to create a seamless front-to-back value stream.
- Improve process flow, production reliability, cost effectiveness, and operational responsiveness across the plant.

Production Control, Scheduling & Throughput:

- Establish governance for production control systems, including scheduling, SIOP alignment, capacity planning, and throughput optimization.
- Ensure production schedules are aligned with demand planning, available labor, equipment capacity, materials, and customer delivery commitments.
- Identify constraints within the operation and implement systems to improve flow, reduce delays, and increase schedule reliability.
- Drive accountability around production performance, lead time, on-time delivery, and resource utilization.

Installed Capacity & Asset Optimization:

- Establish a formal installed capacity model that includes labor, equipment, automation, facility constraints, and operational bottlenecks.
- Use capacity modeling, bottleneck analysis, and Theory of Constraints principles to improve asset utilization and support data-driven decision-making.
- Lead capital planning and prioritization, ensuring investments in equipment, automation, and facility expansion are tied to ROI and operational performance.
- Oversee the Total Productive Maintenance strategy to maximize uptime, extend asset life, improve equipment reliability, and reduce total cost of ownership.

EHS & Operational Risk Management:

- Own and continuously evolve the Environmental, Health & Safety strategy to ensure regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, and a proactive safety culture.
- Institutionalize and sustain 6S and behavior-based safety systems across the operation.
- Embed safety accountability at all levels of leadership and production.
- Ensure operations meet or exceed compliance requirements, including OSHA, environmental regulations, ASME, ISO/QMS standards, and applicable customer requirements.

Digital Manufacturing, MES, Automation & AI:

- Define and lead the digital manufacturing roadmap, including implementation and optimization of MES, automation systems, and AI-driven analytics.
- Ensure integration between ERP, MES, and shop-floor systems to provide real-time visibility into production performance, quality, capacity utilization, and operational constraints.
- Drive adoption of AI-enabled decision support tools, including predictive maintenance, production scheduling, and quality analytics.
- Standardize data governance, reporting structures, and KPI dashboards to support Visual Daily Management and more informed decision-making across the plant.

Continuous Improvement & Lean Transformation:

- Lead and institutionalize a Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement culture across the organization.
- Leverage 80/20 thinking, Kaizen, structured problem-solving, leader standard work, and management systems to drive sustainable improvement.
- Develop and execute a multi-year Continuous Improvement roadmap tied to measurable SQDCIG outcomes.
- Drive waste elimination across manufacturing and business processes, including reductions in rework, scrap, lead time, excess overtime, underutilized capacity, and non-value-added activity.
- Ensure improvements are sustained through standard work, leader standard work, visual management, and clear accountability.

Quality & Operational Excellence:

- Ensure adherence to the Quality Management System and continuously evaluate business processes to improve first-pass yield and overall product quality.
- Establish and monitor plant-level performance against quality, delivery, and cost standards.
- Drive root cause problem-solving and systemic corrective actions to eliminate recurring operational and quality issues.
- Partner with Quality, Engineering, and Production teams to improve process reliability, product consistency, and customer satisfaction.

Financial & Cost Leadership:

- Own operational budgeting, cost of sales, and cost performance across manufacturing operations.
- Implement disciplined cost control systems across labor, materials, capital, overhead, and operational spending.
- Lead value engineering, productivity improvement, capacity utilization, and margin expansion initiatives.
- Identify and eliminate inefficiencies such as excess overtime, production rework, underutilized capacity, poor process flow, and avoidable downtime.
- Lead enterprise-wide continuous improvement initiatives focused on driving operational efficiency, reducing waste, improving quality, and increasing productivity across manufacturing and business functions.
- Own departmental budgeting and financial performance, including cost analysis, capital expenditure planning, KPI tracking, and ensuring continuous improvement projects achieve targeted financial and operational outcomes.

People Leadership & Organizational Development:

- Build and lead a high-performing operations team, including selection, development, coaching, performance management, and succession planning of key leaders.
- Establish training systems aligned with operational excellence, ensuring workforce capability supports automation, quality, production, safety, and continuous improvement objectives.
- Drive a culture of accountability, engagement, problem-solving, and continuous learning across all levels of the organization.
- Maintain strong leadership presence on the shop floor through GEMBA activity, coaching, follow-up, and reinforcement of standards.

Customer & Stakeholder Integration:

- Serve as a key operational liaison between internal teams and external stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and business partners.
- Improve customer satisfaction through stronger process reliability, on-time delivery, quality performance, and lead-time execution.
- Ensure operations are aligned to meet evolving customer requirements, product complexity, delivery expectations, and growth needs.

Governance, Communication & Change Leadership:

- Lead enterprise-level change management initiatives, ensuring structured deployment, communication, and adoption across the organization.
- Clearly communicate strategic direction, operational changes, performance expectations, and accountability measures to all levels of the business.
- Establish an operational review cadence across daily, weekly, and monthly meetings to monitor KPIs, identify issues, and drive timely action.
- Use visual management and consistent operating rhythms to improve communication, transparency, and execution discipline.

Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 15+ years of progressive director-level, plant leadership, general management, or operations leadership experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Master’s degree preferred.
- Proven track record leading manufacturing operations at an executive or senior plant leadership level.
- Experience leading production, maintenance, EHS, production control, continuous improvement, and cross-functional operational teams.
- Strong background in lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, 80/20, Kaizen, structured problem-solving, and operational management systems.
- Experience with capacity planning, production control, scheduling, SIOP alignment, throughput optimization, and asset utilization.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, internet-based tools, MRP systems, and related business systems.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, set priorities, solve problems, meet deadlines, and stay within budget.
- Strong decision-making, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills.
- Experience in welding, automation, and/or the trucking industry strongly preferred.
- Experience with MES, automation, AI-enabled analytics, ERP integration, or digital manufacturing initiatives is highly valuable.
- Demonstrated experience leading continuous improvement initiatives while maintaining ownership of departmental budgets, cost controls, capital planning, and financial performance metrics to ensure operational improvements deliver measurable business results.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a senior manufacturing operations leader who can own the full plant operating model while also driving continuous improvement and long-term scalability. This person should be comfortable leading from the floor, building accountability through GEMBA, strengthening production control, improving throughput, and creating a culture focused on safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, and growth. This is not just a traditional plant operations role. The right person should be able to connect operational strategy with execution, build capacity models, improve asset utilization, lead TPM, drive lean transformation, and support the implementation of digital manufacturing tools such as MES, automation, AI-driven analytics, real-time KPI dashboards, and Visual Daily Management. They should be equally comfortable discussing cost of sales and capital planning with executives as they are working with supervisors and operators to solve problems on the shop floor.

Physical Requirements & Safety

This role requires the ability to work in a manufacturing environment, including exposure to heat, humidity, fumes, airborne particles, loud noise, weather conditions, and potentially toxic or caustic chemicals. The employee must be able to communicate effectively and may be required to operate manual and power tools. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to use hands, handle materials, reach with hands and arms, and may occasionally be required to stand, walk, sit, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must occasionally lift or move up to 50 pounds.

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