Cushman & Wakefield

Director of Operations

Cushman & Wakefield$161K — $190K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • BA/BS in Business Management, Engineering, Industrial Technology, or related field preferred.
  • 10+ years in industrial maintenance, manufacturing, distribution, or automation.
  • 7+ years of multi-site management experience in large-scale operations, preferably with Amazon.
  • Strong understanding of conveyors, robotics, PLCs, and maintenance systems.
  • Experience managing geographically dispersed teams.

Responsibilities

  • Manage day-to-day industrial maintenance operations across multiple facilities.
  • Drive performance in PM/PdM programs and ensure reliability of automation equipment.
  • Conduct technical assessments and audits to evaluate maintenance execution.
  • Standardize work processes and safety procedures across all sites.
  • Oversee operational readiness for new site start-ups and expansions.
  • Stay updated on emerging technologies and cascade information to teams.
  • Build strong relationships with engineering and operations partners.

Benefits

  • Health, vision, and dental insurance.
  • Flexible spending and health savings accounts.
  • Retirement savings plans.
  • Life and disability insurance programs.
  • Paid and unpaid time off.
Full Job Description
Job Title
Director of Operations

Job Description Summary
The Director of Operations is responsible for leading and overseeing all facilities services across multiple client accounts within an assigned region. This role ensures operational excellence through effective staffing, quality assurance, financial management, safety leadership, and customer relationship management.

The Director partners closely with Operations, Account, and Area Managers to implement standardized processes, drive service quality, support business development, and ensure successful account start-ups and transitions. The position also carries significant responsibility for budget performance, workforce planning, talent development, union compliance, and safety programs. Success in this role requires strong leadership, financial acumen, industry expertise, and the ability to build trusted relationships with clients and internal stakeholders while delivering consistent, high-quality facilities services.Job Description

Travel: 30-40% across the Midwest and Eastern regions

The Director of Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for C&W Services' industrial maintenance program supporting client facilities across the United States. This role oversees multi-site teams responsible for the maintenance, repair, and reliability of conveyors, robotics, and automated material handling equipment (MHE) in fast-paced manufacturing and fulfillment environments. This leader ensures standardized maintenance processes, strong safety performance, reliable uptime, and best-in-class service delivery across all assigned sites.

Responsibilities

Operational Leadership
  • Manage and oversee day-to-day industrial maintenance operations across multiple fulfillment and sortation facilities.
  • Ensure high performance in PM/PdM programs, conveyor and robotics maintenance, troubleshooting, and automation reliability.
  • Conduct regular onsite visits, technical assessments, and audits to evaluate maintenance execution, uptime performance, and technician skill levels.
  • Ensure consistent use of standardized work processes, CMMS/EAM systems, safety procedures, and maintenance playbooks across all sites.
  • Lead operational readiness for new site start-ups, transitions, and expansions-including staffing, onboarding, equipment readiness, and process implementation.
  • Remain current on emerging technologies within automation, controls, robotics, and industrial maintenance practices; cascade updates to the field teams.
  • Maintain strong relationships with onsite engineering, operations, and reliability partners to ensure alignment on goals and expectations.


Business Leadership & Client Management
  • Serve as the senior point of contact for all operational and service delivery discussions with leadership.
  • Maintain high client satisfaction by delivering reliable service, transparent reporting, and responsive issue resolution.
  • Partner with Business Development on renewals, expansions, and special project opportunities within the network.
  • Collaborate with regional and national leadership to align operational strategies with account-wide goals.


Financial Management
  • Manage multi-site budgets, including labor, materials, spare parts, contracts, and vendor services.
  • Monitor operational KPIs such as uptime, downtime reduction, PM compliance, technician productivity, and cost-per-unit.
  • Utilize dashboards, CMMS data, and monthly financial reviews to ensure performance targets are achieved.
  • Oversee purchasing and inventory processes to ensure proper controls and cost efficiency.
  • Maintain strong oversight of receivables, labor management, overtime, and cost-containment initiatives.


People Leadership
  • Lead a team of Maintenance Managers, Senior Maintenance Managers, Area Managers, and Reliability leaders across the network.
  • Oversee recruiting, selection, and onboarding of exempt and non-exempt maintenance and technical staff.
  • Develop succession plans, career paths, and training programs for field teams across multiple skill levels (robotics techs, controls techs, maintenance managers, etc.).
  • Coach and mentor leaders to build strong operational bench strength and technical capability.
  • Support employee relations, performance management, and (where applicable) union-related processes.
  • Ensure all technicians receive required safety, technical, and CMMS training.


Safety Leadership
  • Champion a culture of safety within all facilities under your oversight.
  • Ensure implementation and continuous improvement of safety programs, hazard reporting, LOTO procedures, JSAs, and compliance activities.
  • Oversee incident management, root cause analysis, and corrective actions in partnership with HSSE and Risk teams.
  • Track safety KPIs and ensure operational leaders are consistently coaching and reinforcing safe behaviors.


Other Duties
  • Complete special projects or directives from senior leadership.
  • Support operational excellence initiatives and cross-functional projects across the broader C&W Services network.


Position Requirements

Education & Experience
  • BA/BS degree in Business Management, Engineering, Industrial Technology, or related field preferred.
  • 10+ years of experience in industrial maintenance, manufacturing, distribution, automation, or facilities engineering.
  • 7+ years of multi-site management experience leading maintenance, MHE, or robotics operations in large-scale environments (Amazon experience strongly preferred).
  • Strong understanding of conveyors, robotics, PLCs, mechanical/electrical systems, and preventive/predictive maintenance.
  • Experience managing large, geographically dispersed teams.


Skills & Competencies
  • Strong leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to drive uptime improvements and operational efficiencies.
  • Proficient in CMMS/EAM systems, maintenance scheduling, technical reporting, and KPI dashboards.
  • Strong customer service orientation and client partnership capabilities.
  • Financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, and cost management.
  • Ability to travel 30-40% nationally to fulfillment facilities


Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate's experience and qualifications.

The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role.

The compensation for the position is: $ 161,500.00 - $190,000.00

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield plc is a global commercial real estate services firm. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. Cushman & Wakefield is among the world's largest commercial real estate services firms, with revenues of US$9.4 billion in 2021. The company operates from approximately 400 offices in 60 countries, has around 50,000 employees and manages about 4,100 million sq ft of commercial space. It is one of the "Big Three" commercial real estate services companies, alongside CBRE and JLL.
Learn more about Cushman & Wakefield
Size
50,000 employees
Market Cap
$2.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$220.5 million
Founded
1917
5 Year Trend
+8.6%
Revenue
$7.8 billion
NASDAQ

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