Director of Repair & Assembly Department: Repair & Service
Reports To: Vice President of Operations
Scope: Repair and Assembly Department
Classification: Exempt
Position Level: Director / Senior Leadership
Position SummaryThe Director of Repair & Service is responsible for the overall leadership, growth, profitability, and operational performance of the Company's industrial gearbox, gear, and rotating equipment repair business across two operations: Cleveland-West location and Cleveland Main Plant Location.
The Director will operate the two locations as one coordinated Repair & Service business, providing leadership and accountability for safety, quality, bookings, revenue, gross margin (GM), repair cycle time, on-time delivery (OTD), scheduling, customer responsiveness, and overall business performance.
This position owns the repair process from initial customer inquiry and equipment receipt through teardown, inspection, engineering evaluation, quotation, scheduling, procurement, machining, assembly, testing, and final delivery.
The Director will maintain a particularly close working relationship with the Engineering and Direct Sales teams, ensuring customer opportunities are evaluated quickly, technically sound repair solutions are developed, quotations are competitive and profitable, and customer commitments are effectively communicated and executed.
The position requires a strong sense of urgency and customer focus. Industrial repair requirements frequently involve equipment breakdowns, outages, and other time-critical situations. The Director must have the ability and authority to coordinate resources across both operations, including scheduling off-hours, overtime, weekends, and other alternative work schedules when necessary to support emergency and rush repair requirements.
Overall Position ObjectiveThe Director of Repair & Assembly will build and lead a highly performing Repair & Service business operating through two specialized locations.
The Director is expected to drive both commercial growth and operational execution, with accountability for Gross Margin, Repair Cycle Time, On-Time Delivery, and Customer Responsiveness.
The position will create a strong operating connection between Direct Sales, Engineering, and Repair Operations, ensuring that customer opportunities move quickly from inquiry to technical solution, quotation, authorization, repair, and delivery.
When customers experience critical equipment failures, the Repair & Assembly organization must be capable of responding with urgency. The Director will have responsibility for mobilizing the appropriate people, engineering support, machine capacity, and off-hours resources necessary to execute rush and emergency repairs while maintaining safety, quality, and profitability.
The ultimate objective is to establish the Company as a preferred industrial gearbox and gear repair partner known for technical expertise, responsiveness, reliable delivery, and the ability to solve difficult customer problems.
Repair and Assembly Department Leadership- Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for both the Cleveland-West location and Cleveland Main Plant Location.
- Operate both locations as one coordinated Repair & Service organization with common goals, processes, and performance expectations.
- Maintain visibility of repair backlog, workload, capacity, staffing, and machine availability across both locations.
- Determine the appropriate location for repair work based on equipment size, technical requirements, available capacity, customer requirements, and required delivery.
- Balance workload and resources between locations to optimize repair cycle time, OTD, utilization, and gross margin.
- Establish clear accountability for site leadership, supervisors, engineering resources, and other employees supporting the repair business.
- Conduct regular operating reviews covering safety, quality, bookings, backlog, scheduling, repair time, OTD, GM, customer issues, and resource requirements.
- Identify staffing, equipment, tooling, and capital requirements necessary to improve capacity and support continued growth.
Repair Scheduling, Cycle Time & On-Time DeliveryThe Director will have direct accountability for improving repair cycle time and on-time delivery across both locations.
Responsibilities include:
- Maintain an accurate and prioritized master repair schedule across both locations.
- Establish realistic customer delivery commitments based on scope, capacity, material availability, engineering requirements, and manufacturing requirements.
- Track each repair through the complete process and identify potential delays before they affect customer commitments.
- Establish expected cycle times for teardown, inspection, engineering, quotation, material procurement, manufacturing, assembly, testing, and shipment.
- Identify bottlenecks and work directly with Manufacturing and Engineering to remove obstacles affecting repair schedules.
- Drive improvement in OTD and establish recovery plans for jobs at risk of missing committed dates.
- Ensure customer delivery commitments are clearly communicated internally and that changes are escalated quickly.
- Establish appropriate scheduling practices for rush, emergency, and outage-related repairs.
- Coordinate off-hours, overtime, weekend, and alternative work schedules when required to meet critical customer needs.
- Work with site leadership to ensure appropriate staffing and technical resources are available to support emergency repairs.
- Maintain appropriate controls so expedited work remains safe, technically sound, and financially responsible.
Direct Sales & Customer PartnershipThe Director will maintain a close and continuous working relationship with the Direct Sales team to grow the Repair & Assembly business.
Responsibilities include:
- Partner with Direct Sales to develop existing accounts and identify new gearbox and gear repair opportunities.
- Participate in customer visits, plant walk-throughs, equipment inspections, outage planning, and technical sales presentations.
- Serve as a senior technical and operational resource during significant repair opportunities.
- Assist Sales in developing repair strategies that differentiate the Company based on technical capability, responsiveness, quality, and lead time.
- Maintain visibility of the repair pipeline and expected bookings.
- Participate in regular Sales/Repair pipeline reviews.
- Ensure Sales has accurate information regarding capabilities, capacity, lead times, and repair status.
- Support customer communication involving major repairs, schedule changes, technical findings, and emergency requirements.
- Develop opportunities for preferred repair agreements, planned maintenance, recurring service, field service, and emergency support.
- Review lost opportunities with Sales to understand issues involving price, lead time, technical capability, responsiveness, or competition.
Engineering and Application Engineering PartnershipThe Director will work closely with Engineering throughout the repair process to ensure repairs are technically sound while meeting customer cost and delivery requirements.
Responsibilities include:
- Establish Engineering and Application Engineering priorities based on customer requirements and repair schedules.
- Ensure Engineering and Application Engineering is engaged early in complex repair evaluations.
- Coordinate technical evaluations involving gears, shafts, bearings, housings, lubrication systems, and other gearbox components.
- Support failure analysis and root-cause investigations.
- Work with Engineering and Application Engineering to determine appropriate repair, recondition, redesign, upgrade, or replacement solutions.
- Coordinate reverse engineering of obsolete or unavailable components.
- Review engineering requirements that could impact on cost, manufacturing lead time, or customer delivery.
- Establish appropriate turnaround expectations for drawings, technical reviews, specifications, and other engineering deliverables.
- Facilitate communication between Engineering, Sales, Operations, Quality, and the customer.
- Encourage development of repair solutions that improve equipment reliability and provide additional value to the customer.
- Ensure technical decisions consider customer requirements, safety, quality, manufacturability, cost, delivery, and gross margin.
Inspection, Estimating & Quotation- Oversee teardown, inspection, technical evaluation, and quotation activities across both locations.
- Establish aggressive but achievable turnaround expectations for inspection reports and quotations.
- Ensure repair scopes accurately reflect equipment condition and customer requirements.
- Coordinate Sales, Engineering, Operations, Purchasing, and Quality input into significant quotations.
- Review major repair quotations for technical feasibility, risk, pricing, lead time, and GM expectations.
- Ensure expedited or rush requirements are appropriately considered in pricing.
- Establish standardized estimating and quotation practices across both operations.
- Track quote volume, turnaround time, win rate, and lost opportunities.
- Identify opportunities to shorten the time between equipment receipt, inspection, quotation, customer authorization, and production release.
Gross Margin & Financial PerformanceThe Director will have direct accountability for the gross margin and financial performance of the Repair & Assembly business.
Responsibilities include:
- Establish annual bookings, revenue, and GM objectives.
- Monitor GM performance by job, customer, location, and repair type.
- Review major repair projects at quotation, execution, and completion.
- Identify causes of margin erosion including labor overruns, material costs, outside processing, engineering hours, rework, expedited freight, and unplanned scope.
- Ensure change orders and additional work are identified, documented, communicated, and priced appropriately.
- Work with Sales to establish pricing that reflects technical complexity, customer requirements, market conditions, risk, required lead time, and target GM.
- Conduct post-job reviews on significant projects to compare quoted versus actual labor, material, cycle time, delivery, and GM.
- Implement corrective actions based on lessons learned.
- Develop annual operating and capital plans supporting profitable growth of the repair business.
Leadership & Accountability- Establish a culture of urgency, accountability, customer responsiveness, and execution across both locations.
- Hold site leadership accountable for meeting safety, quality, schedule, cycle-time, OTD, and financial expectations.
- Maintain regular communication between Repair Operations, Engineering, Direct Sales, Quality, Purchasing, and executive leadership.
- Develop employees and identify future technical and leadership talent.
- Promote cross-training and sharing of resources and technical knowledge between locations.
- Ensure employees understand customer commitments and the importance of meeting promised delivery dates.
- Be visible and accessible during critical customer repairs and operational issues.
- Make timely decisions regarding priorities, resources, overtime, off-hours scheduling, outsourcing, and other actions required to meet customer commitments.
- Foster a culture centered on Safety, Quality, Customer, Delivery, Cost, and Continuous Improvement.
Education & Experience- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Business, or related discipline preferred; significant relevant industry experience may substitute for formal education.
- 10+ years of progressive experience in industrial gearbox repair, gearing, rotating equipment, heavy industrial manufacturing, aftermarket service, or a related industry preferred.
- 5+ years of progressive leadership experience in repair, operations, engineering, manufacturing, service, or business-unit management.
- Multi-site leadership experience is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience managing customer-facing technical and commercial activities.
- Strong understanding of repair estimating, pricing, project costing, and gross-margin management.
- Experience managing a P&L, business unit, product line, or significant revenue stream strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams involving Sales, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain.
Key Performance IndicatorsThe Director will be measured in the performance of both locations individually and the combined Repair & Service business, with particular emphasis on:
- Safety
- Repair bookings
- Repair revenue
- Gross margin (GM)
- Repair cycle time
- On-time delivery (OTD)
- Quote turnaround time
- Quote win/conversion rate
- Backlog and backlog aging
- Schedule attainment
- Emergency/rush repair responsiveness
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer retention and repeat repair business
- New repair customers and opportunities
- Labor performance
- Rework and warranty costs
- Large Cell and Small Cell capacity utilization
- Growth of field and service revenue
