OverviewWaters Corporation's Materials Sciences Division is seeking a strategic, customer-focused, and results-oriented leader to serve as Senior Director, Global Service. Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President, Materials Sciences Division, this role leads the worldwide service organization and establishes the strategy, operating model, and capabilities required to deliver an exceptional customer experience, sustainable growth, and operational excellence.
The Senior Director will have leadership accountability for global field service, global technical support and global service growth including service sales. This leader will partner across Sales, Commercial Excellence, Product Management, R&D, Applications, Marketing, Manufacturing, and Operations to strengthen customer loyalty, expand service revenue, improve execution, and support profitable growth across the division.
ResponsibilitiesGlobal Service Strategy and Leadership- Develop and execute a multi-year global service strategy aligned with MSD's business priorities, customer needs, and growth objectives.
- Lead the worldwide service organization across the Americas, EMEA, China, and Asia Pacific, establishing clear priorities, accountability, and consistent operating mechanisms.
- Serve as a member of the MSD Leadership Team and contribute to division strategy, annual planning, investment decisions, organizational development, and business performance reviews.
- Build a customer-centric, inclusive, and high-performance culture grounded in integrity, collaboration, continuous improvement, and disciplined execution.
- Lead organizational transformation and change initiatives that improve scalability, responsiveness, and effectiveness.
Service Operations Excellence- Own global field service delivery and ensure consistent, high-quality execution across regions while allowing appropriate flexibility for local customer and market requirements.
- Establish and manage performance standards for customer response, resolution cycle time, first-time fix, equipment uptime, productivity, capacity, quality, and customer satisfaction.
- Drive standardization and continuous improvement of service processes, tools, workflows, escalation practices, and management systems.
- Lead global workforce and capacity planning to align resources, skills, geographic coverage, and investment with installed-base requirements and business growth.
- Improve predictability through robust forecasting, operating reviews, leading indicators, and corrective action plans.
Service Growth and Commercial Performance- Own the global service growth strategy, including service contract attach, renewals, service plan penetration, upgrades, service referrals, and other service-led revenue opportunities.
- Partner with Sales and Commercial Excellence to integrate service into account strategies, instrument sales motions, and key customer engagement plans.
- Advance service pricing, value-selling, portfolio, and go-to-market strategies that strengthen customer value and profitable growth.
- Lead service growth and inside service sales capabilities, including pipeline management, conversion, retention, and execution against commercial targets.
- Use installed-base, customer, and performance data to identify growth opportunities and guide resource allocation.
Technical Support and Product Partnership- Provide executive leadership for global technical support and ensure timely, effective resolution of complex technical issues and critical customer escalations.
- Partner with Product Management, R&D, Applications, Quality, and Operations to improve product reliability, serviceability, launch readiness, and field performance.
- Build scalable technical training, certification, knowledge management, remote support, and competency-development programs.
- Create effective feedback loops that convert field and customer insights into product, process, and service improvements.
Customer Experience and Strategic Accounts- Champion the customer experience and establish a consistent global approach to measuring, reviewing, and improving service outcomes.
- Build executive relationships with key customers and serve as executive sponsor for strategic accounts and critical escalations.
- Ensure customer feedback is translated into clear improvement priorities and closed-loop actions.
- Strengthen MSD's reputation for responsiveness, technical expertise, reliability, and long-term partnership.
Financial and Business Leadership- Own global service revenue, expense, productivity, and profitability performance in alignment with division commitments.
- Develop and manage annual operating plans, forecasts, budgets, headcount plans, and strategic investments.
- Drive margin expansion and productivity through pricing, mix, process improvement, digital enablement, resource optimization, and disciplined cost management.
- Provide clear, data-driven insights on business performance, risks, opportunities, and required actions.
Talent and Organizational Leadership- Recruit, develop, coach, and retain strong global service leaders and technical talent.
- Build succession plans, leadership capability, technical career pathways, and development programs across the service organization.
- Establish clear goals, performance expectations, accountability, and recognition practices.
- Foster employee engagement, inclusion, cross-regional collaboration, and a strong quality and safety culture.
QualificationsEducation and Experience- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Science, Business, or a related field required; advanced degree or MBA preferred.
- Ten or more years of progressive leadership experience in service, customer support, commercial operations, or a related function.
- Demonstrated success leading a complex, multi-region service organization in a global environment.
- Proven experience driving customer satisfaction, service growth, operational improvement, and organizational transformation.
- Strong financial and business acumen, including experience with budgets, forecasts, business performance metrics, and profit improvement.
- Experience leading through change and developing high-performing, geographically dispersed teams.
- Experience in scientific instrumentation, analytical instruments, laboratory technology, capital equipment, industrial technology, or a related industry preferred.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities- Enterprise-level strategic thinking with the ability to translate strategy into clear priorities and sustained execution.
- Strong customer orientation and the judgment to manage complex, high-impact customer situations.
- Commercial acumen and understanding of installed-base, recurring-revenue, and aftermarket service models.
- Demonstrated operational excellence and ability to use data, metrics, and operating mechanisms to improve performance.
- Executive presence and the ability to influence effectively across regions, functions, and organizational levels.
- Excellent communication, collaboration, negotiation, and change-leadership skills.
- Ability to operate effectively across cultures, time zones, and diverse market environments.
- Ability to work hybrid / onsite New Castle Delaware is preferred
Key WordsKey Success Measures
• Customer satisfaction, loyalty, equipment uptime, and escalation effectiveness.
• Service revenue growth, contract attach, renewal performance, and service plan penetration.
• First-time fix, response and resolution performance, workforce productivity, and capacity effectiveness.
• Service profitability, forecast accuracy, expense performance, and productivity improvement.
• Employee engagement, retention, leadership capability, and succession readiness.
