The Opportunity
Reporting directly to the President, Americas, this role will be a key member of the Americas Executive Leadership Team with accountability for multi-site operational performance, continuous improvement, supply-chain resilience, quality, capacity and operational integration.
This is a highly visible opportunity for an experienced operations leader who combines strong shop-floor credibility with the ability to create pace, discipline and measurable value across a growing, technically demanding business.
The Role
The VP Operations will lead Americas' operational value-creation agenda, with particular focus on:
• Multi-site operational performance and SQDIP management
• Operational Excellence, Lean and continuous improvement
• Manufacturing productivity, throughput and margin expansion
• Strategic sourcing, supply-chain resilience and SIOP
• Capacity, capital and footprint optimization
• Quality, compliance and production discipline
• New Product Introduction (NPI), production readiness & technology transfer
• Operational integration of acquisitions and new capabilities
• Leadership capability and consistent operating practices across sites
The role will improve the performance of today's operations while building scalable, consistent capabilities that support Americas' evolution toward a broader systems and solutions business.
Key Responsibilities
• Own site and network performance across Safety, Quality, Delivery, Inventory and Productivity (SQDIP), with clear targets, operating reviews and accountability for corrective action.
• Develop and deploy a common Americas Operational Excellence system, embedding Lean, continuous improvement, standard work, visual management and structured problem solving across the U.S. footprint.
• Translate the Americas Value Creation Plan into operational initiatives with clear owners, milestones and measurable impact across EBITDA, cash, working capital, capacity, quality and delivery.
• Drive productivity, throughput, cost and margin improvement through waste elimination, labor effectiveness, material yield, process control, automation and disciplined execution.
• Lead strategic sourcing, supplier performance, material planning and supply-chain resilience, reducing risk while improving cost, quality, availability and working capital.
• Establish an effective SIOP rhythm linking demand, capacity, inventory and production plans to customer commitments and growth priorities.
• Lead operational capacity planning, capital deployment and footprint optimization, ensuring investment is directed toward the highest-value constraints and growth opportunities.
• Partner with Engineering & Product to ensure robust NPI, Design for Manufacturability, production readiness and clean handoff of new technologies and products into U.S. operations.
• Lead the operational workstreams for acquisition integration, site transformation and technology transfer, working with Transformation on the integration plan and accepting clear handoffs into sustainable operational ownership.
• Maintain strong operational governance and auditability across defense and regulated activities, working with responsible functional leaders on requirements including DCMA/DLA, AS9100, ISO 9001, ITAR, FAR/DFARS, CMMC and applicable customer or site requirements.
• Build strong site leadership, manufacturing, quality, supply-chain and continuous-improvement capability, creating common standards and sharing best practice across locations.
• Provide clear, fact-based operational reporting to the President and Executive Leadership Team, identifying risks early and maintaining pace on recovery and value-creation actions.
Partnership Across the Business
The VP Operations will work particularly closely with the VP Transformation and Director of Product & Technology.
With Transformation, the role will align site-transformation programs, operational value-creation initiatives, MOP/PMO reporting, acquisition integration and benefits tracking. Transformation will coordinate the enterprise program and cross-functional dependencies; Operational Excellence will own execution and sustained embedding within the operating sites.
With Product & Technology, the role will ensure innovation and technical programs move effectively from development into repeatable, high-quality production, with common readiness measures, clear handoffs and strong cross-functional execution.
The role will also partner closely with Business Development, People & Culture, Finance, IT and other functions to ensure operations can support customer commitments, growth plans, workforce requirements and Group standards.
While the primary focus is Americas, the VP will work with Beaufort Group and international teams where technology transfer, shared engineering capability, acquisitions, sourcing or cross-border dependencies materially affect U.S. execution.
Candidate Profile
We are looking for a proven, hands-on operations leader with typically 15+ years of progressive manufacturing and operational leadership experience in complex, high-reliability or technically demanding environments.
The strongest candidates will combine deep operational discipline, people leadership and the ability to convert improvement opportunities into sustained financial and customer outcomes.
Ideal experience includes:
• Multi-site manufacturing leadership with clear accountability for operational and financial performance
• Lean, continuous improvement and structured operational transformation with quantified results
• Strategic sourcing, supply chain, SIOP and working-capital improvement
• Capacity planning, capital investment, footprint optimization and site transformation
• M&A integration, technology transfer or consolidation of manufacturing capabilities
• NPI and close partnership with engineering/product-development organizations
• Quality and compliance within aerospace, defense, regulated or high-reliability manufacturing environments
• Building high-performing site leadership teams and creating consistency across multiple facilities
• Strong financial literacy, KPI management and executive communication
Experience in aerospace, defense, life-support/PPE, advanced manufacturing, engineered products or other complex industrial environments would be highly valued. U.S. defense-sector experience is strongly advantageous.
A bachelor's degree in engineering, operations or a related technical discipline is preferred; an MBA or advanced qualification is advantageous. U.S. citizenship and applicable defense/security eligibility may be required for certain programs.
