Sr. Manager, Operations

VACCO Industries

Job Description

Job Title: Sr. Manager, Operations

Department: Operations

Reports To: Director, Operations

FLSA Status: Exempt - (216XY)

Prepared By: D. Neff

Prepared Date: October 14, 2026

Dept. Approval By: ___ Date: ____

H.R. Approval By: ___ Date: ____

SUMMARY

• Provide strategic and technical leadership to Supervisors, Leads, and Technicians, ensuring operational execution meets engineering specifications, quality standards, and customer requirements.
• Drive achievement of financial, operational, and organizational KPIs through disciplined execution, operational excellence, and data-driven leadership.
• Lead multi-cell or multi-department operations for precision mechanical parts and assemblies, ensuring scalable, predictable, and efficient production performance.
• Own strategic planning for capacity, long-range resource planning, production flow, and continuous improvement initiatives to support growth, cost optimization, and schedule adherence.
• Maintain deep technical understanding of product functionality, manufacturing processes, testing requirements, and end-use applications to support high-level operational decisions.
• Build, develop, and elevate leadership capability across Supervisors and Leads while fostering a culture of accountability, engagement, and continuous improvement.
• Act as a senior operational partner to cross-functional stakeholders, influencing strategy, priorities, and business decision-making.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead and develop Operations Supervisors, Leads, and Technicians to deliver operational metrics, production goals, delivery performance, and organizational objectives.
• Ensure products are manufactured, assembled, tested, and documented in accordance with engineering specifications, quality standards, customer requirements, and regulatory obligations.
• Serve as senior technical and operational authority, guiding production personnel in product builds, testing, troubleshooting, workmanship standards, and process optimization.
• Maintain expert-level understanding of product designs, manufacturing workflows, testing regimes, assembly methods, and end-use environments to enable sound operational decisions.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Planning, Manufacturing Engineering, and Program Management to ensure seamless execution.
• Oversee KPI performance including On-Time Delivery, utilization, efficiency, productivity, quality, and cost-identifying trends and implementing corrective actions at an organizational level.
• Lead capacity modeling, long-term planning, workflow optimization, and continuous improvement strategies supporting scalability and schedule reliability.
• Develop organizational talent through coaching, performance management, succession planning, and partnership with HR to attract and retain high-caliber technical staff.
• Champion operational best practices, standard work creation, and continuous improvement methodologies in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Recruit, manage, and develop leadership teams to drive operational excellence, accountability, and employee engagement.
• Deploy clear communication strategies to ensure teams understand operational priorities, performance expectations, customer requirements, and business objectives.
• Deliver measurable results in productivity, cost efficiency, quality improvement, and operational throughput.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with cross-functional leaders to ensure alignment, responsiveness, and effective execution across departments.
• Translate company strategy into well-defined operational plans and daily execution priorities.
• Formulate and oversee strategic and operational objectives aligned with corporate and customer commitments.
• Analyze operational and financial data to drive decision-making, identify performance gaps, and implement improvements to efficiency and profitability.
• Support or lead budget planning, labor strategy, forecasting, capital allocation, and resource management for assigned operational areas.
• Influence senior leaders and stakeholders while balancing operational constraints, technical requirements, and customer imperatives.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum 7-10 years of progressive experience in manufacturing operations, including leadership responsibility over production teams, assembly, testing, troubleshooting, and quality control.
• Demonstrated leadership in operations management or manufacturing leadership at a department or multi-team level.
• Strong technical understanding of mechanical assemblies, manufacturing processes, testing systems, workmanship criteria, and quality standards.
• Ability to act as a senior technical resource for Supervisors and Leads on builds, test processes, troubleshooting, and compliance to engineering specifications.
• Proficiency in reading and interpreting engineering drawings, work instructions, testing documents, specifications, and technical requirements.
• Strong command of operational excellence concepts, manufacturing workflows, capacity planning, continuous improvement, and resource planning.
• Experience owning budgets, forecasts, labor planning, and strategic resource allocation.
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional partners and drive organizational alignment.
• Excellent leadership, communication, coaching, change management, and collaboration skills.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving abilities.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and standard business systems; familiarity with ERP/MRP systems preferred.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelors degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred but not required.
• 7-10+ years of manufacturing experience with direct involvement in production operations, assembly, testing, troubleshooting, or quality-driven manufacturing environments.
• Significant operations management or multi-team leadership experience required.
• Demonstrated capability leading technical teams in hands-on manufacturing environments with measurable operational impact.

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit for long periods of time, walk and reach with hands and arms as well as some bending and/or stooping. Occasional light lifting of reams of paper or books up to 20 lbs. or equivalent may be required. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Majority of work is performed in a typical office environment with no major sources of discomfort. Essentially a normal controlled working environment with noise levels within acceptable safety limits and acceptable lighting and temperature conditions.

This description indicates the general nature of the tasks and responsibilities required of positions given this classification. It is not intended as a complete list of specific duties and responsibilities, nor is it intended to limit or modify the right of management to assign, direct and control specific duties of individuals performing this function. The Company reserves the right to change, modify, amend, add to or delete from any section of this document as it seems, in its judgment, to be proper. This description supersedes any previous description for this position.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.