VP of Operations

The Vice President of Operations is a senior executive leadership role responsible for defining and executing the operations strategy for WMFTS USA. This position ensures alignment with global and divisional priorities while delivering best-in-class customer experience, operational performance, and financial outcomes.

Reporting directly to the President, the VP of Operations is a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, with accountability for shaping business strategy, driving enterprise-wide performance, and leading transformation across operations, customer service, and supply chain functions.

This role plays a critical part in enabling profitable growth through operational excellence, customer-centric execution, and scalable infrastructure, with an immediate focus on shipping backlog elimination and sustained on-time delivery performance.

What you'll be doing

Enterprise Leadership & Strategy

• Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to business strategy, growth planning, and performance management
• Define and execute the operations strategy aligned with WMFTS global and divisional priorities
• Act as a strategic partner to the President across commercial, operational, and organizational priorities
• Lead transformation initiatives to enhance scalability, agility, and customer experience

Operational Leadership

• Provide executive oversight across logistics, inventory, manufacturing/assembly, application engineering, technical services, customer service, returns/repairs, and facilities
• Drive a high-performance operating model with strong accountability, transparency, and execution discipline
• Establish and govern key performance indicators including service levels, backlog, inventory, cost, and quality

Customer Experience & Service Leadership

• Own and elevate the end-to-end customer service strategy, positioning it as a competitive differentiator
• Lead large, multi-site customer service teams to deliver a high-quality, responsive customer experience
• Define enterprise standards for order management, communication, and issue resolution
• Drive improvements in customer satisfaction, response times, and first-time resolution
• Ensure proactive and transparent communication with customers, including order status and backlog recovery
• Partner closely with Sales, Operations, and Engineering to deliver a seamless customer journey
• Leverage CRM systems and analytics to enhance visibility, forecasting, and decision-making

Shipping Backlog & Fulfillment Transformation

• Own enterprise backlog performance, ensuring both short-term stabilization and long-term improvement
• Lead cross-functional efforts to address root causes across supply chain, planning, and production
• Implement scalable processes, governance, and metrics to sustain on-time delivery performance
• Provide regular visibility and progress updates to senior leadership

Engineering & Technical Integration

• Provide leadership to application engineering and technical services teams, ensuring alignment with customer and commercial needs
• Partner with Product/Design Engineering to support manufacturability and lifecycle readiness (without direct design ownership)
• Oversee customer solution development, technical consultation, and product application support
• Lead field technical services, including installation, repair, and troubleshooting
• Drive technical capability development across internal teams, distributors, and channel partners
• Ensure consistent, high-quality technical support and customer engagement

Supply Chain, Logistics & Inventory

• Lead end-to-end supply chain strategy including logistics, warehousing, inventory, and distribution
• Optimize working capital and inventory performance while maintaining service levels
• Establish and drive S&OP and demand planning rigor
• Build scalable and resilient supply chain capabilities aligned with growth

Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence

• Champion a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence
• Lead Lean/CI initiatives to improve cost, efficiency, quality, and customer outcomes
• Leverage ERP, CRM, and data analytics to support data-driven decision-making

Returns, Repairs & Service Operations

• Transform aftermarket and service operations into a scalable, customer-focused capability
• Improve turnaround time, service quality, and reliability
• Align service model with long-term business and customer strategy

Safety, Compliance & Risk

• Own enterprise safety strategy and promote a strong safety culture across all sites
• Ensure compliance with all regulatory, health, and safety requirements
• Lead operational risk management and business continuity planning

Financial Leadership

• Own the Operations P&L, including cost management, productivity, and working capital
• Drive margin improvement through operational efficiency and service excellence
• Partner with Finance on forecasting, budgeting, and capital allocation

Organizational Leadership

• Build and lead high-performing, scalable teams across all operational functions
• Develop future leaders and succession plans aligned with WMFTS talent strategy
• Foster a culture of accountability, engagement, and performance

This is what you'll need to be successful in this role:

• Executive leadership experience across operations, customer service, technical services/application engineering, and supply chain
• Demonstrated success leading large, multi-functional, customer-facing organizations
• Strong commercial acumen, with direct or indirect customer-facing experience
• Proven ownership of P&L, including cost structure and working capital management
• Track record of leading transformation initiatives (e.g., operational scaling, service improvement, backlog recovery)
• Ability to influence and partner across executive leadership teams
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, or a related field
• Experience across Life Sciences and Process Industries environments
• Experience aligning operations strategy with commercial growth initiatives
• Strong ERP and CRM systems experience (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics or similar)
• Background in manufacturing, process, or technical product environments
• MBA or advanced degree