Vice President Operations

The VP of Operations will lead the transformation of engineering and operational processes while driving a cultural shift to support the company’s growth from under $10 million to $30 million in three years. The role focuses on developing rapid, robust engineering capabilities and reproducible manufacturing processes to eliminate bottlenecks, ensure on-time product delivery, and foster a performance-driven culture.

The successful candidate will collaborate with the CEO, Head of Engineering, and production teams to implement process discipline, tackle systemic challenges, and drive accountability through mentoring, coaching, and team development.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Leadership and Team Development:

• Establish a regular cadence with department heads to set and achieve SMART goals, progressively extending to supervisors and operators.
• Assess and enhance the skills of key individuals, fostering a culture of upskilling and adaptability.
• Drive a mindset shift, breaking away from “this is how we’ve always done it” to embrace innovation and continuous improvement.
• Identify training and development needs for key personnel, evaluating the return on investment for lasting change.
• Define roles and responsibilities for new hires, leading recruitment efforts through personal networks and agencies.

Performance and Accountability:

• Develop and implement metrics and KPIs, promoting individual accountability to achieve short- and medium-term objectives.
• Ensure a metrics-driven culture with corrective actions for underperformance.

Operational Excellence:

• Reduce cycle and labor time across design, production, testing, quality control, and shipping.
• Develop, maintain, and utilize component libraries for new products and design adaptations.
• Adhere to industry-standard RF design procedures while fostering rapid R&D and prototyping capabilities with defined timelines.
• Cultivate a culture focused on:
• Reproducible manufacturing
• Inline quality control and capturing technical deviations
• Achieving a 98% on-time delivery rate
• Minimizing RMAs to 2% or less, while ensuring chargeable RMAs maintain a gross margin of 50%

Strategic Planning and Risk Management:

• Anticipate gaps in skills, equipment, and capacity, developing metrics and strategies to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.
• Hold key individuals accountable, implementing training, re-skilling, or reorganization as necessary to achieve departmental success.

Executive Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Ensure the Board of Directors is well-informed to make timely decisions on key issues.
• Act as a catalyst for introducing innovative practices, tools, and systems across the organization.
• Represent the company effectively with customers, suppliers, partners, employees, government authorities, and other stakeholders.

Cultural and Organizational Alignment:

• Build and nurture a culture aligned with the company’s vision, mission, and values, modeling and reinforcing these behaviors.
• Foster a performance-driven product development culture, emphasizing ROI/NPV metrics based on regulatory mandates, performance specifications, development costs, sales projections, and product line synergies.
• Compliance and Internal Controls:
• Ensure adherence to Mil specs, Export Regulations, ITAR, NIST, Phipps, and internal company standards.
• Maintain robust internal controls and management information systems.

Financial Goals:

• Lead engineering and production teams to meet the company’s financial objectives.

Requirements:

• 15 years of experience, including top leadership roles in operations, with a focus on government and military compliance.
• Expertise in active RF components (e.g., high-power amplifiers and systems), assemblies, and systems for U.S. military and telecom markets.
• Deep understanding of aerospace and defense industry engineering standards, including production and assembly for military and blue-chip manufacturing sectors.
• Comprehensive knowledge of metallurgical CNC machining, including programming, CMM inspection, cutting tools, and applications across various metals. Familiarity with non-destructive testing methods (e.g., X-ray, FPI, MPI) and non-conventional manufacturing processes.
• Experience with AS9100 and ISO 9000 quality systems, Lean principles, inventory rationalization, and design/component standardization.
• Proficiency in technical operations with complex workflows, rapid product development, and manufacturing and assembly operations. Proven success in continuous process improvement.
• Solid foundation in information systems and data analytics, including ERP systems, data warehouses, advanced reporting, and manufacturing execution systems.
• Direct experience working with primes, Tier 2 and Tier 3 defense contractors, multi-billion-dollar manufacturing companies, large-scale telecom system integrators, and government entities.
• Strong business acumen, with knowledge of finance, human resources, and management principles.