Director of Operational Excellence

Fathom Mfg • Hartland, WI

14h • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Operational Excellence & Transformation provides on-site leadership to strengthen operational discipline, develop robust processes, and drive effective change management across the organization. This hands-on manufacturing leader assesses current-state performance, identifies gaps, designs improvement plans, and owns their execution and sustained advancement. The role focuses on establishing consistent operational routines, scheduling systems, quality processes, Lean practices, customer service standards, and daily management disciplines at the focus facility until operations reach the expected level of performance.

The director partners with the VP of Operations and executive leadership to improve facility and network performance. They coach plant managers, supervisors, and frontline leaders; work across commercial, quoting, sourcing, engineering, and quality teams; and help standardize best practices across multiple sites. The position requires travel as needed for hands-on implementation.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience leading manufacturing operations, with proven transformation success.
• Hands-on expertise with CNC machining, additive manufacturing, sheet metal fabrication, molding, and finishing.
• Strong understanding of quoting, design for manufacturability (DFM), routing, scheduling, capacity planning, and cost structure.
• Demonstrated experience transforming underperforming facilities into top-performing plants.
• Deep knowledge of Lean, continuous improvement methodologies, and structured problem solving.
• Strong leadership presence and ability to influence at all levels.
• Highly organized approach and ability to standardize processes across multiple sites.
• Ability to travel as needed for hands-on implementation.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in private equity-backed or high-velocity manufacturing environments.
• Experience supporting ITAR/AS9100 environments.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate facility operations, including scheduling, throughput, staffing, equipment utilization, quality, and workflow.
• Develop improvement roadmaps with the VP of Operations, identifying bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and waste across manufacturing operations.
• Create actionable strategies tied to revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and operational stability.
• Lead the onsite execution of improvement plans and transformation initiatives using Lean, Kaizen, SMED, 5S, and other continuous improvement tools.
• Implement daily management systems, including tier meetings, KPIs, visual controls, JDIs, and problem-solving routines.
• Build durable processes that function without heavy oversight.
• Mentor and coach plant managers, supervisors, and frontline leaders to improve operational maturity.
• Promote effective scheduling, capacity planning, customer delivery disciplines, accountability, problem-solving, and structured execution.
• Coordinate operational best practices across plants and help scale them throughout the network.
• Strengthen quality processes, inspection routines, and preventive controls in partnership with quality teams.
• Improve customer satisfaction through more reliable lead times, standardized workflows, and white-glove service expectations.
• Collaborate with commercial, quoting, sourcing, and engineering teams to reduce friction and provide manufacturing insight on quoting, COGS reduction, design for manufacturability, and outsourcing strategies.
• Help unify facilities under a “One Company / One Standard” operational vision.
• Monitor KPIs for safety, quality, on-time delivery, throughput, productivity, and revenue attainment.
• Identify early indicators of revenue, backlog, resource, and site-performance risks.
• Report operational performance clearly to the VP of Operations and executive leadership.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life insurance and short-term and long-term disability insurance.
• Paid time off, floating holidays, volunteer time off, and sick time off, depending on state of employment.
• 401(k) plan.
• Discounts on products and services.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed