Director of Operations

Materion•Newton, MA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Operations at Materion leads all manufacturing operations at the Newton site, encompassing all plants. This role is crucial for ensuring operational excellence, strategic alignment, and flawless execution. The Director drives day-to-day performance while also guiding the site’s long-term Lean transformation, integration activities, and capability development. The position requires broad partnership across various functions and business units to support Newton’s operational stability, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness. The role involves ensuring the Newton factory executes flawlessly and delivers strong performance for all internal business units and external customers, partnering with Operations, Technology, Quality, Supply Chain, and other assigned functions to maintain safe, reliable, and efficient operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree required
Proven leadership in manufacturing operations environments
Strong capability in Lean, continuous improvement, and problem solving
Experience managing multi-functional teams and major transformation initiatives
Demonstrated success with capital project execution and operational optimization
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
Leadership capability
Strong understanding of functional roles and responsibilities
Ability to motivate team members and support their development
Solid understanding of operational metrics

Nice To Haves

Masters Degree preferred
Background in advanced materials, metals, semiconductors, aerospace, or similar industries preferred

Responsibilities

Lead all manufacturing operations at the Newton site (all plants).
Ensure operational excellence, strategic alignment, and flawless execution.
Drive day-to-day performance while also guiding the site’s long-term Lean transformation, integration activities, and capability development.
Partner broadly across functions and business units to support Newton’s operational stability, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness.
Ensure the Newton factory executes flawlessly and delivers strong performance for all internal business units and external customers.
Partner with Operations, Technology, Quality, Supply Chain, and any other assigned functions to maintain safe, reliable, and efficient operations.
Oversee Production, Maintenance, Planning, EHS, and technical support through leadership of the Plant Manager and Director of Technology, with dotted-line partnership to the Director of Quality.
Drive operational improvement, process improvements and cost-reduction initiatives.
Develop and mentor operational leaders.
Foster accountability and continuous improvement.
Provide regular updates to senior leadership and stakeholders.
Strengthen communication flow across the site.
Collaborate closely with both the EM and PM business unit Newton Product Managers.
Support new product introductions and qualification activities.
Ensure site capacity, cost, quality, and delivery align with business unit needs and business unit id-term plan.
Represent the site in customer, vendor and management visits.
Lead the Newton site’s strategic roadmap and multi-year priorities.
Oversee integration activities including IT and cross-functional transitions.
Align site strategies with broader business objectives.
Serve as the executive owner of the Newton Lean Manufacturing transformation.
Champion Lean principles, Daily Management, problem solving, kaizen, and standard work.
Partner with Lean resources to sustain improvements.
Together with EM/ Corporate/ BU capital team, lead major capital programs, installations, expansions, and facility transitions.
Ensure capital initiatives meet cost, schedule, and performance goals.
Champion EHS excellence and regulatory compliance.
Support audit readiness and quality certification requirements.
Partner with Quality leadership to drive satisfaction and process control.