Director, Operational Excellence - Pneumatics

IDEX Corporation•Benton Harbor, MI

1d•$141,800 - $212,800

About The Position

The Director of Operational Excellence will lead enterprise-level continuous improvement, advanced processing, and operational excellence across the Pneumatics platform, including Gast Manufacturing, Airtech Vacuum, and U.S. Valve. This role will drive large-scale transformational initiatives, deploy the IDEX Operating Model, and build sustainable CI capability within each business unit by developing BU leaders to identify, lead, and sustain high-impact improvement projects. The Director will translate platform strategy into clear priorities, metrics, dashboards, and operating cadences that improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and customer experience.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Business, or related field required; Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent advanced CI certification strongly preferred.
10+ years of manufacturing, operations, supply chain, or operational excellence experience, including leadership of large-scale transformation or continuous improvement programs.
Experience leading multi-site or multi-business unit improvement initiatives in an industrial manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated ability to coach business unit leaders, develop CI project owners, and build sustainable improvement capability across functions and sites.
Strong knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, daily management, standard work, goal deployment, performance management systems, and financial validation of improvement projects.
Experience defining strategic metrics, developing executive dashboards, communicating performance trends, and aligning key stakeholders around priorities and corrective actions.
Experience with automation, digital productivity tools, AI-enabled process improvement, advanced manufacturing processes, KPIs, dashboards, and data-driven decision-making.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent advanced CI certification strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a platform-wide CI and transformation roadmap aligned to business unit priorities, strategic growth objectives, and measurable operational outcomes.
Lead complex, cross-functional transformation projects from opportunity identification and business case development through implementation, adoption, and sustained benefit realization.
Lead Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, value stream improvement, and rapid improvement initiatives to improve productivity, cost, quality, delivery, safety, and customer experience.
Coach and develop BU leaders, site leaders, and functional owners to build local CI capability, lead improvement projects, remove barriers, and sustain operational discipline.
Communicate the operational excellence strategy clearly across all levels of the organization, ensuring leaders and teams understand priorities, expected outcomes, ownership, and progress against goals.
Develop platform-level KPIs, visual dashboards, governance routines, and stakeholder review cadences that drive transparency, accountability, root cause problem solving, and timely decision-making.
Establish common processes, metrics, standard work, playbooks, and governance across Gast, Airtech, and U.S. Valve while allowing appropriate local adaptation by business unit.
Champion consistent adoption of daily management, goal deployment, monthly reviews, 80/20 focus, and disciplined execution.
Lead automation, digital productivity, Industry 4.0, AI-enabled workflow improvements, and advanced manufacturing process initiatives, with emphasis on reducing transactional waste, improving decision speed, and increasing productivity.
Partner with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, Commercial, and IT leaders to identify opportunities, align stakeholders, validate financial impact, and sustain improvements.
Define, track, and report KPIs; use dashboards, data, and regular operating reviews to drive accountability, escalation, and continuous improvement.