Director, Production & Purchasing
About The Position
We're seeking a strategic, hands-on operations leader to drive the planning, production, and purchasing functions behind our industry-leading analytical laboratory instrumentation. This role sits at the center of our business, ensuring our precision instruments are built to exacting standards, delivered on time, and continuously improved to support global scientific innovation. This is a high-impact leadership opportunity for a manufacturing executive who thrives in a collaborative, engineering-driven environment and is passionate about lean manufacturing, operational excellence, and developing high-performing teams. The Director of Production & Purchasing leads all operations activities to ensure Anton Paar QuantaTec’s analytical instrumentation products are manufactured to specification, meet rigorous quality standards, and are delivered to customers on schedule.
Requirements
- BS in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering (or equivalent)
- Minimum 7 years in a manufacturing/production environment
- Minimum 7 years of team leadership experience
- Proven Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement experience
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
- Experience with SAP
- Ability to obtain a passport for international travel
Nice To Haves
- MS in Engineering (or equivalent)
- Six Sigma Green Belt or higher
- Experience with SAP Production & Planning module
Responsibilities
- Defining and implementing planning, production, and purchasing strategy
- Setting goals across planning, production, purchasing, and logistics
- Establishing and managing key performance metrics to achieve operational goals
- Building and developing a high-performing team through hiring, mentoring, and leadership
- Applying lean principles and driving continuous improvement initiatives
- Ensure every employee receives mentoring and professional development through regular meetings, coaching, and feedback
- Set clear priorities, expectations, and accountability across production, planning, logistics, and purchasing
- Provide training and cross-training to maximize team utilization and capacity
- Monitor performance to identify recognition and growth opportunities that strengthen engagement and retention
- Lead production assembly, planning, logistics, and purchasing to full capacity while maintaining balanced and achievable workloads
- Identify, delegate, and monitor improvement projects focused on quality, productivity, and cost savings
- Define production strategies for each product or product group to drive quality and efficiency improvements
- Oversee inventory including work in progress, semi-finished goods, finished goods, and raw materials
- Oversee forecasting of production costs based on units, lot sizes, and delivery methods
- Partner with Quality, R&D, and Product Line teams to prepare ramp-up schedules for new instruments, including BOM structure, testing schedules, and documentation format
- Serve as a liaison across departments to ensure production timelines are achieved
- Address complex operational issues and escalate as necessary
- Partner with company leadership to meet division and corporate objectives
- Stay current on production and quality best practices, tools, and processes
- Follow company policies and OSHA safety regulations
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
