Vice President, General Manager

Comtech Telecommunications Corp.•Chandler, AZ

71d

About The Position

The Vice President / General Manager is the senior business leader accountable for the overall performance, growth, and profitability of a technically complex engineered-products business serving domestic and international customers. The role owns the business end-to-end, including P&L, strategy, customer relationships, engineering, new product introduction, program execution, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, commercial execution, talent, facilities, capital deployment, and continuous improvement. This is a hands-on general management position requiring business judgment and technical aptitude to lead an organization developing and manufacturing sophisticated products. The leader is expected to understand technical issues, challenge assumptions, assess technical and program risk, and translate engineering decisions into customer, schedule, margin, cash, and business outcomes. The role requires balancing strategy with execution and delivering sustainable performance across customers, technology, operations, people, and financial results. The General Manager leads a high-performing, cross-functional organization; builds customer confidence; develops and industrializes products; drives operational excellence and continuous improvement; improves cash and margin; and ensures consistent execution. Performance is evaluated across business growth and financial results, delivery and quality, engineering and program performance, customer and supplier outcomes, productivity, capital effectiveness, talent, compliance, and safety. The position is located in Chandler. It requires compliance with Comtech’s Drug-Free Workplace Program, including successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening. Employees may also be subject to random, reasonable-suspicion, and post-incident testing. Illegal drug use, including marijuana regardless of state law, is disqualifying under federal adjudicative guidelines and DoD DFARS requirements. The pay range reflects expected base salary; final compensation depends on role, level, skills, experience, and geographic location.

Requirements

Significant leadership experience in an engineered-product, technology, aerospace, defense, electronics, industrial, communications, or advanced manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated responsibility for a meaningful P&L or substantial operating business.
Proven ability to manage revenue, margin, operating expense, cash, working capital, capital investment, and financial forecasting.
Experience leading engineering-intensive businesses involving complex hardware and/or electronic products.
Demonstrated success bringing new products from development through production.
Strong manufacturing and operational leadership capability.
Experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable structured continuous-improvement methodologies.
Demonstrated customer leadership, including managing difficult customer issues and executive-level relationships.
Experience managing complex programs, projects, or customer commitments involving technical, schedule, and financial risk.
Strong financial and analytical capability, including the ability to challenge assumptions and make data-driven decisions.
Experience building, restructuring, or upgrading leadership teams and organizations.
Experience working across multiple functions and operating locations.
Experience supporting domestic and international customers and working within applicable export and trade-control requirements.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant business experience.
Technical operating capability sufficient to understand system architecture, product requirements, interfaces, design maturity, verification, qualification, reliability, manufacturing constraints, and the relationship between product decisions and business outcomes.
Ability to engage effectively with relevant engineering organizations, distinguish technical difficulty from poor management, recognize unrealistic plans, lead technical problem-solving discussions, and translate technical issues into clear business consequences.
Ability to lead the entire business, make fact-based decisions, establish accountability, communicate clearly, build customer and employee trust, remain visible and close to execution, make difficult business decisions, and develop leaders.

Nice To Haves

Advanced business, engineering, operations, or technical education.
Lean Six Sigma certification or substantial demonstrated experience implementing lean operating systems.
Experience in regulated, government-contracting, aerospace, defense, communications, electronics, or similarly demanding environments.
An engineering degree; demonstrated technical operating capability and experience leading complex engineered-product businesses are more important than a specific technical credential.

Responsibilities

Own the full business P&L, including revenue, bookings, backlog, gross margin, operating expenses, earnings, working capital, cash generation, and capital requirements.
Establish and execute annual operating and multi-year strategic plans, translating strategy into measurable priorities, targets, resources, and execution plans.
Maintain forecasting and operating discipline; identify underperforming products, customers, programs, facilities, and cost structures and take corrective action.
Serve as a senior executive interface with customers, strategic partners, government organizations, distributors, and international customers.
Lead major negotiations, strategic pursuits, pricing decisions, contract recovery efforts, and customer escalations while protecting price, margin, scope, contractual position, and cash.
Provide operating oversight to engineering and technical organizations; prioritize development, R&D, sustainment, and technical problem-solving resources.
Drive disciplined engineering program execution, including requirements, design maturity, technical reviews, verification, validation, qualification, and production readiness.
Translate technical issues into quantified schedule, cost, margin, customer, and business impacts, and challenge assumptions when commitments are at risk.
Lead new product development, introduction, industrialization, and scaling, ensuring effective transition from engineering to repeatable production.
Establish NPI gates for design maturity, sourcing, capital, tooling, test equipment, quality, documentation, training, production readiness, and customer qualification.
Review and rationalize product portfolios when appropriate, and tie product and R&D investments to customer demand, differentiation, margin potential, and strategic value.
Lead manufacturing operations accountable for safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, capacity, and customer performance.
Improve on-time delivery, cycle time, labor efficiency, first-pass yield, equipment effectiveness, inventory, and quality; align capacity and staffing with demand and product introductions.
Lead facility expansions, consolidations, work transfers, equipment investments, and footprint optimization; require sound capital plans, business cases, and post-investment accountability.
Champion practical Lean Six Sigma and continuous improvement across manufacturing and business functions, using structured problem solving, root-cause analysis, corrective action, standard work, visual management, 5S, flow, waste elimination, and process control.
Establish governance for major customer and development programs; actively manage schedules, technical milestones, costs, risks, opportunities, forecasts, and commitments.
Lead recovery of underperforming programs with clear containment actions, resources, owners, milestones, financial exposure, customer communications, and completion criteria.
Ensure customer scope changes are identified, priced, negotiated, and incorporated into program baselines.
Develop a resilient supply chain; improve supplier quality, delivery, lead time, cost, responsiveness, and capacity; engage directly with critical or distressed suppliers.
Reduce excess and obsolete inventory while protecting customer delivery and production continuity; improve working capital through inventory discipline, supplier terms, milestone billing, collections, and contract structure.
Lead international business while maintaining appropriate commercial controls and disciplined processes for export-controlled products, technologies, technical information, and customer interactions.
Maintain product quality, customer satisfaction, safety, ethics, compliance, and effective quality and corrective-action systems; identify and escalate material risks and ensure bad news moves quickly and accurately.
Build and lead a high-performing team across engineering, operations, program management, supply chain, quality, finance, commercial functions, and human resources.
Set clear accountability, decision rights, priorities, and performance expectations; develop talent and succession plans and make organizational changes when needed.
Create a culture of transparency, urgency, accountability, collaboration, and fact-based decisions, with visible leadership across operating locations.