VP of Operations

Bishop Wisecarver Corporation•Pittsburg, CA

9d•Onsite

About The Position

Bishop-Wisecarver (BW) is looking for a hands-on, strategic VP of Operations to lead Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, and the operational delivery of increasingly complex engineered solutions. This is not a traditional plant leadership role. BW needs an operations leader who understands the physical-product world, can improve today's execution, and can build the systems and capabilities BW needs for its next stage of growth. For the right leader, this role offers significant growth potential, including possible succession into a future COO or CEO role based on performance, leadership capability, and the needs of the business. A critical part of this role is building the operating discipline that turns complex engineered opportunities into repeatable, profitable business. You'll be expected to understand more than operational KPIs. You'll know your numbers and understand the connection between engineering decisions, labor, capacity, project execution, gross margin, working capital, customers, and growth. You'll help answer the questions that matter: Did we estimate the engineering hours correctly? Did the project deliver the margin we expected? What did the first build teach us? What needs to change before we build the next one? You'll also contribute to company strategy and work across functions to turn strategy into measurable execution. BW is building its leadership team with the future in mind. We need someone willing to roll up their sleeves today while developing the strategic, financial, commercial, and people leadership capabilities required to take on significantly broader responsibility tomorrow. For a leader who delivers results and demonstrates the ability to lead across the enterprise, this position offers the potential to develop into a future COO or CEO succession candidate. If you want to build something, improve something, and have the opportunity to ultimately lead something bigger, we'd like to talk.

Requirements

Experienced operations leader from an engineered-product environment with meaningful exposure to manufacturing and physical products.
Background could include capital equipment, automation, robotics, semiconductor equipment, packaging machinery, medical equipment, industrial systems, mechatronics, or another engineered-product business.
Understand how Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, customers, people, and financial performance connect.
Hands-on Lean and continuous-improvement leadership
Leadership experience across Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, or related functions
Strong manufacturability and value-engineering experience
Understanding of factory automation and scalable production
Strong project and financial discipline, including quoted vs. actual engineering hours, NRE, project P&Ls, change orders, labor absorption, gross margin, capacity planning, and first-build vs. repeat-build economics
Demonstrated ability to develop leaders and strengthen teams
Strong business judgment and the ability to think strategy over tasks
A firm but fair leadership style with clear expectations and accountability

Nice To Haves

Industry experience in automation, motion control, robotics, mechatronics, or engineered products is helpful, but the specific industry matters less than your experience delivering tangible products.

Responsibilities

Drive Operational Excellence – Improve productivity, flow, quality, cost, and OTD through disciplined Lean practices and clear operating accountability.
Own Operational Performance – Lead Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Operations cost-center performance, driving product-line cost reduction, cost accuracy, and BOM/routing integrity.
Automate the Factory – Implement practical automation with clear CapEx ROI and payback expectations to improve efficiency, capacity, consistency, and scalability.
Improve How We Build Products – Drive manufacturability and value engineering by tightly connecting Engineering and Manufacturing.
Strengthen Supply Chain & Working Capital – Reduce single-source risk, improve supplier performance, increase inventory turns, and reduce WIP and cash conversion cycle in partnership with Finance.
Develop Our People – Build stronger leaders, develop existing talent, establish accountability, and increase organizational depth.
Build for Growth – Improve the systems, processes, and operating discipline BW needs to scale profitably.
Own the operating process from concept and quote through engineering, first build, FAT, industrialization, and repeat production.
Establish stage gates for technical feasibility, commercial viability, engineering readiness, and manufacturability.
Ensure first builds capture the learning, documentation, actual costs, and process improvements needed to make future builds increasingly efficient and profitable.
Establish disciplined project economics around NRE, engineering hours, scope/change management, assembly labor, capacity, and lifecycle margin.
Partner with Sales to ensure BW pursues opportunities we can successfully engineer, manufacture, deliver, and scale.