Position Overview
We are partnering with an established, innovative manufacturer of advanced semiconductor capital equipment to identify an experienced Director of Manufacturing Operations.
This highly visible leadership position is responsible for overseeing a complex manufacturing organization, driving operational excellence, and ensuring the successful assembly, integration, testing, and delivery of sophisticated capital equipment systems.
The ideal candidate is a decisive, hands-on operations leader who thrives in a fast-paced, technically complex manufacturing environment. This individual will bring a strong sense of ownership and accountability, with the ability to develop high-performing teams, solve challenging operational problems, and consistently deliver against customer commitments.
This role requires a strategic thinker who is equally comfortable managing day-to-day factory execution, driving continuous improvement initiatives, and communicating manufacturing performance, financial results, and operational strategy to executive leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Manufacturing Operations & Execution
- Lead daily manufacturing operations across sub-assembly, system assembly, integration, and final test functions.
- Take direct ownership of manufacturing performance, including on-time shipments, product quality, production schedules, and customer commitments.
- Establish and execute manufacturing strategies aligned with organizational objectives, customer requirements, and business growth.
- Identify and resolve production bottlenecks, resource constraints, and operational challenges to maintain consistent factory output.
- Drive operational accountability through clearly defined performance metrics, structured problem-solving, and decisive leadership.
- Ensure manufacturing capacity, staffing, and production resources are aligned with business demand.
Financial & Operational Management
- Develop and manage manufacturing operating budgets, resource plans, labor utilization, and production costs.
- Monitor and communicate key financial and operational metrics, including manufacturing output, revenue-related shipment performance, labor overhead, operating expenses, and production capacity.
- Present manufacturing performance, operational risks, and improvement initiatives to senior executive leadership.
- Identify opportunities to improve cost efficiency, resource utilization, and overall manufacturing productivity.
- Support strategic business planning through accurate capacity assessments, operational forecasting, and data-driven decision-making.
Leadership & Organizational Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop a manufacturing organization consisting of production managers, supervisors, engineers, technicians, and operational support personnel.
- Establish a culture of accountability, ownership, urgency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Evaluate organizational capabilities, identify leadership gaps, and implement development plans to strengthen management effectiveness.
- Make timely, well-informed decisions to address performance issues, operational challenges, and organizational needs.
- Build a high-performance manufacturing culture focused on execution, safety, quality, and customer satisfaction.
- Promote effective cross-functional collaboration with engineering, quality, supply chain, and executive leadership.
Quality & Continuous Improvement
- Champion a proactive safety culture and ensure compliance with applicable manufacturing safety and quality standards.
- Drive improvements in product quality, first-pass yield, manufacturing consistency, and customer satisfaction.
- Lead structured root-cause investigations and corrective action initiatives using methodologies such as 8D, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and statistical process control.
- Develop and execute continuous improvement roadmaps focused on cycle-time reduction, process efficiency, waste elimination, and operational scalability.
- Implement proactive quality initiatives that identify and resolve manufacturing issues earlier in the production process.
- Maintain compliance with applicable ISO certifications and established quality management systems.
Manufacturing Engineering & Process Optimization
- Partner with engineering and manufacturing teams to improve product manufacturability, assembly efficiency, and test effectiveness.
- Drive improvements in manufacturing test strategies, including modular testing, parallel test execution, and automated test methods.
- Identify opportunities to reduce final system test cycle times while maintaining rigorous product quality standards.
- Support new product introductions, engineering changes, and production transitions to ensure manufacturing readiness.
- Collaborate with global suppliers and contract manufacturing partners to support production requirements and operational objectives.
- Lead manufacturing-related insourcing, outsourcing, and production transfer initiatives as required.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Operations Management, or a related technical discipline.
- Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in manufacturing or operations, including at least 5 years in a manufacturing operations leadership role within the semiconductor capital equipment industry.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex capital equipment manufacturing operations, including assembly, integration, testing, and final product delivery.
- Proven accountability for factory performance, production output, on-time shipments, manufacturing quality, and operational execution.
- Strong financial and business acumen, including experience managing manufacturing budgets, labor costs, overhead, capacity planning, and production-related financial performance.
- Ability to communicate operational results, financial performance, manufacturing risks, and strategic recommendations effectively to executive leadership.
- Demonstrated success leading manufacturing teams and developing managers in a demanding, high-performance environment.
- Strong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, structured problem-solving, quality management systems, and data-driven operational improvement.
- Decisive leadership style with a demonstrated ability to solve problems, make difficult decisions, and drive accountability across an organization.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience manufacturing sophisticated semiconductor processing or precision capital equipment systems.
- Experience leading manufacturing organizations of approximately 100 employees, including multiple direct-report managers.
- Demonstrated success implementing Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping, and continuous improvement programs.
- Experience with SAP, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and advanced manufacturing analytics tools.
- Proven success reducing manufacturing cycle times, improving production throughput, and implementing automated or modular final test strategies.
- Experience applying Design for Manufacturability (DfM) principles in collaboration with engineering and product development teams.
- Experience supporting international supply chains, global supplier relationships, and contract manufacturing operations.
- Familiarity with new product introduction, manufacturing transfer, and production scalability initiatives.
Ideal Candidate Profile
The successful candidate will be a confident, results-oriented manufacturing leader who combines strong technical manufacturing knowledge with exceptional operational discipline and business judgment.
This individual should have a proven track record of leading complex semiconductor capital equipment (low-volume/high-mix) manufacturing organizations, improving factory performance, and developing accountable, high-performing teams.
They must be comfortable operating at both the strategic and tactical levels—whether presenting operational and financial performance to executive leadership, making critical production decisions, resolving manufacturing challenges, or coaching managers to improve execution.
Above all, this role requires a leader who takes ownership, drives decisions, holds teams accountable, and consistently delivers measurable operational results.
Additional Information
- Onsite leadership position based in San Jose, California.
- Occasional domestic and international travel may be required.
- Opportunity to lead a technically sophisticated manufacturing organization with significant visibility and influence across the business.
You should be proficient in:
- Leadership / People Management
- Bachelor's Degree
- Cost Accounting
- Lean Manufacturing Principles
- Production Planning & Scheduling
- Supply Chain Management
- Sourcing and Procurement Experience
- Assembly
- Capital Equipment
- Complex Equipment
- Cost Allocation
- Cycle-Time
- Factory Ownership
- Financials
- leadershi
- Low Volume
- Low-Volume
- Physics
- Revenue
- SAP
- Semiconductor Experience
- Test
- Tooling
- Value Stream Mapping
- Operations
Machines & technologies you'll use:
- Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
- Capital Equipment
- SAP
- Complex Equipment]