Operations Director

The organisation

Our client, located in the northwest of the Netherlands with approximately 100 FTE and a turnover of €70M, is the world’s leading player in their industry. The company is part of an American group of companies and has a very strong international character. It is expected that the current growth will continue in the coming years. The needs of our client’s niche market are growing strongly. Orders are already flooding in, but customer demand continues to rise. In order to manage this growth and help the organisation scale up, this globally active machine builder is looking for an Operations Director.

The position

As Operations Director, you will be part of the Directors team, which also includes the General Manager and the Financial Director. You will report to and work closely with the General Manager and chair the Operational Management Team.

Tasks & responsibilities

In this position, you will be responsible for the entire operational organisation in the Netherlands (production, planning, purchasing and logistics) and eventually for one branch in Southern Europe. You will create a climate of continuous improvement, where employees want to change and improve. The core focus is on efficiently and effectively structuring the organisation and processes around project management, assembly, warehouse and service & maintenance. Together with the management, you will be responsible for the strategic plan, and you and your team will translate it into departmental objectives for the operational organisation.

There is an emphasis on coaching and guidance for employees within the organisation: drafting, updating and implementing individual development plans around on-the-job training and gaining knowledge and skills. You will be responsible for increasing the professionalism, performance, motivation and multifunctional deployability of all employees within the operations department, so you can anticipate the strong growth that the organisation is currently experiencing and will continue to experience.

Candidate profile

You should have at least a technical HBO degree, preferably in mechanical engineering. Additional business administration education is required. You should have extensive management experience in the industry, preferably in machine or equipment construction or similar, of which at least five years in a responsible management team position as director, operational manager or plant manager and be familiar with working in an organisation under an American parent company. Experience in reporting to a foreign parent company is a must.

You should be familiar with and have experience in the solution/consultative sales process in an industrial environment. You should also have experience optimising (operational and logistical) business processes with tools like Lean Assemby. You should have a good understanding of finances and must be proficient in English as well as Dutch; speaking an extra European language is an advantage.

The culture within the company demands a natural leader who is decisive and pays attention to the processes, but above all to the people . A people manager who has team player qualities, a leader who is technically strong with a solid business perspective attitude, results oriented and profit driven. As a person, you should be open, honest, transparent, loyal and down to earth.

The offer

A challenging management position at a successful internationally operating machine builder. This position offers the right candidate the opportunity to progress to General Manager. It is a great challenge for a driven and unifying leader. The client offers good primary and secondary terms of employment.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below. For more information, please contact Anco de Graaf & Gertjan van de Groep, +31 346 – 87 00 20.