PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

To lead the introduction of best of breed engineering/operational processes and a change of culture to support profitable growth of the company from sub $10 million to $ 30 million in 3 years.  Our client successfully delivered revenues of $17 million in 2023 due to a classified military project that required high volume-accelerated production during that year.

The need for rapid but robust engineering development and reproducible, well documented manufacturing is essential for that success to be fully realized.   An incoming executive will need to work with the CEO, head of Engineering and other production-related functions to instill process discipline, robust yet nimble R&D capabilities, tackle various bottlenecks, solve systemic product delivery delays, and instill a performance-driven culture.  The successful candidate will have successfully created change through mentoring, coaching, ensuring accountability and upgrading roles where necessary.   

SUPERVISOR

The position reports directly to the CEO.  The production and operations infrastructure will all be direct reports with dotted line supervision of the engineering department. There will naturally be additional Interfaces with cross functional heads of departments and the Board of Directors.

RESPONSIBILITIES

In the broadest sense the role of the VP OPS is to

-            Lead the implementation of strategic initiatives

-            Coordinate departments for smooth operation

-            Align operational processes with the above

-            Manage operational aspects of market penetration

-            Enhances service facility to meet both

-            Mitigates operational risk

-            Optimizes operational costs

-            Allocates resources to meet strategic objectives

-            VP Ops ordinates product manufacturing and delivery

Specific to Our Client, the VP OPS, with the support of the CEO, the process to hold departmental heads accountable by:

§  Establishing a regular cadence with each department head around steps to achieve SMART goals.  Extend initially to supervisor level and eventually operator level

§  Assess ability of key individuals to extend skills beyond “one trick pony” and work with them to upskill their capabilities in a positive manner

§  Remove the culture and attitude of “this is how we have done it for the past 30 years”

§  Assess training and development needs of departmental heads and key individuals.  Assess if a training investment will result in a successful and lasting change

§  Define skills and responsibilities of replacement personnel.  Lead recruitment using personal networks and recruiting agencies as needed

§  Drive a culture to be metrics and KPI led with individual accountabilities to meet short and medium term objectives.  Will to take corrective actions in the event of short falls

Implement Objectives and KPIs to include but not limited to:

§  Seek to reduce cycle and labor time to the maximum possible extent from design through to production, test, QC and shipping/receiving

§  Development, Use and Maintenance of component libraries for all new product and adaptations of prior designs.

§  Always follow industry standard RF design procedures (e.g. schematics, layout, mechanical component standardization, design and tolerance for “lights out machining”), while maintaining a rapid R&D/prototyping capability.  Assign target timelines at each step.

§  Ensure a culture of:

•           Reproducible manufacturing

•           Inline QC and capturing of all technical deviations

•           Consistently achieve a 98% on time delivery metric

•           Remove RMAs due to our Clients failure targeting 2% or less

•           Ensure chargeable RMAs to have a gross margin of 50%

Lead, track, mentor, train and implement initiatives to change company culture to operate best in breed operational practices from engineering through production.

Anticipate and analyze gaps required in skills, equipment, capacity (flow) and personnel to achieve required engineering and production goals.  Develop metrics and tactics to mitigate negative effects (risks) or accelerate positive outcomes 

Hold key individuals accountable for tasks and actions and be prepared to train, augment, re-skill or re-organize as needed to create successful departments.

§  In conjunction with other executive staff, ensure that the Board of Directors is appropriately and sufficiently informed to enable directors to make judgements on key issues and decisions well ahead of time.

§  Serve as the key catalyst for introducing new thinking, approaches, practices, processes, tools and systems within engineering, production and the organization as a whole

§  Build and nurture an organizational culture aligned with the Company’s vision, mission and values.  Model behavior for others and hold the team accountable to operate in a manner consistent with them.

§  Drive an objectives and performance driven new product development culture defining ROI/NPV metrics based on regulation mandated, performance specs, cost of development and sales projections, product line synergies   

§  Ensure the company meets required levels of compliance such as Mil specs, Export Regulations, ITAR, NIST, Phipps and company standards.

§  Ensure effective internal controls and management information systems are in place.

§  In conjunction with other executive staff, represent the Company to and effectively communicate and consult with customers, suppliers, partners, employees, government authorities, and other key stakeholders.

§  Drive the engineering and production organization towards meeting the company’s financial goals

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

The following critical success factors represent those deemed most critical to be accomplished in year one to ensure success:

§ Establish a regular cadence to set and track those capable of achieving operations goals across all departments

§ Continue to nurture a specialized engineered solutions company culture using best of breed processes enabling the shortest time to market without compromising product quality or engineering standards.

§ Demonstrate the ability to make decisions and impartially follow up and hold people accountable.

§ Evaluate current QMS and fundamentally retool all aspects of its performance. Improve upon current OpEx framework and policies.

§ Drive a “no surprises” culture – build and maintain a constant pulse on the business operations to anticipate positive and negative deviations to plan, proactively detect in time to communicate and have a chance to correct, all while operating with the appropriate level of attention to safety and quality.

§ Reduce systemic product shipment delays.

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

               Background

§  15+ years including top leadership positions in operations.

§  Experience in active RF components (High Power Amplifiers and Systems), assemblies and systems serving US military markets and/or telecom markets. 

§  Operations experience that includes most of the following – overall operations leadership, supply chain, production planning, manufacturing engineering, production, Facilities, EH&S.

§  Understands the unique engineering requirements of the aerospace and defense industry, including the intricacies required to produce and assemble parts to the standards of the military sector and blue chip manufacturing organizations

§  Metallurgical CNC machining including programing requirements, CMM inspection, cutting tools & applications on various metal, methods of non-destructive testing (x-ray, FPI, MPI), and non-conventional manufacturing processes.

§  Experience in AS9100 and ISO 9000

§  Knowledge of quality systems/standards, application of Lean principles, inventory/raw material rationalization, design/component standardization, rapid product development

§  Government and military compliance.

§  Experienced in process improvement techniques.

§  Knowledge of business, finance, human resource, and management principles.

§  Experience/Knowledge of technical operations with complex and varied workflows.

§  Solid information system, data and analytical foundation, including systems such as ERP. Data Warehouse, Advanced Reporting, Manufacturing Execution Systems.

§  General management and exposure to profit-and-loss leadership.

§  Has some experience in the integration of acquisitions in the middle market arena.

§  Ideally, brings the dual benefits of training/pedigree from large scale company experience, combined with more recent “hands on” small/mid-sized company experience in a private/private equity context.

§  Experienced in directly managing manufacturing and assembly operations, with proven success in an effective continuous process improvement.

§  Experience leading the operations of a $25+ million business as envisioned for the foreseeable future.

§  Proven experience in stewarding and supporting the profitable growth of an enterprise, through both organic and non-organic means.

§  Direct experience working with primes, multi-billion dollar manufacturing companies, Tier 2 and Tier 3 defense contractors, large scale telecom system integrators, government entities.

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

Aptitude

§  A visible, dynamic and engaged leader who is “out and about” in his/her organization; sleeves rolled up. Not an “ivory tower” executive.  Very strong and well-developed people leadership and people development skills, with an ability to inspire and motivate staff. 

§  Possess a bias to go to the root of the issue with a “GEMBA mindset”.

§  Experience in production/manufacturing processes with variety of materials.

§  Possess an ability to rapidly acclimate, identify high value payoff activities, decide the appropriate direction, and approach, and then execute rapidly.  The preferred candidate is one who is easily frustrated by indecision, inaction, and suboptimal performance but knows how to work through that and bring the company along in positive manner

§  An unblemished record as related to his or her ethical integrity and that of the organizations he or she has served.

§  Possess ability to rapidly acclimate to business environment which has potential to scale rapidly and demand other executive level functions/direct leadership requirements.

§  Persuasive with good negotiation and influence skills. Effective at persuading others to change their minds or behaviors. This is particularly important for this role as success will be influenced by the job holder’s ability to partner and persuade the entire organization to rally behind a common cause or goals.

§  Self-confident and determined. A confident, resilient, grounded executive able to handle challenging situations comfortably and calmly. Takes responsibility and leads the front, with sufficient gravitas to inspire and give confidence to all stakeholders.

§ Ability to fit in with and drive towards achieving a target culture as defined by getting things done, working at pace through collaboration, being ambitious and creating a positive and inclusive place to work.

§  Above average negotiation and influence skills. Effective at convincing others to change their minds or behaviors. This is particularly important for this role as success will be influenced by the VP OPS’s ability to partner and persuade the entire organization to operate as one brand to all customers.  

§  Recognizes how to delineate between “pillars” of talent which are autonomous and driven or require motivation but are vital to company success. Can identify all “high potential” in the organization where it is necessary to accelerate career planning and promotes such “A” Players. Last, is not satisfied and does not accept “B” Players – and has a “coach first, but if not successful then cut” mentality commonly found in top-tier organizations.

§ Communication – An effective communicator with highly effective written and verbal communication skills and the ability to effectively convey the company’s strategic imperatives to motivate and align employee behaviors.

§ Engaging – A magnet for talent who is also able to develop and retain.  Has an available network of proven talent to potentially draw from and can build effective teams in an inclusive and collaborative manner to achieve common goals.

COMPANY FACILITIES AND CULTURE

The facility is a modern, very clean, highly integrated, work-flow focused (LEAN, 5S) facility.  The company is ISO9000 certified.  The capabilities of the company have received significant praise and commendation from companies like Lockheed Martin, ViaSat, Honeywell and others a like. 

The company has approximately 40 employees of which around 25% are degreed engineers.  In recent years this function has been upgraded talent wise and some additions are still in process.  Operations requires a significant upgrade in operational standards, manufacturing execution, efficiency and talent. 

The environment is very multicultural and friendly.  People want the company to do well but many suffer from 20+ years working in a limited capabilities professional environment where instructions were simply given by the previous owner as opposed to employees being empowered to excel (mind set: “we have done it this way for 30 years…..”).  

Technology speaking the company is in an upward trajectory towards meeting, exceeding or re-positioning to meet the market.  Specific upgrading investments currently in play are

-            Implementing robust, industry standard, military engineering processes

-            Commercializing a new, patented disruptive telecom technology across all products

-            FPGA digital platform with a third party developer and adding internal talent

-            Evolving an internal inventory system and BOM functionality module

-            In the planning stage are AS 9100 certification, implementation of ITAR, NIST and Phipps Compliance processes

APPLICATIONS DOMAIN

-            The core business of the company is the manufacture of Radio Frequency (RF) Amplifiers and signal processing cavity filters.

-            The company has two divisions, a military and telecom.

-             The military division designs and manufactures predominantly high-power RF amplifiers through rapid prototyping and subsequent manufacturing of discreet modules and systems.  Applications are military (EW, radar, communications).

-            The telecom division makes products for public safety applications (Bi-directional amplifiers for wireless public safety, wireless cellular and RF to light, wired applications) supporting product line is cavity filters. 

-            Frequency range is UHF upwards.  Power is 0.5W to around1000W in single modules.