Vice President of Manufacturing - Americas & Europe

Overview

The Vice President of Manufacturing, Americas & Europe is responsible for leading, optimizing, and scaling current and future manufacturing operations across all U.S., Americas, and European facilities. This role ensures the efficient, high-quality, and cost-effective production of precision optical components and assemblies while driving operational excellence, workforce development, and execution of strategic initiatives across both regions. The Vice President provides executive leadership of production control, planning and scheduling, inventory and transactions across the U.S., Americas, and Europe, ensuring seamless coordination across all Americas and European sites to meet customer commitments.  This role works closely with Strategic Sourcing and Quality leadership to assure we are delivering on profitability, quality and OTD.

This leader is also responsible for partnering with the Continuous Improvement team on driving improvement initiatives, leading change across multiple facilities in both regions, implementing new technologies, and working with global leadership on capacity planning and strategy development to assure alignment with corporate goals.

Responsibilities

Multi-Region Manufacturing Operations Leadership

• Lead daily operations across all Americas and European manufacturing facilities to ensure production of precision optical components and assemblies with industry-leading speed, quality, and cost structure.
• Oversee, through regional leaders, plant-level management of production control, work-order release, capacity loading, inventory, quality, packaging, logistics, and inter-facility shipments across both regions.
• Ensure strong operational discipline and adherence to KPIs including:
• On-Time Delivery (OTD)
• First Pass Yield (FPY)
• Throughput and productivity targets
• Scrap, rework, and cost-per-unit metrics
• Coordinate closely with Sales and Business Lines, and direct the Supply Chain team, to align production schedules and priorities with customer requirements and market demand.

Capacity Planning, Scheduling & Cost Optimization

• Lead both short- and long-term capacity planning for the Americas and Europe factories, ensuring alignment with global capacity plans, customer forecasts, and technology roadmaps.
• Direct operational planning including staffing, budget development, cost center management, and capital needs.
• Own production scheduling and resource allocation, proactively adjusting plans to mitigate constraints, minimize bottlenecks, and optimize customer delivery.
• Maintain executive oversight of intercompany transfers, production scheduling adjustments, and coordination of multi-region workflows to meet commitments.
• Partner with the Supply Chain and Planning teams to manage raw material, WIP, and finished goods inventory targets, including CHAMP programs and end-of-life processes.

Quality, Process Control & Compliance

• Implement and maintain robust quality systems in alignment with ISO AS9100, ISO-9001 and with familiarity around MIL-SPEC, ISO-13485, and IATF-16949 standards.
• Ensure continuous statistical monitoring of process performance and drive root-cause analysis (RCA), corrective actions (CAPA), and preventive measures to resolve deviations.
• Ensure strong adherence to SOPs, production instructions, and best-in-class optical manufacturing practices.
• Partner with the Quality organization across the U.S., Americas, and Europe to maintain process compliance and strengthen production-integrated quality control systems.

Strategic Planning & Change Leadership

• Serve as a key member of the Global Manufacturing leadership team; translate the global manufacturing strategy into actionable execution plans across Americas and Europe sites.
• Lead cross-functional strategic initiatives, including factory scale-ups, new technology introduction, footprint optimization, and organizational redesign where needed.
• Drive change management efforts across multiple facilities to support growth, process transformation, systems upgrades, and digital manufacturing initiatives.

Continuous Improvement Partnership & Technology Implementation

• Partner closely with the Continuous Improvement team to embed a culture of continuous improvement using Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, 6S, and other structured methodologies across Americas and Europe operations.
• Sponsor and support Continuous Improvement-led projects on the manufacturing floor to reduce cost, improve flow, eliminate waste, shorten lead times, and enhance operational efficiency.
• Contribute to and execute against the Manufacturing Technology Roadmap, partnering with Global Manufacturing, R&D, and Business Lines to integrate advanced technologies into production environments.
• Ensure smooth operational deployment of new processes, machines, and digital tools—not only piloting improvements but embedding them into the day-to-day workflow.

Leadership, Talent Development & Culture

• Lead, mentor, and develop regional leaders, plant managers, production leaders and technical teams across the Americas and Europe to ensure strong succession pipelines and high performance.
• Create an accountable, execution-oriented culture emphasizing teamwork, communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Design organizational structures and staffing plans to support current production needs and future growth.
• Participate in hiring, performance evaluations, promotions, and compensation planning for operations leadership roles.

Safety, Environmental & Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure compliance with occupational safety requirements, OSHA standards, and all relevant environmental regulations.
• Maintain safe, clean, well-organized production environments across all sites in the Americas and Europe.
• Support corporate safety initiatives, including laser safety and environmental stewardship.

Cross-Functional & Executive Engagement

• Act as a critical cross-functional partner to Sales, Finance, HR, Engineering, and IT/IS – proactively building strong working relationships across departments, since success in this role depends on tight alignment with the broader business rather than manufacturing operating in isolation.
• Work closely with IT/IS to optimize production systems, dashboards, manufacturing automation, and digital workflows.
• Present operational performance, challenges, and proposed solutions to senior leadership, executive management, and the Board as required.
• Serve as a key liaison between Americas and Europe operations and global manufacturing teams.

Qualifications

To perform this position successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary responsibility satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with known disabilities to perform the essential functions provided that such accommodations do not impose an undue hardship on EO. Any employee who believes they require reasonable accommodations should notify EO’s Human Resources department.

Required Skills & Abilities

• Strong background in optics, photonics, precision manufacturing, semiconductor, precision coating technology or related advanced manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated success leading multi-site, multi-region operations with high-mix, low-to-mid volume technical manufacturing.
• Proven ability to lead complex change initiatives and execute strategic programs across multiple facilities and regions.
• Hands-on operational strengths—comfortable jumping into scheduling, planning, intercompany transfers, and resource allocation to solve issues in real time.
• Experience with ITAR, ISO-9001, MIL-SPEC, and ideally ISO-13485 / IATF-16949 environments
• Expertise in Lean, Six Sigma, SPC, DMAIC, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot technical and operational issues.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills; comfortable operating in complex, matrixed, multi-region environments—this role requires deep, ongoing collaboration with Sales, Finance, HR, and Engineering.
• Strong customer focus and ability to support key customer engagements operationally.
• Prior experience directly leading Quality and/or Supply Chain organizations, ideally across multiple regions, strongly preferred.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office; experience with SAP or other ERP systems required.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in optics, engineering, manufacturing, or related technical discipline required; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of increasing responsibility in manufacturing operations, including direct site, multi-site, and multi-region leadership; prior P&L or general management experience preferred.
• ASQ SQE/SQA certification and Six Sigma Green Belt strongly preferred; Black Belt a plus.

Other Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship or permanent residence required.
• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods; ability to travel 25–40%, domestically and internationally, including to European facilities.
• Must meet any additional requirements as deemed necessary by management.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Think you meet some of the requirements but not all? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs for which they do not meet every qualification. If you see a role that interests you, we encourage you to apply, regardless of whether or not your experience is completely aligned with the job description. Edmund Optics is committed to becoming the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace within the Optics and Photonics Industry and beyond. You may be a great candidate for this role or others within Edmund Optics.

Compensation Range Transparency:

At Edmund Optics, we are committed to transparency and equity in our hiring practices. The posted salary range for this role reflects the expected base pay. The actual offer will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to relevant skills, education, work experience, business needs, and geographic location.

Salary Range:$210,000-$260,000 per year

Benefits:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Life, AD&D, Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Company Match up to 3%
• Daycare and Gym Reimbursement
• Paid Parental Leave and New Mother Benefits
• Training and Development Opportunities

Availability of these benefits may depend on the country and employment type.