Jobs at Velosity

 Velosity

Senior Vice President of Operations

Position Description

September 2023

The Organization

Velosity is a $125MM private equity (Graham Partners) owned manufacturing company offering fully integrated solutions for medical device & life sciences, aerospace & defense, and industrial manufacturers, and is an industry leader in state-of-the-art custom contract manufacturing, injection molding, thermo-plastics, precision machining, and tool building. 

In early 2023, the company was rebranded to Velosity, bringing together a connected group of acquisitions under one family: Teamvantage, CMD (Custom Mold & Design), CMD (Precision Manufacturing Group), Paradigme Engineering, LLC, and MMD Medical. Historical growth has been 10%+ CAGR in both the recurring and project-oriented activity, and continued strong organic and M&A growth is projected.

Headquartered in Forest Lake, Minnesota, Velosity employs 600+ people and 40+ contract staff across three manufacturing facilities and one tool facility totaling 250,000 square feet. Boasting expansive Class 7 & 8 Clean rooms, Velosity has the space needed to support their partners with a vast array of solutions. They take pride in their culture of collaboration and transparency, as well as their cutting-edge machining, contract manufacturing, and design-for-manufacture capabilities.

For more information, visit: Velosity, and Graham Partners.

Position Summary

The Senior Vice President of Operations (SVP Operations) reports to the CEO and is a member of the General Operating Committee of the company. This position drives accountability to meet all short and long-term business goals related to operations including operational efficiency, cost targets, and environmental health and safety. The SVP Operations has operational responsibility for the management of all manufacturing facilities with a key focus on supply chain including sales and operations planning (S&OP), procurement, continuous improvement/lean and facilities.

The successful SVP Operations will employ servant leadership methodology, be someone others want to work with and learn from, and build strong relationships and teams. This person will motivate, measure, coach and mentor direct reports and other staff to ensure optimum operating performance.

Reports to:                            

Chief Executive Officer, Dave Hemink

Direct reports:                      

General Manager Forest Lake, 4 direct reports + 200 staff     

General Manager CMD, 4 direct reports + 75 staff

Molding Operations Director

Operations Manager Becker, + 12

Facilities Director, 2 direct reports + 11 staff

Supply Chain Manager, 5 direct reports + 1 staff

Indirect report:                     

SVP/General Manager, Brooklyn Park, Darren Bjork (+ 185 staff)

Other key relationships:         

Chief Financial Officer, Mike Vossen

Vice President, Human Resources, Janet Janiszewski

    Vice President of Sales, Tom Caron

    Director of Marketing, Naira Istephanous

     Graham Partners

Position location: 

Forest Lake, Minnesota (2 plants, 30 miles North of the Twin Cities)

Brooklyn Park, Minnesota (12 miles North of the Twin Cities)

Becker, Minnesota (45 miles North of the Twin Cities)

Travel:                                   

Regular travel to & between plant locations required (except Becker)

Up to 20% domestic travel may be required to support M&A activity

Key Responsibilities

Strategy

·      Drive business unit strategy for four facilities including evaluating operational footprint to

revenue and EBITDA targets.

·      Develop and implement strategy for manufacturing capabilities including vertical

integration strategies supporting long-term business growth, profitability and market

share expansion.

·      Partners with others on the General Operating Committee to develop strategic plans for

the Operations organization. Provides hands-on leadership to ensure the strategic plan

translates into operational results.

·      Contribute in meaningful and productive ways to strategy discussions with the CEO,

leadership team, and board.

Operations

·     Directs and monitors overall supply chain management starting with demand forecasting through inventory management. All planning, purchasing, logistics, processing activities that support the company’s operations. The ability to build strong relationships with suppliers is imperative.

·      Troubleshoot operational issues and make long-term improvement recommendations;

see recommendations through to implementation.

·      Ensures that budgetary and gross margin goals are achieved.

·      Maintain control of planned outputs, budget spending, labor efficiency, material

efficiency and employee utilization.

·      Drive lean and continuous improvement in the manufacturing operations; seek efficiencies in operating costs in order to gain operating leverage with existing infrastructure.

·      Improve tracking of overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) across the organization and implement goals focused on maximizing OEE and quality

·      Optimize physical space footprint and guide planning for utilization of available white

space and future geographic expansion needs;

·      Make data-driven decisions on machine utilization, capex investments, customer

prioritization, and employees.

·      Efficiently manage projects within approved budget and proposed timeline.

·      Effectively integrate acquired companies while improving operating efficiencies with

minimal disruption both operationally and culturally.

·      Negotiate with vendors as needed and strategically manage the supply chain to support production while adding value to the business and its customers.

Team Leadership

·      Provide energetic leadership and drive a culture of quality, safety, excellence,

engineering, and proactivity.

·      Create and maintain a leadership presence throughout the organization; “walk the shop floor” in order to effectively collaborate with and influence others to achieve results.

·      Build out and support a team of high performing employees on the manufacturing floor.

·      Build on the company’s strong culture to create a high-performing, high-accountability

work environment.

·      Promotes collaboration and innovation.

·      Evaluate organizational structure, decision-making processes, and team; modify as necessary.

·      Represent the Company in its relationships with major customers, prospects, suppliers and the public to promote a positive image in the industry and generate growth.

Customer/Market

·      Focus on developing deeper relationships with customers, further underscoring

engineer-to-engineer experience.

·      Support customer qualifications and trials as required, ensure site personnel are trained

in all customer-unique requirements.

·      Maintain knowledge of competitor services and advances within the industry market as it

relates to new features and operational capabilities.

New Technology

·      Ensure knowledge transfer of existing technologies, processes and equipment across

the company’s plants and facilities enterprise wide.

·      Manage the integration of new technologies and processes as required.

·      Further develop highly valued capabilities, such as liquid silicone injection molding,

micro molding, etc.

·      Support flawless executive of new product launches for OEM, aftermarket and branded

products in all sites.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

·      Ensure all facilities operate safely and in accordance with the company’s health & safety (H&S) policies, including compliance with all applicable environmental, health and safety regulations.

·      Ensure site support and execution of company ESG initiatives and programs.

·      Adhere to quality and safety systems or maintenance of quality and safety standards.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will be a high-energy operations and manufacturing leader, employing a servant leadership workstyle. This person will have a track record of being both optimistic and realistic, willing to challenge the status quo and strong opinions with their exceptional understanding of operations and manufacturing capabilities and practices.

Leadership Competencies

As a leader at Velosity, the VP of Operations is expected to demonstrate the following competencies:

Continuous Improvement: Embraces changes and prioritizes learning and development. Continually assesses processes and capabilities to ensure current and future needs of the business will be met.

Functional Expertise: Demonstrates highly developed subject matter knowledge and thought leadership in their domain. Stays abreast of trends in the field and appropriately disseminates information through the organization.

Strategic: Views the business strategically, understands the market, identifies trends and takes advantage of opportunistic changes. Provides fresh and innovative ideas and perspectives, recognizes when it’s time to shift strategic direction and anticipates the future. Shows initiative and looks for new approaches and creative solutions.

Results Orientation: Translates organizational strategies and objectives into timely, accurate, actionable plans. Becomes involved in the details of the business to push the organization to achieve results and prioritize effectively. Believes and is dedicated to the Company’s values, purpose and objectives. Establishes aggressive goals and drives for success. 

Outstanding Maturity & Leadership: Possesses a commanding presence and superior inspirational qualities. Decisive, clear and transparent communicator and motivator that creates and champions the Company vision. Creates a strong team atmosphere in which people work collaboratively to produce outstanding results. Decisive, clear and transparent communicator and motivator that creates and champions the Company vision.

Team Builder: Able to assess, train and retain talent, and enhance and develop employee performance. Creates and supports an intentional and cohesive Company culture.

Required experience includes:

1.    Operations/Manufacturing Leadership: 20+ years of progressive responsibilities in operations and/or manufacturing in relevant sized businesses ($50-250MM), including 8+ years at the senior level and knowledge of engineering and technical operations

2.    Contract manufacturing and component and/or mold manufacturing and injection molding (materials, processes and secondary operations) understanding required

3.    Multi-site: 5+ years leading 2+ manufacturing locations; success and comfort building relationships across sites as well as with 3 shifts of manufacturing staff

4.    People Leadership: 10+ years of people leadership experience within a highly technical manufacturing operation, including leadership of managers and director-level direct reports and proven success developing people; this would usually require having managed 200+ people

5.    Servant Leadership: Demonstrates humility, empowers others, pays attention to culture at all levels, exhibits a strong desire for excellence, and has successfully built high-performance teams. Embraces organizational culture; and has a strong walk-the-plant-floor mentality and style

6.    Collaboration and Change Management: A natural motivator of people, relationship builder, developer of talent and strong collaborator with the ability to assess talent and develop chemistry with teams; can effectively influence and drive results, and excels in all phases of business integration

7.    Continuous Improvement/Lean Operations: Proven success implementing lean principles/actions

8.    Data driven approach/metrics orientation: Experience developing, leading, and implementing operations-oriented KPI’s including experience implementing increased accountability and self-directed work teams

9.    Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost: Demonstrated safety leadership and proven experience delivering on relevant processes, systems and metrics

10.  Supply Chain Leadership: Proven experience including S&OP, distribution, and sourcing

11.  Facilities Management: 5+ years leading the facilities function including capacity planning, space optimization, and expansion projects

12.  Technology savvy: Experience working with ERP systems to improve and maintain operational efficiencies; Enterprise business skills including document processing, spreadsheets, communication systems, presentation skills and related office software, business operating systems and tools

13.  Project management experience and excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

14.  Communication Skills: Outstanding interpersonal skills and excellent communication skills oral and written; ability to communicate effectively across cultures and with board members, peers, subordinates, vendors and customers

15.  Academic Credentials: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Sciences, Business or a related field

16.  Standards: The highest level of integrity and ethical standards are assumed

Preferred experience includes:

1.    Electromechanical foundation

2.    Med tech, metals and/or plastics, thermoplastics and silicon commodities

3.    Regulated environment (FDA certifications, med-tech quality systems, ITAR certification)

4.    Private equity owned environment

5.    MBA or related master’s level education

David Lyman

dlyman@lymanexecutivesearch.com

612-812-3263

Heidi Westlind

hwestlind@lymanexecutivesearch.com

952.484.2108