Director Operations

Description

As a member of the Safco Leadership Team, the Director of Operations plays a strategic role in overseeing the overall operational performance across engineering, manufacturing, quality assurance, supply chain, and our distribution center (DC). This position collaborates closely with business teams and enterprise initiatives to promote cross-business alignment and value sharing.

The Director of Operations leads functions in engineering, manufacturing operations, quality assurance, safety, business systems, supply chain management and distribution. They ensure seamless coordination between our plant, distribution center, and suppliers to deliver exceptional customer satisfaction. Additionally, this role promotes a positive safety culture, upholds rigorous quality standards, and fosters continuous improvement through data-driven processes and operational excellence.

In partnership with others, the Director of Operations is responsible for both short-term and long-term planning. They assess emerging systems, capital investments, new technologies, and risks associated with obsolescence. This evaluation ensures that assets, priorities, and capabilities are aligned with Safco's strategic goals.

This position reports to the SVP of Safco at our New Hope, MN location.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Set strategic direction for operations: Lead development and execution of short and long-term strategies across engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and distribution to achieve operational excellence and business goals.
• Establish and monitor KPIs: Refine role-aligned KPIs for engineering, production, quality, logistics, and DC performance; use data analytics to drive accountability, prioritize work, and continue the acceleration of continuous improvement.
• Champion safety and EHS partnership: Partner with EHS to embed a unified safety culture across all sites and DC; ensure safety metrics, training, incident reduction programs, and leadership visibility make people safety an uncompromised priority.
• Optimize business systems and digital enablement: Together with IT, select, implement, and govern business systems processes and tools (ERP, MES, WMS, PLM) and workflow tools that connect engineering, manufacturing, quality, and Supply Chain; build business cases and ROI analyses for technology and capital investments that drive measurable efficiency gains.
• Align product development with operations: Collaborate with Sales and Product Development to ensure manufacturability, supply chain readiness, and DC handling are considered early; serve as gatekeeper of the stagegate process to enforce compliance with engineering, quality, and operational standards.
• Define and maintain quality standards: Create and maintain product quality statements, specifications, and inspection protocols that reflect brand commitments and customer requirements; engage customers and industry standards to validate expectations and performance targets.
• Lead capital planning and delivery: Own capital strategy and execution across sites and DCs, including annual budgeting, project justification, vendor selection, installation, commissioning, performance validation, and post-project review; coordinate with enterprise and finance to align timing and maximize corporate leverage.
• Build a prioritized multi-year project pipeline: Develop and maintain a 3-year portfolio of projects focused on safety, productivity, capacity, emerging technologies, and cost reduction; ensure clear business cases, resource plans, and prioritization criteria to deliver impact on schedule.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration and talent development: Foster strong cross-business partnerships and standardize processes across engineering, manufacturing, quality, Supply Chain, and DCs; develop leadership, technical, and frontline talent to sustain operational capability and continuous improvement.
• Develops the operational and manufacturing budgets: Approves and monitors expenditures, reporting variance to budget.
• Travel up to 25%.
• Other duties, as assigned.

STANDARD DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Observes & enforces all company personnel, quality, and safety policies.
• Maintains a positive work atmosphere by acting and communicating in a manner so that you work effectively and cooperatively with coworkers and leadership teams.
• Safely conduct work, in compliance with OSHA, company policies, and procedures.
• Lead (coordinate, facilitate, and motivate) the efforts of the individual, team, customer, and other resources associated with work or project activity. Ensure alignment on goals and deliverables.
• Risk management: Ensure risks are fully understood & have appropriate mitigation and contingency plans.
• Actively participates in facility and industry committees, events, and/or meetings.

REQUIRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Bachelor's degree in engineering and/or operations or related field.
• Minimum of 10-15+ years of Operations and Manufacturing leadership experience.
• Demonstrated P&L ownership or accountability for operational budgets and cost to serve at the plant/DC level.
• Established experience owning quality systems and driving a safety culture.
• Familiarity with navigating regulatory and industry standards.
• Proven success in leading capital planning and project delivery.
• Experience managing ERP and operations technology.
• Track record of stakeholder management across sales, product development, finance, and enterprise teams.
• Ability to effectively handle multiple priorities and challenging deadlines.
• Strong sense of urgency and ownership.
• Self-starter, highly motivated with exceptional communication skills.
• Ability to see the larger picture of the business and the business needs to support continued growth with a focus on strategically and objectively assessing and prioritizing these "needs, (equipment, people resources, leader roles, and accountabilities).

PREFERRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• MBA or technical Master's preferred
• Lean Six-Sigma experience preferred

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The starting base salary range for this position is $178,000 - $222,000 per year plus eligibility in annual bonus program. The compensation posted is the anticipated pay for the position at the time of the posting. We may pay above or below posted amount based on several factors, including, but not limited to education and/or certifications, skills, experience, or work location. Some positions may qualify for additional compensation in the form of bonuses or deferred compensation options.

At LDI, we are pleased to provide employees with a comprehensive benefits package including health/dental/vision insurance options; paid time off; 10 paid holidays; 401(k) plus company matching and annual discretionary profit sharing; flexible spending and health savings account options; life and disability insurance; tuition assistance; wellness and mental health resources, and financial advising services. Eligibility in benefit programs is based on hours worked per week.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Regular sitting, standing, and walking throughout the day to accomplish tasks
• Manual and finger dexterity used regularly with some repetitive finger motions
• Ability to work in front of a computer screen for long periods of time
• Specific vision abilities include close and distance vision; able to identify colors, small letters, and numbers; hand/eye coordination, depth perception and able to adjust focus
• Hearing and speaking
• Other conditions may include frequent reaching, stretching, pushing, pulling, pinching, grasping, and gripping.

ABOUT OUR COMPANY

Comprised of multiple companies with headquarters in New Hope, Minnesota, Liberty Diversified International (LDI) is a privately held company employing more than 1,900 individuals across our manufacturing facilities, production facilities and core business operations in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, California, and Mexico. With deep roots in the corrugated box manufacturing industry, we operate in the core markets of paper, packaging, workplace products, corrugated plastics and building products.

Since 1918, our values - Caring, Innovation, Trust and Excellence - have guided our day-to-day activities. We believe that when our employees are aligned with these values, we create superior service and solutions for our customers. The LDI family of companies includes Liberty Packaging, Liberty Paper, Liberty Plastics (Custom Solutions and Quarrix Building Products) and Safco.

Liberty Diversified International is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, age, creed, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, disability, or any other protected class.