Vice President, Engineering…  and Chief North America Engineering Officer 

Company Overview

Our client, a global Fortune 500 organization, is the world’s leading provider of cleaning, food safety and health protection products and services for the hospitality, foodservice, healthcare and industrial markets.  The company operates in over 160 countries with over 26,000 associates worldwide and serves its customers with innovative and unique solutions for cleaning, sanitizing, and sustaining.

And it does this with a keen sense of responsibility to address many of the critical macro trends shaping the complexity of today’s world:   safety challenges resulting from growing demand for food; an aging population’s need for quality health care; insatiable energy demands; and increasing scarcity of fresh, clean water.

• Water – with a broad suite of technologies and expertise, our client helps customers manage water through conservation, recycling and reuse.
• Energy – by identifying and treating process-related problems and providing customers with products that minimize energy use, our client helps customers reduce their environmental footprints.
• Healthcare – our client’s infection prevention expertise is grounded in research and real-world applications, and their comprehensive approach to infection prevention encompasses a broad range of cleaning and sanitizing solutions, as well as protocols, training and tools that promote disciplined, effective prevention strategies.
• Food safety – with its in-depth knowledge and integrated systems approach, our client helps customers prevent food safety issues and head off emerging threats – from agricultural production, to processing, to foodservice.

Delivering on these commitments to customers across the globe requires some exceptional engineering talent and leadership.  Are you the right Vice President, Engineering to help make that happen? 

Position Profile

Reporting to the Vice President, Americas Supply Chain Organization, our VP Engineering will serve as the Chief Engineering Officer for North America, and a key change agent on the company’s top leadership team.  The Vice President, Engineering we seek will:

• Develop and execute the technical strategy for engineering and reliability in the company’s North America Supply Chain organization.
• Drive the engineering organization to deliver technical leadership and sustained performance by providing innovative technology and quality products.
• Partner with Supply Chain leaders, meeting challenging and demanding global supply chain objectives, to build sustainable competitive advantage through an increasingly integrated and proactive Global Supply Chain.
• Help implement the company’s LEAN cultural transformation across all areas of engineering and operations using strong Toyota Production System (or derivative) experience.

Our client defines its Supply Chain organization in a broad, expansive sense, meaning that it comprises all functions necessary to invent, commercialize and deliver product or services to its customers. As such, these “supply chain” functions include engineering, procurement, manufacturing planning, quality, logistics, manufacturing and related support services and roles. The vice presidents of these functional areas are peers to the VP Engineering.

The VP Engineering will be responsible for 12 manufacturing facilities located in North America; a staff of two corporate engineers; and, indirectly, ten engineering managers, plus over 100 engineers and reliability technicians, located in-plant and throughout the North America supply chain network.  The position is based at the company’s global headquarters in St. Paul, MN. Travel will be primarily domestic, interspersed with occasional international trips, and amount to approximately 40%. 

Why You Want this Position

• Imprint your creativity and passion on an already-world-class business by taking a hands-on leadership role to improve strategy and tactical execution to support business requirements and results, in engineering and across the company.
• Create an immediate, highly-visible and sustainable impact on the operations of a dynamic and rapidly evolving publically-traded products and services organization.
• Work in an environment where performing well and making the world a better place go hand in hand; where promoting health and well-being, practicing sustainability and being socially responsible are just as important as lowering costs, increasing efficiency and earning profits.
• Enjoy personal recognition for your achievements, and excellent financial rewards and outstanding professional career growth opportunities.

Principal Responsibilities

• Develop capital plans and coordinate long-term capital investment requirements in support of projected market demands.
• Assess and assign appropriate capital project resources, and personally oversee select major capital projects, working closely with Supply Chain Finance to track execution against plan, assuring on time and on budget completion.
• Recruit, develop and motivate strong engineering staff to support projects across North America, providing leadership to both the central engineering resource team as well as to regional/plant teams.
• Provide technical direction and guidance, as well as hands-on project management, for all product development and production (manufacturing) engineering.
• Oversee and improve company’s engineering process standards, coordinating with Global Supply Chain staff on definition and implementation.
• Drive innovative thought leadership throughout the engineering organization, in approach, process and methodology, with particular emphasis on Lean continuous improvement.

What You Bring to the Table

Strategic thinking and execution.  Experience, judgment and accountability – to plan and accomplish engineering and business  objectives, based on a focused and disciplined approach to technology and product development, supported by…

• Minimum of 15 years progressive, successful operations leadership, including both hands-on plant/manufacturing management, and at least five years of senior-level engineering management experience.
• Related industry (e.g., chemicals, food, batch process mfg.) background, in a multi-facility manufacturing environment.
• Well-practiced customer interface and relationship-management expertise.
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, communications and analytical skills.
• Strong LEAN and/or Toyota Production System implementation experience.
• BS in engineering; MS Engineering or MBA preferred.

Other factors which will be critical to the success of the person in this position:

• Keen understanding of business operations and issues in general, and a broad view of engineering as both a business leadership as well as a technical function, with its critical relationship to product design and development.
• Demonstrated results orientation, with an ability to redesign engineering practices and processes to deliver breakthrough results.
• Ability to critically analyze existing performance issues and introduce innovative methods and solutions to generate leading-edge operational standards and sustainable, best-in-class outcomes.
• Proven change leadership skills, with the passion to engage, energize and motivate large disparate groups of people to introduce, implement and sustain the high-impact actions necessary for aggressive operational and financial performance improvement.
• Well-honed team leadership skills, with ability to create a sense of shared ownership and urgency within the engineering organization, building and enhancing the development of an accountable, results-driven culture.

Compensation 

Competitive executive compensation package includes base salary, short and long-term performance  incentives, and relocation assistance, as appropriate. 

Please connect directly with Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search, who has been retained to conduct this executive search +1 (847) 304-5300

Please respond at  resume@LeanRecruiter.com     This position description has been posted at http://LeanJobsBlog.com.  Our main Web site is http://LeanRecruiter.com   You can also connect with Adam at http://twitter.com/LeanThinker or http://LinkedIn.com/in/adamzak