Operations Director

For a leading international industrial manufacturer with multiple global production facilities, we are looking for a seasoned Operations Director to lead the site in the Netherlands. The organization is undergoing a major transformation focused on sustainability, automation, digitalization and operational excellence. The Operations Director will play a key role in shaping and delivering this change while safeguarding safe, reliable and efficient operations.

This is a confidential role for an experienced, result oriented, energetic and people-focused operations leader who thrives in a complex engineering environment and knows how to build support and momentum for change across all levels of a large site.

Key Responsibilities

• Full responsibility for end-to-end site operations, including Production, Logistics and, where applicable, additional functions.
• Lead, coach and develop a management team of approximately 7 direct reports, fostering a high performance, accountable and engaged culture on site.
• Drive both operational execution and longer-term strategic improvement initiatives, ensuring alignment between daily performance and future capability.
• Drive operational excellence through continuous improvement, Lean practices, automation and data driven decision making.
• Act as a visible change leader, creating awareness, understanding and commitment for a wide transformation agenda, including sustainability, digitalization and cultural change.
• Translate strategic goals into clear operational priorities, KPIs and improvement roadmaps, with rigorous follow-up.
• Ensure safety, quality, delivery and cost targets are consistently achieved while enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the production assets.
• Collaborate closely with international operations and group leadership teams to align on standards, best practices and long-term capacity plans.
• Be a trusted and influential leader on site, building strong relationships with employees, unions, and external stakeholders.

Candidate Profile

• Technical or engineering degree.
• Proven experience as Operations Director, Plant Director, Site Leader or Senior Operations Manager within a large industrial or engineering-driven environment.
• Demonstrated success in leading change, not only implementing new processes and systems but actively engaging people, shifting behaviours, and building buy-in.
• Strong background in large-scale manufacturing and logistics; experience with multi-site responsibility or a multinational organisation.
• Data-driven, financially astute and comfortable with KPIs, CAPEX projects, budgets and investment cases.
• Deliver measurable results in safety, quality, output, cost and on-time delivery, consistently raising performance standards.
• Conceptual thinker with strong analytical ability; able to translate strategy into execution.
• Fast thinker, high energy, result-oriented and persistence in driving performance improvement.
• Excellent leadership skills: clear communicator, credible, resilient and able to gain respect on the shop floor as well as at management level.
• Fluent in Dutch and English.
• Willing and able to be present on-site at least four days per week.



Personality & Leadership Style

• Inspiring and engaging; someone who brings people along in times of change.
• Strong personality with courage and maturity, able to make tough decisions.
• Hands-on and visible on the shop floor.
• Pragmatic, collaborative, and values transparency and accountability.
• Positive energy, sharp intellect and a forward-looking mindset.

What's on offer

An attractive compensation package and strong career development potential within a modernising, multinational environment.