Director of Operations

Position Description Ata Glance

Legrand has an exciting opportunity for a Director of Operations to join the Legrand Lighting Manufacturing Team in Kenosha, WI. As the Director of Operations, you will be responsible for the Legrand Lighting Manufacturing site. The responsibility of this position will include oversight of Safety, Production, Purchasing, Operations Excellence/Legrand Way, Receiving and Shipping teams. This person will be leading plant leadership driving safety and productivity in both labor and material and achieving OTD goal daily.

You will be part of the operations senior leadership team and will work with peers of other functional areas to meet company objectives.

This position is responsible to meet or exceed the annual operating plan and continuously drive improvements in safety, quality, delivery, inventory, productivity and operational aspects of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) roadmap.

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for all day-to-day manufacturing activities across multiple sites, ensuring alignment with Legrand Lighting Manufacturing’s safety, quality, delivery, cost, and growth objectives.
• Lead, coach, and develop Plant Managers, to drive performance outcomes in safety, quality, delivery, inventory, productivity, and employee engagement.
• Establish and monitor key operational metrics, leveraging data analytics to assess performance trends, identify gaps, and drive timely corrective actions to ensure targets are achieved.
• Drive operational excellence initiatives focused on improving throughput, reducing production costs, optimizing inventory and work-in-process levels, and enhancing overall manufacturing efficiency.
• Partner closely with Sales and Commercial teams to ensure operational readiness supports revenue goals, on-time delivery (OTD), and customer satisfaction commitments.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement and capability building, providing direct coaching and mentorship to site leadership teams and developing succession pipelines across locations.
• Lead the deployment, standardization, and continuous optimization of “Legrand Way” (Legrand’s Lean Manufacturing System) across all facilities, partnering with LNCA Lean Sensei to embed lean principles and sustain results.
• Maintain full accountability for Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) across all sites, ensuring regulatory compliance, proactive risk mitigation, and continuous improvement in safety performance.
• Oversee supply chain purchasing alignment, partnering with Plant Managers and Purchasing/Planning teams to ensure material availability, drive cost improvements, and mitigate supply chain risk.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Marketing, Engineering, Sales, HR, IT, Finance, and Logistics leaders to ensure seamless execution of operational and business strategies.
• Build, develop, and retain high-performing teams, fostering leadership accountability, engagement, and talent succession across all sites.
• Perform additional duties and strategic initiatives as required to support operational scalability and business growth.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Business, or related field required. MBA strongly desired.

Experience: 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience. Minimum 5+ years leading multi‑site operations or serving as a Plant Manager in a complex manufacturing environment. Proven experience driving Lean transformation and operational excellence initiatives. Demonstrated success leading large teams and developing senior leaders. 12-15 years of demonstrated success in operations with increasing responsibility.

Location: Chicagoland area – between Kenosha WI/ Chicago area.

Skills/Knowledge/Abilities:

• Ability to travel up to 40% of the time to be onsite at all locations,
• Demonstrated skills in Lean; IE; VSM, Kaizen, TPM, 5S, Pull, kitting, single piece flow, Takt time analysis, standard work, visual management, DFA, DFM and 7-ways.
• Knowledge, understanding and development of operational strategy in a manufacturing environment to align with market requirements.
• Excellent management skills, timely decision…