Vice President, Operations

Company Statement Graham Packaging is a people, planet and values-based company and a leader in sustainable packaging manufacturing. From the kitchen to the laundry room, Graham Packaging is part of your everyday life. For employees at Graham, our Blue Culture is part of their everyday lives, too. In other words, Blue is how we do things here. At Graham, we are united by a clear vision.

We know our part and help those around us know theirs, encouraging one another to continuously improve. We create a safe, challenging environment to innovate by supporting creative ideas and new ways of thinking. We take the initiative to cultivate our individual growth and help others do the same, while keeping ourselves and one another accountable. And we actively promote cooperation, collaboration, integrity and respect across regions and teams to foster an engaged, diverse and connected workforce.

We value our employees, and a Blue Culture allows for the most rewarding employee experience as part of the Graham family. Blue is how we feel about what we do—together—to create a better tomorrow. Working at Graham means you lead constructively with clear goals, use diverse thinking to drive excellence, accountability, innovation, as well as demonstrating collaboration, embracing learning, and taking action for continuous improvement and growth.

Overview

The Vice President, Operations is responsible for the overall performance of manufacturing operations across the Business Unit. Reporting directly to the BU President and serving as a member of the BU leadership team, this leader will lead the Operations Directors and ensure they use a common, data-driven approach to leading their plants and managing plant performance. The role will establish an operating environment where safety and quality are non-negotiable while driving improvements in productivity, cost, reliability, customer service, and overall operational performance.

This is a hands‑on leadership role requiring bold leadership, confident decision‑making, and relentless urgency.

Responsibilities

The leader must set direction, build strong teams, establish consistent operating standards, and stay close enough to the business to identify problems and drive them to resolution.

Key Responsibilities

Safety & Quality

• Establish employee safety as the highest operating priority and hold leaders at every level accountable for creating and maintaining a strong safety culture.

• Ensure consistent execution of environmental, health, safety, and quality standards across all facilities.

• Build quality into the manufacturing process through strong operating discipline, process capability, root cause analysis, and corrective action.

• Partner with EHS, Quality, and Engineering to improve performance, reduce defects and customer complaints, and eliminate recurring issues

Productivity & Operational Excellence

• Drive sustainable improvements in productivity, labor efficiency, equipment reliability, scrap, waste, asset utilization, and conversion cost.

• Lead the execution of Graham’s Operating System (GOS), lean manufacturing principles, standard work, and continuous improvement across the manufacturing network.

• Establish clear performance metrics and operating rhythms that turn operational, customer, and financial data into insight, identify emerging risks and opportunities, reinforce accountability, and accelerate corrective action.

• Scale proven practices across plants to deliver measurable improvements in cost, margin, and operational performance.

Manufacturing Performance & Strategy

• Lead multi‑site manufacturing performance with accountability for safety, quality, service, cost, productivity, and people.

• Identify underperforming operations, establish improvement plans, and ensure…