Sr. Director of Plant Operations

• Location 605 UTEX Rd.,Weimar, TX, 78962,United States
• Employee Type FT Exempt
• Required Degree 4 Year Degree
• Travel 10%
• Manage Others Yes

UTEX Industries is a leading manufacturer of engineered sealing solutions serving the oil and gas, industrial, and petrochemical markets. With a legacy of innovation and operational excellence, we take pride in our people, our products, and our purpose. Join a team that values safety, integrity, and continuous improvement.

UTEX is seeking a hands‑on, transformational Sr. Director of Plant Operations to lead its largest and most strategically important manufacturing site. The plant produces precision seals and engineered components for demanding industrial applications across oil & gas, mining, water distribution, chemicals, and general industrial markets. Reporting to the SVP Operations, this role carries full accountability for safety, quality, delivery, cost, workforce capability, equipment reliability, capital execution, and sustained operational performance — while leading the site through the transformation to a disciplined, future‑state operating model.

Success requires an executive‑level leader who is equally comfortable on the shop floor and in front of senior leadership — someone who can assess the current state, define a clear future‑state vision, and translate that vision into an executable roadmap that improves flow, discipline, and performance in a complex, high‑mix manufacturing environment. This role requires a visible, hands‑on leader who ensures stable day‑to‑day execution while building the systems, standards, organizational capability, and accountability needed to sustain operational excellence over the long term.

The site has a strong technical foundation, differentiated material and process capabilities, and significant opportunity to build a higher-performing, more disciplined operation. The Sr. Director will assess the current operating model, define the future‑state vision, and lead the organization through the changes in process, systems, capability, and culture required to get there — driving measurable progress in safety, first-pass quality, on‑time delivery, capacity utilization, labor productivity, scrap reduction, maintenance execution, and capital effectiveness along the way.

• Lead all site operations, including production, quality, planning, maintenance, EHS, shipping, engineering, tooling, and support functions.
• Serve as the transformational leader for the site — assessing current operations, defining the future‑state operating model, and leading the organization through the changes in process, systems, capability, and behavior required to achieve sustained operational excellence.
• Own plant performance results across safety, quality, delivery, cost, asset reliability, labor productivity, and customer service.
• Build and institutionalize a robust, integrated planning process — spanning demand, capacity, labor, materials, maintenance, and production scheduling — to improve production flow, schedule stability, throughput, and on‑time delivery in a high‑SKU, short‑run manufacturing environment.
• Establish strong operational discipline and management routines, including performance metrics, tiered accountability, daily/weekly operating reviews, visual controls, standard work, escalation processes, and consistent follow‑through.
• Strengthen the use of operational data and performance measures to identify trends, expose root causes, prioritize improvement opportunities, and drive fact‑based decision‑making throughout the plant.
• Strengthen quality performance through first‑pass yield improvement, scrap/rework reduction, process control, and root cause analysis —…