Director, Operational Excellence - Pneumatics

If you’re looking for a special place to build or grow your career, you’ve found it. Whether you’re an experienced professional, a recent college graduate or somewhere in between, IDEX is a place where you can apply your existing skills and learn new ones in an environment where you can make an impact.

With interesting opportunities in engineering, marketing, sales, supply chain, operations, HR, finance, and more across more than 40 diverse businesses around the globe, chances are, we have something special for you.

Who We Are
The IDEX Performance Pneumatics Group, comprised of Gast, Airtech, and US Valve, is a global leader in engineered solutions for vacuum, pressure, and flow control. With engineering and manufacturing centers in Benton Harbor, Michigan; Rutherford, New Jersey; and Linthicum, Maryland, we offer the scale and agility to innovate, engineer, and transform ideas into reliable solutions for the world’s most critical applications. Our products power critical applications across industries, including data centers, medical and life sciences, industrial automation, and energy systems. The IDEX Performance Pneumatics Group unites three industry-leading brands with a shared mission: to design, create, and deliver advanced solutions for vacuum, pressure, and flow control.. We are driven by innovation, precision engineering, and a commitment to reliability. By partnering closely with customers, we deliver tailored solutions that keep essential systems running.  As part of IDEX Corporation, we leverage global reach and a culture of innovation to enable the technologies shaping modern life. 

Position Summary

The Director of Operational Excellence will lead enterprise-level continuous improvement, advanced processing, and operational excellence across the Pneumatics platform, including Gast Manufacturing, Airtech Vacuum, and U.S. Valve. This role will drive large-scale transformational initiatives, deploy the IDEX Operating Model, and build sustainable CI capability within each business unit by developing BU leaders to identify, lead, and sustain high-impact improvement projects. The Director will translate platform strategy into clear priorities, metrics, dashboards, and operating cadences that improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Operational Excellence Strategy: Develop and execute a platform-wide CI and transformation roadmap aligned to business unit priorities, strategic growth objectives, and measurable operational outcomes.
• Large-Scale Transformation: Lead complex, cross-functional transformation projects from opportunity identification and business case development through implementation, adoption, and sustained benefit realization.
• Lean / Continuous Improvement: Lead Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, value stream improvement, and rapid improvement initiatives to improve productivity, cost, quality, delivery, safety, and customer experience.
• Business Unit Leader Development: Coach and develop BU leaders, site leaders, and functional owners to build local CI capability, lead improvement projects, remove barriers, and sustain operational discipline.
• Strategy Communication: Communicate the operational excellence strategy clearly across all levels of the organization, ensuring leaders and teams understand priorities, expected outcomes, ownership, and progress against goals.
• Metrics, Dashboards & Governance: Develop platform-level KPIs, visual dashboards, governance routines, and stakeholder review cadences that drive transparency, accountability, root cause problem solving, and timely decision-making.
• Standardization: Establish common processes, metrics, standard work, playbooks, and governance across Gast, Airtech, and U.S. Valve while allowing appropriate local adaptation by business unit.
• IDEX Operating Model: Champion consistent adoption of daily management, goal deployment, monthly reviews, 80/20 focus, and disciplined execution.
• Advanced Processing, Automation & AI Enablement: Lead automation, digital productivity, Industry 4.0, AI-enabled workflow improvements, and advanced manufacturing process initiatives, with emphasis on reducing transactional waste, improving decision speed, and increasing productivity.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, Commercial, and IT leaders to identify opportunities, align stakeholders, validate financial impact, and sustain improvements.
• Performance Management: Define, track, and report KPIs; use dashboards, data, and regular operating reviews to drive accountability, escalation, and continuous improvement.

Measures of Performance

• Safety performance and proactive risk reduction through standard work, corrective actions, and CI project execution.
• Productivity and cost savings delivered through validated transformation projects, automation opportunities, and AI-enabled transactional process improvements.
• Quality, delivery, lead-time, and customer experience improvement across targeted value streams and business units.
• Adoption of daily management, goal deployment, standard work, monthly operating reviews, dashboards, and stakeholder review cadences.
• CI capability maturity within each business unit, including number of trained leaders, active project owners, and locally led improvement projects.
• CI pipeline health, project completion rate, financial validation, dashboard accuracy, and sustained benefit realization.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Business, or related field required; Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent advanced CI certification strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of manufacturing, operations, supply chain, or operational excellence experience, including leadership of large-scale transformation or continuous improvement programs.
• Experience leading multi-site or multi-business unit improvement initiatives in an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to coach business unit leaders, develop CI project owners, and build sustainable improvement capability across functions and sites.
• Strong knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, daily management, standard work, goal deployment, performance management systems, and financial validation of improvement projects.
• Experience defining strategic metrics, developing executive dashboards, communicating performance trends, and aligning key stakeholders around priorities and corrective actions.
• Experience with automation, digital productivity tools, AI-enabled process improvement, advanced manufacturing processes, KPIs, dashboards, and data-driven decision-making.

Core Competencies

• Leadership & Influence: Builds alignment and drives results across functions, sites, and business units without direct authority.
• Strategic Execution: Translates business strategy into transformation priorities, measurable outcomes, project roadmaps, and disciplined execution routines.
• Change Leadership & Talent Development: Coaches BU leaders, develops CI project owners, builds local capability, and leads sustainable culture change.
• Communication & Stakeholder Alignment: Communicates strategy, metrics, risks, and progress clearly to executive, functional, and site stakeholders.
• Results Orientation: Uses data, dashboards, metrics, and disciplined follow-through to deliver measurable improvements and sustained benefit realization.

IDEX Corporation provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance. We also make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees and applicants, as required by law.

Are you ready to join a different kind of company where our people, our culture, and our commitments are centered around providing trusted solutions that improve lives around the world?

Total Rewards

Benefits Package

Our comprehensive U.S. benefit offerings include: Health benefits, 401(k) retirement savings program with company match, PTO, and more. More information on our benefits and rewards can be found on our career page: https://www.idexcorp.com/careers/our-benefits-and-rewards/

IDEX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IDEX gives consideration for employment to qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other consideration or protected category made unlawful by federal, state or local laws.

Attention Applicants:  If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, please let us know. Likewise, if you are limited in the ability to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, we will determine an alternate way for you to apply. Please contact our Talent Acquisition Team at lfcareers@idexcorp.com for assistance with an accommodation. These contact tools may be used only by individuals with a disability for accommodation requests. Do not inquire as to the status of an application.

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