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 (https://www.idexcorp.com/our-businesses/business-segments/) around the globe, chances are, we have something special for you.

Position Title: Director of Operations Effective: 2023

Reports to: General Manager Grade: IDEX

Authorized by: General Manager Class: Exempt

Director of Operations

KZValve, LLC – Greenwood, NE

The Company:

KZValve, a business unit of the IDEX Corporation, is an engineering design and valve actuation company focused on Agriculture, Fire, De-icing, Oil, Marine, and Water Processing Industries. We specialize in low voltage actuated valves (that are waterproof and extremely durable) ranging in size from 1/4 inch to 6 inches. Our facility and staff design, engineer, assemble, and sell our finished goods. KZ Valve’s sales channel is primarily direct to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and through a network of Authorized Stocking Distributors.

KZValve operates in the company’s Fluid and Metering Technologies platform. KZValve utilizes the IDEX operating model which is focused on growth with a maniacal focus on Great Teams, Embracing 80/20 and Customer Obsession. Based in Greenwood, Nebraska, KZValve has steadily grown to more than $40 million in revenue and has a strategy to continue to expand its presence across a diverse set of markets through organic investments and acquisitions.

The IDEX Corporation (“Innovation, Diversity and Excellence”) is a diversified, engineered products company serving high-growth niche markets globally. The company specializes in fluid and metering technologies, health and science technologies, dispensing equipment, fire safety and other diversified products built to their customers’ exacting specifications. IDEX invests in new products and markets to drive organic growth; acquiring complementary technologies to their existing offerings; and building a culture of operational and commercial excellence to deliver exceptional performance to their customers and shareholders. More information is available at www.idexcorp.com.

The Position:

Reporting directly to KZValve’s General Manager, the Director of Operations will lead a team of over 75 team members to improve KZValve’s operations through the development of talent, full strategy deployment of 80/20, and execution of the Lean and Continuous Improvement processes to drive customer delivery, margin, and working capital. Driving safety, quality, and delivery metrics as well as engagement metrics. Delivering on financial commitments and ensuring shop floor understanding and buy-in on key operating metrics.

With a high degree of freedom within a disciplined framework, the Director of Operations will develop and implement a robust process-based continuous improvement program at KZValve through a course-correcting plan. This includes creating a rolling 12-month roadmap of improvement projects, a monthly operating cadence and regularly executed kaizens with broad cross-functional participation within the business.

With a proven servant leadership style, the Director of Operations is expected to attract, develop, motivate, and lead a high-performance team while furthering a cohesive, collaborative culture and ensuring that the mission and core values of the company are upheld.

Key accountabilities for the Director of Operations include:

• Accountable for all Operations including Operations Planning, Quality, Assembly, Shipping & Receiving, and Warehousing.

• Lead an 80/20-based Continuous Process Improvement mindset and manufacturing culture. Utilize the principals and tools of operational excellence to reduce process complexity across the business.

• Drive a renewed and continued commitment to Lean, CI and Operational Excellence while deploying new technologies, capital improvements and processes and preparing the organization to leverage those disciplines within acquisitions.

• Develop short-term and long-term plans to ensure that proper measures are in place to track progress.

• Review, analyze and drive internal performance measures. Specifically, define and drive improvement on KPI’s in the areas of safety, quality, delivery, cost and working capital. Direct corrective actions when necessary.

• Work closely with the entire senior leadership team to gain an in-depth knowledge of the business’ end-users, channels, products, applications, and supply chain partners to fully understand what drives value and competitive advantage.

• Develop and own the budgeting and execution with a focus on volume, product costs and margins across the KZValve portfolio.

• Coach and use Performance Management to build a strong and effective team. Provide leadership and direction to staff members, ensuring clarity of objectives and coordination of activities.

• Develop a strong and deep talent pool to build bench strength for KZValve and prepare individuals for other opportunities within IDEX.

The Director of Operations position represents an opportunity for a skilled leader to have a substantial positive impact on the profitable future of a growing company. In addition, the position is viewed as a possible point of succession to the General Manager, and the successful leader will have ample growth opportunities across the IDEX family of businesses.

Candidate Profile and Competencies:

KZValve is in search of a leader who possesses a strong and proven servant leadership and engagement- building skillset. Our successful candidate will be a natural leader and a fast-paced collaborative collaborator who is able to lead both directly and through influence while adapting quickly to situations with high levels of ambiguity. He/she will be a high-energy, transformational operations leader with experience crafting growth-oriented manufacturing strategies while managing a complex production system. As a high-drive/low-ego organizational change leader, our successful candidate must also have a record of developing future functional leaders; therefore, he/she needs to have a proven ability to quickly assess and develop talent.

The Director of Operations position requires an individual with a comprehensive background in manufacturing operations management and proven abilities to deliver both production growth and cost efficiency that create competitive advantage. Critically, the individual must have a demonstrated mastery of a variety of Lean, Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence tools (i.e.: value stream mapping, standard work, 5S, flow, pull, SMED, etc.) to effectively lead within KZValve’s 80/20 operating framework.

Our successful candidate will have a proven record of leading operational initiatives with a sense of urgency to achieve results that meet and exceed business strategies. He/she will possess the ability to design, develop and implement Lean-based, metric-driven operational roadmaps while continually creating and supporting a mindset of continuous improvement across a manufacturing organization. Assessing situations from a “General Manager’s” point of view, the individual will have strong financial acumen and an ability to align the manufacturing plan with the business’ strategic profitable growth objectives.

The Director of Operations position requires candidates with an academic foundation that includes a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing, engineering, business, or a technical discipline. An advanced degree in a related field or an MBA is a plus but not a pre-requisite.

KZValve seeks an individual who has specific, demonstrated competency in the following areas:

Strategic Business Acumen

 Possesses the broad business acumen, strategic planning capabilities and commercial orientation required to act, lead, and think like an operational leader.

 Demonstrated ability to assist in the development and drive market-driven operational strategies that result in sustained, profitable growth.

 Understands the business broadly and possesses the mission-critical technical and functional skills needed to execute successfully.

 Creates a compelling vision, develops long-term strategic plans, makes judgments based on independent thinking and manages ambiguity in complex situations.

Creating Optimal Environments

 Exhibits a high degree of emotional intelligence and managerial courage while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

 Ability to build strong, effective teams through collaboration. Creates an engaged workforce and an environment of accountability. Strong bias towards creating “team wins.”

 Contributes to an atmosphere in which people work together, enthusiastically, and effectively, in producing outstanding results.

 Open, receptive, and approachable. Listens attentively, has a positive attitude, deals calmly with stress, and gives people the opportunity to succeed.

 Exhibits entrepreneurial drive and creates a sense of organizational urgency to secure competitive advantage.

Achieving Results

 Demonstrated ability to deliver consistently outstanding operating results. Will have introduced substantive improvements to processes, operations, and practices.

 Create new approaches to existing problems that have had significant impact on the business and yielded notable performance among peer companies.

 Emphasis on high, uncompromising standards across agreed-upon performance metrics and returns.

 Fact-based leader focused on excellence. An energetic, resourceful, and a direct individual with a strong bias for action. Someone who commits himself/herself fully to stretch goals and who is dedicated to developing and delivering outstanding results.

Location:

The Director of Operations will be based at KZValve’s location in Greenwood, Nebraska.

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?

IDEX is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action 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 (Minorities/Females/Protected Veterans/Disabled).

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.

Job Family: Operations

Business Unit: KZValve