Director of Manufacturing Operations - Irvine, CA, United States
$178,420 - $240,000 USD yearly
Originally posted 28 July 2026 by the employer. Relisted by the employer on 28 July 2026.
About the role
The Director of Manufacturing Operations provides leadership for all manufacturing operations at the Irvine site, overseeing assembly, machine shop, clean room operations, manufacturing engineering, and production planning. The role supports custom-engineered motion subsystems and electromechanical assemblies for the Positioning Solutions business.
What you'll do
- Lead end-to-end manufacturing operations across assembly, machine shop, clean room, manufacturing engineering, and production planning with accountability for safety, quality, delivery, and cost. - Embed Lean principles, disciplined problem-solving, and KPI-driven execution to improve throughput, cycle time, yield, and cost performance. - Direct production planning and capacity management to align labor, equipment, and resources to demand while supporting on-time delivery and inventory management. - Partner with Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, Finance, and business line leaders to support new product introductions and process robustness. - Build and develop manufacturing teams while establishing operational accountability and safety practices.
What you'll need
- Progressive leadership experience in manufacturing operations, including environments such as clean-room, semiconductor, precision, medical device, or life sciences. - Experience leading multifunction manufacturing organizations encompassing production, manufacturing engineering, and production planning with safety, quality, delivery, and cost accountability. - Demonstrated experience applying Lean manufacturing, continuous improvement methodologies, and KPI-driven execution. - Operational and financial acumen in capacity planning, resource alignment, and translating business strategy into execution. - Ability to meet physical requirements, including wearing clean-room gowning and PPE, lifting up to 25 lbs, and traveling up to 25%.
Skills: manufacturing operations, lean principles, continuous improvement, production planning, clean room operations, capacity management
This role has been open 201 days — well above the 54-day median for Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering roles.
Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering · Manufacturing Equipment
|
Open roles in category
2487
|
Median days open
54 d
|
Median salary
$99k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Novanta | All employers we track in this specialty (2487 roles · 78 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 31 | 2487 |
| Open roles in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family | 41 | 10037 · 107 employers |
| Median days open | 89 d | 54 d (+35 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $99k |
Skills observed across this category: manufacturing operations, lean principles, continuous improvement, production planning, clean room operations, capacity management
Who's hiring in this category
- Micron Technology · 364 open roles · median 80 d
- Applied Materials · 259 open roles · median 38 d
- Entegris · 217 open roles · median 44 d
- Lam Research · 112 open roles · median 66 d
- Infineon Technologies · 99 open roles · median 47 d
- ASML · 67 open roles · median 52 d
How we counted: 2487 open Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering (Manufacturing Equipment) roles from 78 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 25 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Process, Fab & Equipment family row. Figures refresh nightly.