Director, Operations Program Management

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as the head operations program manager for the company, providing overall direction, accountability, and execution ownership for production and unit-build programs.
• Own and maintain the operations build schedule, including production sequencing and execution against committed timelines.
• In partnership with Engineering Program Management, contribute to the development and maintenance of the integrated company master schedule, ensuring alignment between development readiness and production execution.
• Drive daily, weekly, and monthly execution rhythms across operations teams to ensure alignment, accountability, and progress toward delivery commitments.
• Proactively identify when builds or programs are off-track, lead cross-functional problem-solving efforts, and drive decisions to recover schedule.
• Makes final trade-off decisions across cost, schedule, and risk for operations execution, and communicate impacts and mitigation plans to the executive team.
• Maintain authority to stop a build when quality, readiness, or program gates are not met, and escalate decisions and recovery plans as required.
• Anticipate and prevent execution surprises through robust planning, transparent communication, and proactive risk mitigation.
• Work closely with manufacturing, additive manufacturing, quality, and supply chain teams to ensure build readiness and execution alignment.
• Track and manage additive manufacturing component readiness and flow to support production schedules.
• Partner with supply chain leadership to identify material risks and initiate supplier escalation when required.
• Ensure parts and components required for field service and customer support are built and available on schedule.
• Provide regular operations program updates to the Hyliion leadership team on schedule performance, risks, and mitigation strategies.
• Establish and implement core operations program management processes in environments where limited structure exists today.
• Foster a disciplined, execution-focused culture that motivates teams to meet aggressive production timelines.
• Provide leadership, mentorship, and accountability for operations program management staff, initially managing at least one production planner / program manager.
• Build scalable program management systems to support growth from low-volume production to higher-rate manufacturing.

Qualifications

• Education, Experience and Certifications:
  • Bachelor’s degree required. Engineering and/or advanced degree preferred.
  • Experience as a Program Manager Leader or Director-level experience is required.
  • 8+ years of experience in program management, with a proven track record of successfully delivering complex hardware and software projects.
  • Experience working in a fast-paced, startup-like environment, ideally within industries such as aerospace, robotics, or other technically complex fields.
• Skills and Abilities:
  • Strategic Program Leadership – Ability to set vision, master schedules, and priorities while aligning cross-functional execution with corporate objectives.
  • Decision-Making & Problem-Solving – Skilled at synthesizing complex inputs, driving timely decisions, and removing roadblocks.
  • Risk Management – Proactively identifies risks, develops contingency plans, and prevents surprises by anticipating downstream impacts.
  • Communication – Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
  • Change Management – Adept at guiding teams through organizational, technical, and process changes while maintaining momentum.
  • Collaboration & Influence – Strong ability to build trust and influence at all levels of the organization, including executives and technical staff.
  • Technical Acumen – Comfort working with engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, software, configuration management) to ensure technical feasibility and program alignment.
  • Program Management Expertise – Deep knowledge of PM tools, frameworks, and best practices (Scrum, Agile, stage-gate, earned value, etc.), with experience standing up a Program Management COE.
  • Analytical & Financial Skills – Ability to manage program budgets, resource allocation, and trade-off analyses to achieve cost, quality, and timing objectives.
  • Resilience & Adaptability – Thrives in fast-paced, dynamic environments with competing priorities.
  • Mentorship & Talent Development – Proven track record of coaching, developing, and building high-performing program management teams.
  • Results Orientation – Relentless focus on execution, accountability, and delivering results on time and at quality.
  • Travel - approximately 25%; at times could be more.