Sr. Director/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, Decision-Making & Problem-Solving, Risk Management, Communication, Change Management, Collaboration & Influence, Technical Acumen, Analytical & Financial Skills, Resilience & Adaptability, Mentorship & Talent Development, Results Orientation, Travel - approximately 25%; at times could be more.