Vice President, Operations - North America

The Role

Cyclic Materials is at a critical growth moment. Two new facilities are ready for commissioning, a third is entering early execution, and additional sites are under consideration to support our North American expansion. As Vice President, Operations – North America, your immediate priority will be to safely and successfully launch our first two facilities to design capacity, while establishing the operational foundation required to support rapid, capital-efficient growth.

What You Will Do

• Lead the end-to-end setup of initial production lines, including equipment procurement, installation, and facility commissioning.
• Own the safe operation of all sites, ensuring teams are trained, qualified, and operate to the highest safety standards.
• Drive the transition from pilot operations to 24/7 commercial-scale production, delivering against yield, throughput, and quality targets.
• Partner with procurement and logistics teams to design and execute circular feedstock and supply strategies.
• Collaborate with Strategic Partners (SP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) to secure long-term, high-quality feedstock and offtake streams.
• Establish and maintain clear, rigorous performance metrics that provide transparency into operational readiness and ramp-up progress.
• Apply Lean and Six Sigma principles to circular material flows, reducing process inefficiencies in systems built to eliminate material waste.
• Implement and scale the operational technology stack—including IoT, ERP, and material tracking systems—to enable traceability, performance management, and certification requirements.
• Build and lead strong site-level leadership teams, fostering a culture of safety, accountability, and alignment with Cyclic Materials’ circular economy mission.
• Manage relationships with local stakeholders, including municipalities, labor groups, and community partners, during facility development and ramp-up.
• Work closely with Capital Projects, Health, Safety & Environment (HSE), and Legal teams to ensure full compliance with environmental, zoning, and safety regulations (e.g., MOL in Ontario, OSHA in the United States).

What You Will Bring

• 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, operations, and supply chain, ideally within cleantech, recycling, or industrial processing environments.
• Proven experience scaling operations beyond pilot stage, with the ability to build processes, teams, and systems in high-growth environments.
• Demonstrated success managing operational and regulatory complexity across Canadian and U.S. manufacturing environments.
• Hands-on experience leading chemical process, recycling, or advanced materials facilities.
• Post-secondary education in Engineering, Operations Management, or a related technical discipline; an MBA is strongly preferred.
• Deep understanding of circular economy principles, including mass balance, logistics-related carbon intensity, and life-cycle assessment.

Nice to Have

• You see manufacturing sites not as standalone assets, but as interconnected nodes in a global circular materials ecosystem.
• You are comfortable moving between the production floor and the boardroom—discussing PLC automation one moment and Scope 3 emissions strategy the next.
• You bring a track record of stabilizing complex or delayed projects while preparing organizations for their next phase of growth.
• You have the resilience to manage a delayed plant startup early in the week and the strategic clarity to present a five-year supply strategy to the executive leadership team days later.