Vice President, Operations

Graham Packaging is a people, planet and values-based company and a leader in sustainable packaging manufacturing. From the kitchen to the laundry room, Graham Packaging is part of your everyday life. For employees at Graham, our Blue Culture is part of their everyday lives, too. In other words, Blue is how we do things here. At Graham, we are united by a clear vision. We know our part and help those around us know theirs, encouraging one another to continuously improve. We create a safe, challenging environment to innovate by supporting creative ideas and new ways of thinking. We take the initiative to cultivate our individual growth and help others do the same, while keeping ourselves and one another accountable. And we actively promote cooperation, collaboration, integrity and respect across regions and teams to foster an engaged, diverse and connected workforce. We value our employees, and a Blue Culture allows for the most rewarding employee experience as part of the Graham family. Blue is how we feel about what we do—together—to create a better tomorrow. Working at Graham means you lead constructively with clear goals, use diverse thinking to drive excellence, accountability, innovation, as well as demonstrating collaboration, embracing learning, and taking action for continuous improvement and growth.

The Vice President, Operations is responsible for the overall performance of manufacturing operations across the Business Unit. Reporting directly to the BU President and serving as a member of the BU leadership team, this leader will lead the Operations Directors and ensure they use a common, data-driven approach to leading their plants and managing plant performance. The role will establish an operating environment where safety and quality are non-negotiable while driving improvements in productivity, cost, reliability, customer service, and overall operational performance. 

 

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring bold leadership, confident decision-making, and relentless urgency. 

The leader must set direction, build strong teams, establish consistent operating standards, and stay close enough to the business to identify problems and drive them to resolution. 

 

 

• Establish employee safety as the highest operating priority and hold leaders at every level accountable for creating and maintaining a strong safety culture. 

• Ensure consistent execution of environmental, health, safety, and quality standards across all facilities. 

• Build quality into the manufacturing process through strong operating discipline, process capability, root cause analysis, and corrective action. 

• Partner with EHS, Quality, and Engineering to improve performance, reduce defects and customer complaints, and eliminate recurring issues 

• Drive sustainable improvements in productivity, labor efficiency, equipment reliability, scrap, waste, asset utilization, and conversion cost. 

• Lead the execution of Graham’s Operating System (GOS), lean manufacturing principles, standard work, and continuous improvement across the manufacturing network. 

• Establish clear performance metrics and operating rhythms that turn operational, customer, and financial data into insight, identify emerging risks and opportunities, reinforce accountability, and accelerate corrective action. 

• Scale proven practices across plants to deliver measurable improvements in cost, margin, and operational performance. 

• Lead multi-site manufacturing performance with accountability for safety, quality, service, cost, productivity, and people. 

• Identify underperforming operations, establish improvement plans, and ensure actions deliver measurable and sustainable results. 

• Develop and execute the BU manufacturing strategy by translating business priorities, customer commitments, and growth plans into clear operational priorities and actions across the manufacturing network. 

• Optimize capacity, asset utilization, capital investment, automation, and technology to support current requirements and future growth. 

• Lead, develop, and retain a high-performing team of Operations Directors, using talent acceleration to strengthen leadership capability, succession, and accountability for results. 

• Develop plant leaders who operate like business owners and understand the connection between operational decisions, customer performance, and financial results. 

• Set clear expectations, provide direct feedback, coach leaders, and demonstrate the credible presence to address difficult talent or performance issues decisively. 

• Build organizational capability and succession plans for critical Operations roles. 

• Ensure manufacturing operations consistently meet customer expectations for quality, service, cost, and reliability. 

• Build strong relationships with key customers and provide senior Operations leadership when manufacturing performance affects the customer relationship. 

• Partner with Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, EHS, Commercial, Finance, and HR to deliver BU priorities and execute new products, volume changes, and operational improvements. 

• Bring a strong Operations perspective to BU strategy, planning, and decision-making. 

• Assess safety, quality, plant performance, organizational capability, and leadership effectiveness across the manufacturing network. 

• Deliver measurable improvements in productivity, labor efficiency, equipment reliability, scrap, cost, safety, and quality. 

• Deliver key projects on time while ensuring all plants across the Business Unit achieve established safety, quality, and EBITDA targets. 

• Strengthen standard work, performance management, problem solving, and accountability across all facilities. 

• Develop a longer-term Operations strategy aligned with BU priorities, customer requirements, capital needs, and growth plans. 

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Business, Operations Management, or a related discipline required; advanced degree preferred. 

• Minimum of 15 years of progressive manufacturing and operations leadership experience, including responsibility for complex, multi-site operations. 

• Demonstrated success improving safety, quality, productivity, cost, reliability, and overall manufacturing performance. 

• Strong experience with lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, operational excellence, capital planning, and asset optimization. 

• Proven ability to build, assess, and develop strong Operations leadership teams and create a culture of accountability. 

• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to translate operational improvements into improved financial performance. 

• Bold, hands-on leader who acts with relentless urgency, makes confident decisions, and communicates with credible presence across plants, customers, and senior leadership. 

• Ability to travel up to 70%. 

Graham Packaging is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, religion, creed, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.