Sr Manager, Business Operations — Operations & Supply Chain

MISUMI Americas, a division of MISUMI Group, is a leading provider of standard, configurable, and custom manufacturing solutions. By integrating a vast catalog of components with a world-class digital manufacturing platform, MISUMI Americas empowers engineers and procurement teams to accelerate innovation across the entire product lifecycle. With operations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago, the company serves as a vital partner for the most innovative companies in the Americas.

1. →Operating Cadence Ownership: Design, own, and continuously improve the operating rhythm of the Operations & Supply Chain organization — weekly leadership staff meetings, monthly and quarterly business reviews, regional deep dives, and goal-setting cycles. Build agendas and pre-reads, ensure the right decisions reach the right forums, capture decisions and actions, and relentlessly drive follow-through to closure.
2. →Strategic Initiative Leadership: Directly lead selected cross-regional, cross-functional initiatives on behalf of the SVP — from framing the problem and structuring the work plan through mobilizing owners, removing blockers, and landing measurable outcomes. Serve as the connective tissue between regional General Managers, functional leaders, and corporate stakeholders.
3. →Decision Support & Analysis: Prepare the SVP for high-stakes decisions and escalations: gather and pressure-test inputs from across the organization, build first-draft analyses and business cases, frame options with clear trade-offs, and synthesize complex, ambiguous situations into crisp recommendations.
4. →Executive Communications: Draft high-quality executive content on behalf of the SVP — executive-team materials, organizational narratives and announcements, all-hands content, and updates to corporate and parent-company stakeholders. Ensure messaging is consistent, accurate, and lands well across a global audience.
5. →Goal & Performance Tracking: Administer the organization's goals and KPIs: track progress against commitments, surface risks and slippage early with recommended interventions, and prepare honest, data-grounded status reporting for the SVP and executive stakeholders.
6. →Meeting Leadership & Representation: Run key meetings end-to-end — agenda, facilitation, minutes, decisions, and action tracking. Where appropriate, represent the SVP in forums and working sessions, exercise sound judgment on the SVP's behalf, and disseminate key takeaways and decisions with authority and accuracy.
7. →Organizational Connective Tissue: Build trusted relationships across the US, Japan, Mexico, India, and China regional teams and with functional partners (Finance, People, Product, Commercial). Sense organizational health, surface what the SVP needs to hear — not just what is easy to say — and help information flow across time zones and reporting lines.
8. →Time & Priority Management: Manage the SVP's calendar as a reflection of the organization's priorities: architect the week around what matters most, make deliberate trade-offs on the SVP's time, coordinate complex international travel tied to business objectives, and handle expenses and logistics with efficiency — delegating and systematizing routine administration wherever possible.
9. →Confidentiality & Judgment: Operate daily with highly sensitive information — personnel matters, organizational changes, strategy, and financials — with absolute discretion and professionalism.
10. →Special Projects: Take on ambiguous, high-priority projects as they arise — research, diligence support, event and offsite design, or anything else the moment requires — with an ownership mentality and minimal direction

• 9+ years of experience in business operations, chief of staff, management consulting, supply chain / manufacturing operations, or program management roles, including significant time supporting or working directly with senior executives.
• Demonstrated track record of owning cross-functional programs end-to-end and delivering measurable business outcomes in a fast-paced, global environment.
• Strong analytical skills: fluency in Excel / Google Sheets, comfort working with KPIs and dashboards, and the ability to turn imperfect data into a clear, defensible recommendation.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication in English, including the ability to draft executive-quality documents, narratives, and presentations with minimal editing.
• Structured problem-solver with high ownership and a bias for action; comfortable operating with ambiguity and minimal direction.
• Outstanding judgment, discretion, and integrity in handling confidential and sensitive information.
• Proven ability to build influence without authority across regions, functions, and levels — including senior leaders — and across significant time zone differences.
• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or equivalent advanced degree a plus.

• Domain exposure to manufacturing, hardware, or supply chain operations.
• Experience operating in a multinational, matrixed organization — including working with parent-company or corporate stakeholders across cultures.
• Proficiency with modern collaboration and productivity tools (Google Workspace, Slack, Confluence / Jira) and BI tools (e.g., Looker, Tableau); enthusiasm for using AI tools to increase personal and organizational leverage.
• Experience designing and executing executive events, offsites, and all-hands meetings for a global audience.
• Formal project management training or certification (e.g., PMP) is a plus.