Director, Operations Technical Support

About the role

Location Address: 123 Main Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30346 Work Shift: Salary Exempt (United States of America) The Director, Operations Technical Support is accountable for operations‑wide technical stabilization, emergency response readiness, and long-term capability building across all manufacturing plants in the United States and Canada. This role owns the technical emergency-response model for Operations-ensuring critical production, equipment, and startup failures are addressed rapidly, effectively, and consistently across the network. The Director provides strategic leadership, prioritization, and direction for a highly mobile team of Technical Support Technicians who deploy to plants during high‑impact events. In addition to crisis response, this role is responsible for ensuring that learned failures become institutional capability, reducing repeat incidents, improving uptime, and strengthening both maintenance and production performance across operations. Candidates can sit anywhere in the United States and must be open to up to 100% travel. Enterprise Technical Emergency Response (Primary Accountability) Own the Operations Technical Emergency Response framework for North America. Establish criteria for escalation, deployment, and prioritization of technical response resources. Serve as the executive point of accountability for major operational disruptions, including: o Extended or repeat downtime events o Critical blow molding or bottle processing failures o High-risk startups, restarts, or capacity expansions Partner with Operations leadership to determine when, where, and how Technical Support Technicians are deployed. Ensure Technical Support Technicians are empowered with the authority, tools, and expectations needed to stabilize operations under pressure. Leadership & Oversight of Technical Support Technicians Directly lead and develop the North America Technical Response Leader(s). Set clear expectations related to: o Speed to stabilization o Decision quality under crisis conditions o Capability left behind after deployment Conduct post-event reviews to assess effectiveness, decision-making, and outcomes. Ensure consistent execution standards, troubleshooting rigor, and reporting discipline across all deployments. Maintenance & Production Capability Strategy Own the enterprise approach to maintenance and production technical capability, with specific focus on: o Blow molding operations o Bottle processing systems and qualifications o Operator and technician troubleshooting depth Align emergency-response learnings with: o Training strategy o Standard work o Equipment operating and maintenance practices Ensure improvements driven through deployments are sustained beyond the immediate crisis. Loss Elimination & Continuous Improvement Identify systemic drivers of downtime, defects, scrap, or throughput loss across plants. Translate recurring incident patterns into targeted improvement initiatives. Partner with Operations, Engineering, and Maintenance leaders to eliminate repeat failures. Track and report enterprise-level trends related to: o Equipment reliability o Technical skill gaps o Emergency response frequency and resolution time Executive Partnership & Governance Act as technical response advisor to senior Operations leadership. Provide concise, executive-level summaries following significant interventions. Influence capital, resource, and talent decisions using field-based operational insight. Support plant and regional leaders without replacing their accountability. Safety & Compliance Ensure emergency-response activities reinforce safety, regulatory compliance, and environmental standards-even under crisis conditions. Set expectations that operational recovery never compromises safety discipline. Reasonable mandatory overtime may be required due to business needs. Required: Supports all manufacturing plants across the United States and Canada. 10+ years leading a Technical or Production team Travel up to 100%, often with little advance notice. Primarily leadership and oversight role; on-site presence expected during high-impact events 10+ years of experience in high-output manufacturing environments, preferably plastics or packaging Demonstrated leadership in operations, maintenance, or technical excellence roles Exposure to capital planning, reliability strategy, and standardized maintenance systems Strong working knowledge of: o Blow molding systems o Bottle processing and downstream equipment o Maintenance and production interfaces Proven experience leading teams through unplanned operational crises Experience in diagnosing and problem-solving various types of equipment Experience with Hydraulics, Pneumatics and reading Blueprints Ability to operate decisively with incomplete information Strong communication skills (plant floor to SLT) Ability to lift up to 50 lbs. and work in manufacturing environments (bend, climb ladders, walk and stand f