Vice President Utility Operations

About the role

15000 Valmont Plaza Omaha Nebraska 68154

A Brief Summary of This Position

The Vice President Utility Operations leads assigned North American manufacturing operations, Quality Assurance, and Continuous Improvement through Operations Directors, functional leaders, and Plant Managers.

This leader translates Valmont's enterprise strategy and Utility growth priorities into safe, reliable, and profitable manufacturing results, building the capacity, workforce capability, and leadership depth required for sustained growth.

The role partners with Supply Chain, Information Systems, Capital Projects, AMET< Machine Builders, and other shared functions to improve plant performance and prepare the manufacturing network for growth. This leader promotes curiosity and continuous learning, builds digital capability across teams, and drives responsible use of data, automation, and AI to improve manufacturing performance and decision-making.

The leader models Safety, Quality, and Respect and advances Win Together, Act with Ownership, and Build for the Future.

Essential Functions

• Lead assigned manufacturing operations, Quality Assurance, and Continuous Improvement through operating and functional leaders. Achieve approved operating profit, controllable cost, productivity, inventory, and working capital targets within delegated authority, with clear ownership of site performance and customer commitments.
• Translate Valmont's enterprise strategy and Utility growth priorities into an integrated three-year manufacturing roadmap, annual plans, site objectives, and measurable milestones. Deliver capacity, productivity, customer service, and cash improvements that support profitable growth in partnership with functional teams.
• Embed safety into daily leadership routines by identifying serious-risk exposures, verifying critical controls, and ensuring work stops when those controls are inadequate. Address legacy equipment risks and ensure investigations, corrective actions, and learning from serious incidents and near misses are applied and sustained across facilities.
• Require absolute integrity, accurate records, and compliance with controls for inventory, scrap, timekeeping, production, quality, purchasing, expenses, and company assets. Surface difficult facts early and protect employees who raise concerns.
• Establish a disciplined daily, weekly, and monthly operating cadence with common measures, visible risks, and recovery plans with owners and dates. Engage on the plant floor to verify conditions and remove barriers.
• Lead the assigned Quality Assurance function and hold plant leaders accountable for quality at the source, process adherence, and permanent corrective action. Establish consistent standards and verification across sites; reduce rework, scrap, customer escapes, and the cost of poor quality.
• Develop executable production plans with Commercial, Engineering, Supply Chain, and plant teams through SIOP and finite-capacity scheduling. Validate equipment, qualified labor, materials, and production readiness; account for maintenance and variability. Assign owners and recovery actions for constraints before committing output.
• Deliver the approved production plan and customer commitments. Improve schedule adherence, reduce past-due shipments and manufacturing-related delays in invoicing, and reduce operational causes of liquidated damages and back charges. Communicate risks early with recovery plans, owners, and dates.
• Lead Continuous Improvement across the assigned network to increase throughput and labor productivity through constraint removal, flow, standard work, and Lean. Build local capability and verify sustained gains while controlling overtime and protecting safety, quality, and workforce stability.
• Own site maintenance execution, operator care, equipment condition, and reliability results. Partner with Maintenance and technical functions on standards and expertise; improve uptime through preventive maintenance, downtime analysis, and appropriate OEE, MTBF, and MTTR measures.
• Own manufacturing investment requirements, site readiness, staffing, training, production ramp, and realization of approved benefits. Partner with Capital Projects and technical functions on business cases, project delivery, commissioning, and acceptance under approved governance; verify capacity, safety, quality, and financial outcomes.
• Manage plant labor, material use, inventory accuracy, controllable costs, and cash with Finance, Supply Chain, and Sourcing. Reduce shortages, excess inventory, and avoidable premiums through clear plant requirements, accurate production and inventory data, and coordinated recovery actions.
• Attract, develop, and retain skilled employees and strong operating and functional leaders. Strengthen onboarding, qualification, supervisor development, and succession coverage. Delegate meaningful authority and develop leaders who sustain results independently and build credible successors for critical roles.
• Build an engaged, accountable culture through clear standards, direct feedback, recognition, and consistent follow-through. Address weak performance early and evaluate results and leadership behaviors together.
• Require use of approved operating systems, accurate data, and controlled exceptions. Identify manufacturing needs and partner with Information Systems, enterprise IT, and technical teams to apply digital tools, automation, and AI within enterprise governance. Lead plant adoption, build employe capability, and verify measurable operating benefits and responsible use.
• Align priorities, decision authority, deliverables, and recovery actions across direct and shared functions. Resolve issues directly and escalate unresolved tradeoffs early with recommended actions. Share effective practices, talent, capacity, and expertise across plants in the best interest of the business.
• Prepare the manufacturing network for future demand through workforce development, capacity expansion, operating flexibility, and readiness for acquisitions or new facilities as required. Partner with shared functions to confirm plant resources, operating readiness, and performance commitments.

Required Qualifications of Every Candidate

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, manufacturing, business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership, including senior responsibility for multiple facilities of comparable complexity and results delivered through operating and functional leaders.
• Demonstrated sustained improvements in safety, quality, delivery, throughput, productivity, cost, and cash across a manufacturing network, supported by specific examples of personal accountability and measurable results.
• Demonstrated success scaling manufacturing output through capacity expansion, workforce development, and operating improvement, with sustained achievement of production and investment objectives.
• Experience implementing Lean operating systems and sustaining measurable improvement through standard work, management routines, and leadership accountability.
• Demonstrated integrity, transparent reporting, sound judgment, and consistent protection of company assets and internal controls.
• Strong financial acumen in operating budgets, working capital, inventory, capital returns, and the relationship between operating performance, earnings, and cash.
• Experience aligning demand, effective capacity, workforce, materials, and production schedules in a complex manufacturing environment.
• A proven record of developing operating and functional leaders who sustain results independently, exercise delegated authority, advance into broader responsibilities, and build credible successors for critical roles.
• Strong supply chain and digital business acumen, including material planning, inventory, data integrity, systems adoption, and technology investment decisions. Ability to partner effectively with specialist functional leaders and integrate their expertise into manufacturing plans and execution within enterprise standards.
• Demonstrated business judgment, adaptability, and curiosity, including challenging assumptions, incorporating front line insight, and adjusting plans in response to changing business conditions and performance data.
• Demonstrated success delivering operating results with critical support functions outside direct authority. Effective communication, sound business judgment, timely decisions, and resolution of competing priorities across organizational boundaries.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 50% of the time.

Highly Qualified Candidates Will Also Possess These Qualifications

• Experience in utility infrastructure or engineered-to-order manufacturing with complex customer commitments and production requirements.
• Experience with multiple manufacturing processes, including steel fabrication, welding, concrete, composites, or protective coatings.
• Leadership of major capacity expansions, manufacturing startups, capital programs, or acquisition integrations.
• Experience partnering with technical functions to implement finite-capacity scheduling, advanced planning systems, automation, or AI with sustained adoption and measurable throughput or productivity gains.
• Experience building reliability programs, skilled-trades pipelines, welding training, or apprenticeship programs.
• Experience leading operations across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and coordinating shared manufacturing resources.
• MBA or master's degree in engineering, operations, or a related technical discipline.

Benefits

Valmont offers employees and their families a comprehensive Total Wellbeing benefit package to ensure their individual and family's overall wellness needs are met. Some offerings are dependent upon the role, work schedule, or location and can include the following:

• Healthcare (medical, prescription drugs, dental and vision)
• 401k retirement plan with company match
• Paid time off
• Employer paid life insurance
• Employer paid short-term and long-term disability including maternity leave
• Work Life Support
• Tuition Reimbursement up to $5,250 per year
• Voluntary programs like tobacco cessation, Type 2 diabetes reversal, one-on-one health coaching, mortgage services and more