Director, Strategic Business Optimization

If you’re looking for a special place to build or grow your career, you’ve found it. Whether you’re an experienced professional, a recent college graduate or somewhere in between, IDEX is a place where you can apply your existing skills and learn new ones in an environment where you can make an impact.

With interesting opportunities in engineering, marketing, sales, supply chain, operations, HR, finance, and more across more than 40 diverse businesses around the globe, chances are, we have something special for you.

IDEX Corporation (NYSE: IEX), based in Northbrook, IL (suburb of Chicago), is a leading global manufacturer of diversified products in industries ranging across health, science, safety, fire, and fluidics. The company operates in 24 countries, IDEX is an innovative and growing company, focused on delivering excellence through diverse, winning teams. We’re a global provider of applied solutions serving a variety of markets. These include life science and medical technologies, process industry and infrastructure related applications, industrial/municipal fire, and rescue - to name just a few. 
 
Materials Science Solutions (MSS)  is a newly formed group made up of 12 Materials Sciences businesses across 17 locations within the US and Europe.
  
Reporting Relationships: 
The Director Strategic Business Optimization for MSS supports the 12 Business Units and reports directly to the Vice President of Global Operations for MSS and is a member of the Global Operations Leadership Team.  

Responsibilities: 
The Director Strategic Business Optimization is a strategic leader responsible for delivering data-driven insights and analytics to optimize performance across the MSS global manufacturing sites. This role partners with the VP of Global Operations, Site Leadership, and Finance to drive operational excellence, improve cost efficiency, and supports strategic decision making and initiatives through advanced analytics and performance reporting. This role requires a strategic thinker with strong business acumen and the ability to lead cross-functional teams to achieve business objectives.
Key accountabilities and responsibilities for the Director Strategic Business Optimization include but are not limited to:
•    Bridge MSS strategic objectives with site operational projects by translating long-term goals into data driven projects, enabling cross-functional teams to execute with clarity, consistency, and measurable impact across supply chain, manufacturing, and customer delivery
•    Lead cross-functional analysis of manufacturing site integration business cases to validate financial assumptions, assess operational synergies, and ensure realization of projected value through post-integration performance tracking
•    Lead business critical projects aligned to MSS strategic plan and growth objectives; provide periodic stakeholder updates
•    Partners with internal and cross-functional teams, projects, and business customers to drive the strategic operational goals
•    Responsible for identification and execution of business optimization and operational excellence projects designed to improve cost efficiency, delivery performance, and operational efficiency with bottom line impact to the MSS businesses
•    Partner with site leaders, finance, supply chain, and engineering teams to align analytics with business goals 
•    Support financial planning, forecasting, and variance analysis for manufacturing and supply chain functions
•    Identify trends, risks, and opportunities to improve business performance
•    Translate complex data into actionable insights for operations leadership
•    Support capital investment decisions through ROI, IRR, and payback analysis
•    Present findings and recommendations to senior leadership in a clear, compelling manner
•    Utilize all aspects of the IDEX Operating Model including Daily Management, Monthly Business Reviews, Goal Deployment, 80/20 Focus, and the Organization and Talent Cycle
•    Utilize 80/20 tools to actively reduce operational complexity
•    Facilitate Best Practice sharing across business units
•    Create and implement effective, deterministic, operations-related processes and procedures as needed
•    Other duties as assigned

Requirements & Experience:
•    Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations Management or other related field required. Advanced Degree is a plus
•    Ten (10) or more years of progressive experience in finance or manufacturing operations management
•    Proven success in driving financial transformation through analytics driven initiatives 
•    Ability to simplify complex financial data into actionable insight