Director, Industry

Director, Industry Nas Us

Location: Salt Lake City, United States of America

Thales people architect solutions for operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning, to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems, to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems and Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

Thales is looking for a Director, Industry NAS US, whose role is to lead all industrial operations within the NAS US organization including production, repair, supply chain, and logistics ensuring seamless delivery of products and services to customers in the Airspace Mobility Solutions (AMS) domain.

In this position, you will drive operational excellence by managing all direct value-added activities, optimizing industrial performance, and developing strategies that strengthen Thales' position as a global leader in ground-based navigational aid systems. You will oversee the preparation, execution, and monitoring of the supply chain, production, inventory, and shipping activities, while fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Your leadership and strategic vision will ensure that the U.S. Industrial organization operates in full alignment with the global NAS Industrial framework empowering your teams through effective resource planning, process development, and performance management to create lasting value for customers and the aviation industry.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Leading the team on all relevant industrial matters
• Management of all the phases of production, integration & testing cycle, presentation to customers at factory acceptance tests and final delivery to projects for the relevant NAS products
• Performance of the unit via the correct and timely execution of industrial work packages with particular focus and attention to quality, HSE, timescale, profitability/cost and resources for ensuring successful achievement of the project objectives and customer satisfaction
• Balance of supply and production capacity to deliver products as per customer commitment while maintaining right cost and inventory levels
• Overall competitiveness of operations and adherence to manufacturing industry standards
• Development of sourcing strategies and management of the sourcing process in coordination with procurement, to fulfil current business demand and long-term forecast
• Supports the domain sales and operations planning from industry perspective, suggesting improvements or resourcing to meet the projected demand
• Supports the optimization of the inventory, by controlling its global value, eliminating the unnecessary redundancies and organizing a common stock management
• Engage and empower employees to perform at the optimal level
• Ensures coordination across industrial disciplines and implements various initiatives to improve maturity of the organization
• Leads, assesses and reports the performance of the organization via measuring and monitoring relevant KPIs
• Supports the transition of newly developed products or enhancement from engineering environment to production phase
• The role includes cost and expenditure accountability, CAPEX optimization and pooling of support functions from the NAS industry organization and NAS domain as necessary

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelors' degree or equivalent in engineering, science or a relevant discipline
• Minimum 5 years' experience in a similar leadership role in industrial or aerospace manufacturing environment
• Proven track record overseeing end-to-end operations, including manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics
• Demonstrated success in leading teams in a matrix organization and influencing across functions and geographies
• Results-oriented leader with high accountability and ownership for organizational performance
• Strong leadership and people development skills; able to drive growth, continuous improvement, and operational excellence
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to present, explain, and adapt strategy in collaboration with senior management
• Analytical and strategic thinker with the ability to translate complex challenges into actionable solutions
• Resilient and adaptable able to perform under pressure in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Skilled in ERP systems (MRP/MPS/forecast management) for daily operations and production planning
• Experience working with an organization supporting US federal government
• Must be a US person as defined in applicable law

Special position requirements:

• Schedule: 9/80 schedule (9 hours Monday-Thursday; 8 hours every other Friday) core work hours between 7:00am -3:30pm
• Physical environment: Office based employment with frequent exposure to manufacturing and warehouse areas
• Travel: Domestic and international travel is required; less than 10% of the time

Thales provides an extensive benefits program for all full-time employees working 30 or more hours per week and their eligible dependents, including the following:

• Elective health, dental, vision, FSA/HSA, voluntary life and AD&D, whole group life w/LTC, critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, legal plan, identity theft, and pet insurance
• Retirement savings plan after 30 days of employment with a company contribution and a match, and with no vesting period
• Company paid holidays and paid time off
• Company provided life insurance, AD&D, disability, employee assistance plan, and well-being program