SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
LightForce is transforming orthodontics through a fully digital, 3D-printed platform that replaces traditional stock brackets with customized, patient-specific brackets paired with AI-driven treatment planning. The company is scaling rapidly and seeking a Vice President of Operations to build a world-class manufacturing organization capable of supporting revenue well beyond $250M.
In this builder's role, you will own manufacturing strategy, P&L levers (throughput, yield, capacity, cost), and lead a growing operations team reporting directly to the President. You'll work closely with the executive team and board on critical strategic decisions.
Key responsibilities include:
**Manufacturing Strategy**: Develop a multi-year roadmap translating commercial demand into capacity, technology, and capital plans. Partner with Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and Commercial teams on long-range planning. Provide the executive team and board with clear, honest performance and risk assessments.
**Production Performance**: Instill a Quality First mindset across production, understanding that quality underpins success, margin, productivity, yield, and customer satisfaction. Own day-to-day accountability for throughput, cycle time, yield, on-time delivery, and cost in a multi-shift environment. Build frontline leadership structures that solve problems at root cause quickly.
**Technical Operations & Automation**: Establish a strong Manufacturing Engineering/Technical Operations function covering process development, equipment engineering, validation, and continuous improvement. Lead a practical automation strategy, identifying where technology creates real value and building internal capability and partnerships to execute.
**New Product Introduction & Design Transfer**: Partner early with Engineering and Quality to ensure new products are designed for manufacturability and scale from day one. Build a design-transfer process enabling rapid innovation without destabilizing production.
**Organizational Excellence**: Install a practical Lean operating system with standard work, visual management, and tiered reviews. Recruit, develop, and retain an exceptional operations leadership team with succession depth and clear career pathways.
**Quality & Compliance**: Ensure production operates in full FDA compliance, ISO 13485 standards, and the LightForce Quality Management System, with quality built in rather than inspected in.
