Description

The Director, Operations is responsible for the operational and financial performance of the TAR APU MRO operations within TurbineAero’s US operations The successful candidate is expected to lead the MRO business to execute on existing customer demand, to work with the sales leaders to grow the business’s revenue and margin, and also be technically capable to expand the base of alternate material solutions and repairs which are required to meet customer price expectations and internal profitability goals.

The US APU MRO business is a key element of growth within TurbineAero's expanding business focused on APU MRO & related services. TurbineAero Repair is referred to as TAR, within the TurbineAero family. TAR is expected to demonstrate a compound annual growth rate of 15% from 2024-2027 driven by several elements:

1) Increasing share of Cargo carriers and the significant growth of their utilization

2) Expansion of military applications, based on competency and long-term performance demonstrated on key platforms such as the C-17, KC-46 and P-8.

3) Significantly expand US and South American airline APU MRO volume as long term contracts expire with current OEM service providers

4) Development of new APU maintenance capability in adjacent markets and applications leveraging current competency and capabilities can be leveraged

OVERVIEW:

TurbineAero is the world’s leading independent aerospace component maintenance, repair, and overhaul service provider focused on APUs and related products. The business provides military, commercial, and regional airline customers with a comprehensive maintenance solution for their legacy and new APU engine models. Founded in 1977, TurbineAero was previously called Tiernay Manufacturing. The company was sold to Triumph Group in 1993 and was later acquired by The Gores Group , a private equity group founded by Alec Gores, in 2017. The company’s name was changed to TurbineAero.

TurbineAero currently generates approximately $100M in annual revenue, employs 200 people, and has over 250,000 square feet of global production space providing ample capacity for significant growth. The company is profitable and experiencing growth substantially above market. The company provides global coverage from four core facilities located in Arizona and Thailand:

· TAR Facility, TurbineAero Repair (Chandler, Arizona) –. Provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) for auxiliary power units (APU). A small percentage of business supports line-replaceable units (LRU) as well. Also possesses some part repair capabilities and is rapidly expanding in an 85,000 sq. ft. facility.

· TET Facility, TurbineAero Engines Technics (Tempe, Arizona) – Provides rotating & hot section component repairs requiring super alloy machining and specialty processes such as brazing, electron beam welding and electron discharge machining (EDM) supporting TurbineAero’s APU MRO facilities in Chandler and Thailand as well as the global APU & turbine engine MRO and production market, operating in a 65,000 sq. ft. production facility.

· TEC Facility, TurbineAero Engines Coatings (Chandler, Arizona) – Provides state of the art thermal barrier and platinum aluminide coatings to the aero and industrial gas turbine industry in a dedicated 35,000 sq. ft. plant. The facility also specializes in key supporting processes such as heat-treating and fluoride ion cleaning.

· Chonburi Thailand, TurbineAero Thailand (Chonburi, Thailand) - Provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) for auxiliary power units (APU). A small percentage of business is done with line-replaceable units (LRU) as well. Also possesses recently acquired APU parts repair capabilities and is rapidly expanding into a newly constructed 90,000 sq. ft. building.

The company repairs and overhauls APU’s and related LRU’s utilized on the following platforms: Airbus (A320, A319, A321), McDonnell Douglas (DC-10, MD-80, KC-10), and Boeing (B737, B777, B757, B767 and B747). Component repair customers include US Military, StandardAero, Chromalloy, Honeywell, Delta TechOps, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce. Coatings customers include many of the leading aero engine OEM’s as well as leading industrial gas turbine OEM’s and repair businesses. Airline customers include cargo carriers such as UPS and FedEx, foreign airlines such as China Eastern and China Airlines. Overall TurbineAero services a market of over 10,000 APUs and 200,000 accessories.

There is a push to continue annual revenue and EBITDA growth, primarily focused on growth with APUs, LRUs, and trading and leasing APUs. Company growth is attributed to several elements:

1) Share gain in cargo, air transport and defense markets supported by increased customer expectations for higher levels of ‘value” in their APU and related maintenance

1) Expansion of the Thailand operations to secure revenue in the fast growing air transport market in that region.

2) Growth of parts repair business through the company’s core competency and a recent acquisition in Thailand.

3) Continued expansion of the part repair business competencies into the directly adjacent aero-engine parts business

In order to fully capitalize on their growth potential, TurbineAero is hiring a Director Operations for the TAR APU MRO business. The candidate will require a strong sense of confidence with an excellent track record of accomplishment and will promote communication, teamwork, and leadership. The Director Operations will be able to strategize, plan and rapidly execute to improve operational performance and forecasting capabilities of TAR APU MRO through training, organizational development, and mentorship, as well as continuous improvement of processes.

PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES:

To achieve the mission for this position, the Director, Operations must produce the following critical actions and results:

1. Operational Excellence: The Director, Operations will lead a lean culture to drive consistent operational performance including:

a. Delivery performance exceeding 95% on time to customer commit

b. Consistent process excellence to ensure defect escapes are below 1500 PPM

c. Continual improvement in TAT (Turn Around Time) and labor cost reduction to yield double digit productivity improvement

d. Development and execution of a proactive hiring and cross training plan to ensure a continuous development of trained and qualified specialists to meet current and forecasted APU and LRU demand.

e. A culture of proactive safety awareness and actions to yield industry leading performance

2. Customer Satisfaction: The Director, Operations will effectively align the operations to consistently deliver on tactical & strategic customer requirements including:

a. Timely teardown, clean and disposition of all APU and LRU products to enable the customer service and material teams to achieve accurate quotations beating customer time frame and quality requirements

b. Work effectively with the materials management teams to ensure that material requirements are communicated accurately and, in a timeframe, to support aggressive internal cost reduction objectives to achieve customer price expectations.

3. Growth: The Director, Operations will lead the TAR APU MRO team to achieve key growth elements of their strategic plan by:

a. Effectively support the TAR SIOP (Sales Inventory and Operation Planning) process to meet 2024 grow objectives of 20% over the PY and objectives of the strategic plan

b. Drive a cost advantaged position across the facility by leading tactical and strategic initiatives focused on reducing operational and overhead cost reductions

c. Leading the development and qualification of alternate material solutions and FAA approved repairs to meet customer’s cost and availability requirements

4. Technical Development: The Director, Operations will provide technical leadership and direction to ensure that the existing processes are operating to all customer and technical specifications and ensure that the operations successfully executes all technical requirements for new customer and process qualifications, including:

a. Ensure technical process parameters are operating within customer and industry specifications, achieving industry leading TAT’s and quality levels and avoiding unplanned downtime and test cell rejects.

b. Attract, retain and lead the required industry expert technical resources required to successfully develop and qualify alternate material solutions required to meet customer objectives

c. Possess the technical competency required to guide the internal planning and execution to bring online new processes and capabilities required to achieve TAR growth and profitability objectives

5. Regulatory Compliance: The Director, Operations will lead the APU MRO operation to achieve and retain all required customer and industry certifications and qualifications including:

a. 100% FAA 145 certification compliance

b. No major findings on industry and customer audits

c. Credibility with key customer and industry regulatory officials

d. Displays the leadership, and capability to develop into a candidate for VP operations.

Requirements

• 10 years of demonstrated operational and technical leadership success.
• Must have a track record of personal success and leading technical and operations teams to achieving their objectives
• Knowledge of industrial engineering, human resource laws, and regulations, and employee relations skills
• Experience as a Jet engine or APU mechanic is a plus

Specialized Knowledge and Skills:

• In- depth knowledge of standard R&O data and expertise with Enterprise Resource Planning systems such as Infor’s Syteline.
• Advanced skills in Excel, PowerPoint, and Visual Basic for MS office
• SharePoint maintenance
• US Citizen or permanent resident required due to export restrictions