Director, Manufacturing Operations (Malaysia)

At Sonos we want to create the ultimate listening experience for our customers and know that it starts by listening to each other. As part of the Sonos team, you’ll collaborate with people of all styles, skill sets, and backgrounds to realize our vision while fostering a community where everyone feels included and empowered to do the best work of their lives.

We are looking for a transformational operations leader to head and develop our Malaysia Operation Program Management (OPM) team based in Penang. In this role, you will hold ultimate accountability for factory and contract manufacturer (CM) readiness, ensuring that all products on the Sonos roadmap meet volume, quality, and optimum cost targets.

As the leader of the In-region OPM team, you will oversee the day-to-day operational execution, monitoring, and performance of top-tier Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS) providers. You will play a pivotal role representing Global Operations leadership, driving systemic improvements across our manufacturing engine, and aligning long-term sourcing, technology, and factory capacity strategies to support global demand.

Additionally, this role will serve as the Sonos Malaysia Site Leader. In this expanded capacity, you will provide strategic stewardship, overall leadership, and coaching to the broader local team in Malaysia across various business functions, including those who do not directly report to you. You will act as the ultimate regional escalation point, champion a supportive site culture, take care of our people, drive holistic supply chain performance, and represent the local team's collective concerns, achievements, and interests to global executive leadership.

What You’ll Do

Build & Develop the MY OPM Team

• Lead and Hire: Build, hire, develop, and manage a high-performance team of Operation Program Managers (OPMs) in Malaysia.

• Coach Leaders: Mentor and grow your team, raising the bar on factory operation skill sets and professional program leadership competencies.

• Standardize Processes: Define and continuously improve the processes, tools, and standards that enable OPMs to execute day-to-day work more efficiently and consistently across programs.

 Drive CM Performance & Operational Excellence

• Operational Execution: Oversee the day-to-day operation of designated Contract Manufacturer factories, driving partners to meet delivery, cost, quality, and overall performance targets.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Partner closely with Operation Engineering, Quality, and Operations leadership to tightly integrate product mass production execution with regional manufacturing capabilities.

• Supply Chain Performance: Drive comprehensive regional supply chain and manufacturing excellence by identifying organizational capability gaps and implementing systemic changes.

• Risk Mitigation and Escalation: Run disciplined operational reviews, surface production and factory risks early to establish proactive mitigation plans. Proactively analyze component risks and potential shortages highlighted by your team to implement timely supply solutions.

• Capacity & Sourcing Strategy: Guide the team to secure and optimize long-term factory capacity strategies to fully support future global demand.

• Product Lifecycle Transition: Provide strategic oversight for End of Production (EOP) activities, ensuring highly disciplined ramp-down plans that minimize excess inventory exposure.

• Budget Discipline: Set the standard for rigorous factory expense management, ensuring each OPM controls manufacturing budgets and continuously drives cost-saving activities. 

RMA & Repair Operations

• B-Stock Management: Maintain ultimate accountability for RMA repair operations at Contract Manufacturers, ensuring B-Stock supply accurately fulfills market demand.

• Process Optimization: Guide OPMs in establishing and executing continuous improvement programs to refine the overall factory RMA process.

Sonos Malaysia Site Leadership

• Site Stewardship: Serve as the primary site leader for Sonos Malaysia, fostering a cohesive, collaborative, and highly engaged workplace culture across all local functions.

• Cross-Functional Coaching: Lead, mentor, and coach the local team in Malaysia, providing guidance and professional development support to employees across different departments, regardless of direct reporting lines.

• People Advocacy: Actively take care of our local people, serving as a champion for employee well-being, site inclusion, and talent retention.

• Leadership Escalation Point: Act as the primary on-site escalation point for regional organizational challenges, cross-functional roadblocks, or workplace culture needs.

• Represent Local Interests: Synthesize and represent the Malaysia site's unique insights, needs, concerns, and strategic interests directly to global leadership.

Minimum Requirements

• Education: Technical degree; a graduate degree in engineering or business is highly desired. 

• Leadership Experience: 15+ years of experience designing, building, and leading high-performance teams within fast-growing, highly innovative, and progressive environments. 

• Core Functional Expertise: 5+ years of direct Operations Program Management (OPM) experience , coupled with broad leadership experience bringing complex, game-changing consumer electronics products into high-volume manufacturing.

• People Management: 5+ years of experience managing people directly and/or indirectly , with a proven track record of coaching, mentoring, and developing individuals and teams in globally diverse, fast-paced, and demanding environments.

• Global Footprint: Extensive experience managing operations and working collaboratively with cross-functional teams across the USA, Asia.

• Manufacturing & EMS Acumen: Strong technical background with progressive leadership roles in manufacturing operations, new product introduction (NPI)/development, and/or strategic sourcing , alongside experience overseeing top-tier Electronics Manufacturing Service (EMS) providers.

Preferred Experience

• Specialized Education: Mechanical or Electrical Engineering degree or diploma.

• Industry Background: Deep experience working within the Consumer Electronics (CE) and EMS industry, with specific experience in audio products being a significant plus.

• Language Capabilities: Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively collaborate with internal and external partners in both English and Chinese to support regional operations.

Your profile will be reviewed and you'll hear from us once we have an update. At Sonos we take the time to hire right and appreciate your patience.