Senior Director Manufacturing & Site Leader - Freiburg and Stetten

Work Flexibility: Onsite Stryker Global Quality & Operations (GQO) is seeking an experienced **Senior Director, Manufacturing & Site Leader** to lead one of Stryker’s most strategically important manufacturing campuses. This highly visible leadership role oversees more than **1,400 employees** across Stryker’s **Freiburg** and **Stetten** locations in southwest Germany and is responsible for driving manufacturing excellence, operational performance, talent development, and long-term growth strategies aligned to the site’s capabilities and business needs. As the leader of the Freiburg campus, you will oversee a multi-division environment leading manufacturing for Instruments, Trauma & Extremities as well as Orthotech with co-located on-site divisional R&D and QA/RA functions for **Instruments, Trauma & Extremities, Endoscopy, Orthotech and Medical** divisions. A substantial Advanced Operations (AO) organization serves as a critical bridge between local and global R&D teams, ensuring successful new product introductions and seamless integration of products launched from other Stryker locations. Success in this role requires a proven ability to lead at scale, foster innovation, drive continuous improvement, and build strong partnerships across a diverse global organization. The role includes the General Manager function (legal director) for both locations covering all employees of these two sites. Campus operations include the following focus areas: * High-precision manufacturing of small bone osteosynthesis implants (plates and screws for hand, foot, cranio-maxillofacial and neuro applications) * Digital design and additive manufacturing of patient-specific cranio-maxillofacial and neuro implants * High-precision electromechanical assembly of smart surgical instruments and high-accuracy localization and tracking devices for surgical guidance systems * Assembly of computer platforms for computer aided surgery * Micro-precision manufacturing of electrodes and functional bioelectronic devices **Main responsibilities** * Develop and execute a campus strategy for Freiburg and Stetten that aligns with divisional and GQO priorities, ensuring long-term operational capability, business resilience, customer performance, and growth readiness. * Lead all manufacturing operations to deliver world-class performance across Quality, Service, Cost, Delivery, and Safety, while ensuring manufacturing capabilities meet current and future business needs across all supported divisions. * Drive manufacturing excellence through continuous improvement, automation, innovation, and strategic capital investments, ensuring the campus remains at the forefront of advanced manufacturing technologies. * Oversee successful new product introductions by partnering closely with R&D, Advanced Operations, and divisional leadership to deliver launches on time, within budget, and in alignment with supply and demand expectations. * Provide overall financial leadership for the campus, including ownership of budgeting, forecasting, capital planning, and delivery of financial commitments. * Foster a high-performance culture grounded in trust, accountability, engagement, inclusion, and collaboration, while establishing a clear vision and direction for the campus leadership team. * Build organizational capability through robust talent management, succession planning, leadership development, and the attraction, development, and retention of top talent. * Ensure manufacturing capacity and supply continuity to support business growth, demand variability, and long-term scalability, while driving productivity improvements and sustainable cost reductions through operational excellence. * Partner across the Freiburg campus and global organization to maximize shared infrastructure, resources, and capabilities, enabling collaboration across multiple divisions and functions. **Qualifications** **Minimum Qualifications** * Bachelor’s degree in engineering, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, business or a related discipline. * 10+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing, operations or a related environment, including responsibility for business performance through others. * Proven track record of building high-performing engaged teams and leading through change in a complex environment. * Excellent English and German speaking skills **Preferred Qualifications** * Advanced degree * Experience in a medical device or similarly regulated manufacturing environment. * Deep knowledge of Lean manufacturing systems and continuous improvement, with evidence of embedding these principles at site level. * Demonstrated ability to think beyond the site, leveraging a global and enterprise perspective to align operations, talent, and investment decisions with long-term business strategy. * Demonstrated ability to lead employee engagement, talent development and culture-building initiatives that improve organizational performance. * Strong strategic capability, business acumen and experience balancing short-term execution with long-term site capability building. * Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing across matrixed organizations. * Strong communication, executive presence and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to lead confidently at site, divisional and global level. Travel Percentage: 30%