
Start Up Director
the LEGO Group, Richmond, VA, United States
Are you ready to lead a groundbreaking factory start-up, driving innovation by integrating automated systems and sophisticated digital technologies at LEGO's newest site?
Lead the charge in revolutionizing manufacturing within LEGO's Greenfield LVA factory, where you'll drive groundbreaking automation, champion global standards, and ensure flawless operations from Day 1.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead the end-to-end Start-Up journey for the LVA Greenfield factory, ensuring robust and empowered operations.
- Translate global program achievements into local readiness actions, creating a unified delivery roadmap.
- Lead the Global Start-Up Management Framework, ensuring operational ownership beyond technical sign-off.
- Drive risk mitigation continuously, activating assessments and ensuring visibility throughout execution.
- Build organizational capability and readiness, including training plans and operational management systems.
- Establish performance acceleration routines to ensure fast, stable ramp-up of operations.
- Integrate automation and digital tools into operations, ensuring maturity and full lifecycle readiness.
- Ensure detailed DQP compliance, facilitating decision-making across R&D, suppliers, and partners.
Do You Have What It Takes?
- Proven experience leading large-scale industrial or automation start-ups, ideally greenfield or new factory environments.
- Significant expertise in start-up of production lines, technology ramp-up, and operational readiness.
- Strong end-to-end operations and value chain understanding across manufacturing, quality, engineering, and supply chain.
- Experience embedding readiness frameworks such as CQV, DQP, FMEA, PDCA, and associated risk/quality tools.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through complexity, ambiguity, and fast-paced change.
- Exceptional leadership presence with experience working and influencing global and local partners.
- Strong capability-building leadership competency models, training plans, uplifting capability, and readiness validation.
- Advanced education in engineering, manufacturing, operations or similar, or equivalent experience, highly desired.
Nice To Have
- Experience supporting multi-site or multi-technology ramp-ups.
- Familiarity with Lean, DfM, continuous improvement, or structured problem-solving frameworks.
- Understanding of digital manufacturing (MES, SCADA, data analytics, traceability, automation platforms).
- A global mentality with a passion for building diverse, high-performing teams.
- Energy, resilience, and growth-mindset orientation — adopting challenge as opportunity.
- A team-oriented, fun, and humble approach that reflects LEGO values: shared success, curiosity, creativity, and positivity.
Additional
- Long-term, the selected candidate must be willing to relocate to other sites, globally, to support future LEGO growth.
- Relocation will be provided.
- Some international travel will be required.
Compensation
The salary for this position ranges from $158,376.00 to $237,564.00 based on anticipated responsibilities, market benchmarks, and organizational constraints. The LEGO Group carefully considers a wide range of compensation factors, including but not limited to prior experience, skills, expertise, location, internal equity, and other considerations permitted by law. The comprehensive remuneration details, inclusive of benefits, will be communicated upon finalisation of the employment offer.
What’s in it for you?
- Family Care Leave – We offer enhanced paid leave options for those important times.
- Insurances – All colleagues are covered by our life and disability insurance which provides protection and peace of mind.
- Wellbeing – You’ll have access to the Headspace App and many wellbeing initiatives and programs run by local teams where you are based.
- Colleague Discount – From day 1 you will qualify for our generous colleague discount.
- Bonus – When goals are reached and if eligible, you’ll be rewarded through our bonus scheme.
- Your workplace – When you join the team you’ll be assigned a primary workplace location (office, store or factory). Our hybrid work policy means an average of 3 days per week in the office. The hiring team will discuss the policy and role eligibility with you during the recruitment process.
We strive to create a diverse, dynamic and inclusive culture of play at the LEGO Group, where everyone feels safe, valued and belongs.
The LEGO Group is highly committed to equal employment opportunity and equal pay and seeks to encourage applicants from all backgrounds (sex, gender identity or expression, race/ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion and Veteran status) to apply for roles in our team.
We support our employees in being there for the moments that matter in life and celebrate families of all kinds, the loved ones that make us who we are. Being part of the LEGO Group also means taking part in our annual Play Day, playing a part in building a sustainable future and continuing our mission to “inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.”
The LEGO Group is fully committed to Children’s Rights and Child Wellbeing across the globe. Candidates offered positions with high engagement with children are required to take part in Child Safeguarding Background Screening, as a condition of the offer.
We conduct drug screening as part of our drug‑free workplace policy and in support of the health and safety of our employees.
Just imagine building your dream career. Then make it real.
Join the LEGO® team today.
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