Position Summary

The Strategic Order Operations Manager owns the order readiness and release gate, ensuring every order is fully vetted and executable before it hits the production grid. This role serves as the single point of accountability for validating that engineering is complete, commercial terms are finalized, materials are available, and delivery commitments are realistic, before an order is released to production.

This is not a catch-all operations role. The scope is deliberately focused: validate readiness, hold what is not ready, escalate to the right owner, and drive resolution. This person has the authority to stop an incomplete order from moving forward and the responsibility to make sure it gets resolved quickly.

Primary Responsibilities: Order Readiness and Release Gate

This is the core of the role. Everything else supports this function.

• Own the order readiness gate in SAP/ERP. No order releases to the production grid without meeting defined criteria for: engineering completeness, BOM accuracy, parts availability, delivery feasibility, and commercial terms (PO, terms, A/E approvals).
• Authority to hold, flag, and escalate orders that do not meet readiness standards. Work across Engineering, Supply Chain, Order Entry, and Sales to drive resolution, but do not own the fix: own the follow-through.
• Validate delivery commitments against current capacity, material lead times, and engineering status. Escalate when customer commitments and operational capability are misaligned, ensuring field sales has accurate lead time visibility.
• Ensure long-lead material procurement is triggered early enough to support production dates. Partner with Purchasing and Planning to verify demand signals are reaching procurement before orders hit the grid.
• Coordinate with Engineering to confirm customization is fully defined and engineering packages are complete before order release. Flag jobs that have been committed before engineering is finished and work with Applications/Design Engineering to close gaps.
• Manage lab availability conflicts by filtering requests, identifying overcommitment, and ensuring small projects are not consuming lab time needed for large project testing.

Accountability and Follow-Through

This is the area with the highest organizational impact and the reason this role exists.

• Track every held or escalated order to resolution. Maintain a visible log of open issues, owners, due dates, and status. Nothing gets flagged and forgotten.
• Facilitate regular cross-functional alignment meetings (Order Entry, Applications, Design Engineering, BOM, Planning, Purchasing) to review pipeline readiness, surface blockers, and confirm priorities.
• Lead root cause analysis on recurring release failures, working with Tech Support and functional leads to identify patterns and implement corrective actions that prevent repeat issues.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reporting to give leadership visibility into order readiness status, bottleneck trends, and cycle time performance.

Process Improvement

• Identify and address upstream bottlenecks impacting order processing, including Engineering workload constraints (MG1/MG2 workflows), Applications backlog, and procurement timing gaps.
• Standardize and continuously improve order management workflows within Cyberselect and SAP, focusing on reducing cycle time from order entry to production release.
• Support strategic initiatives and system enhancements related to order processing (S&OP integration, ERP improvements, reporting automation).

Scope Boundaries

To prevent this role from becoming a catch-all, the following boundaries apply:

• This role DOES: Validate readiness, hold non-ready orders, escalate to functional owners, track resolution, report on performance, improve the gate process.
• This role does NOT: Own engineering design work, manage procurement execution, run production scheduling, handle customer escalations directly, or serve as a general-purpose project manager for order issues.
• Authority: This role has explicit authority to hold orders from grid release. This authority is backed by [VP of Operations / Director of PMO] and is not subject to override by Sales or Customer Service without leadership approval.

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of experience in order management, operations, or supply chain within a manufacturing environment (engineer-to-order or configure-to-order preferred).
• Working knowledge of ERP systems (SAP S/4 HANA strongly preferred) with ability to navigate order workflows, BOM structures, and production planning modules.
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally across Engineering, Sales, Supply Chain, and Production without direct authority over those teams.
• Strong analytical skills with experience building reports and dashboards to track operational KPIs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to escalate issues clearly and drive accountability without creating adversarial relationships.
• Process improvement mindset with a track record of identifying root causes and implementing corrective actions.

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Engineering, or related field.
• Experience with data center cooling, HVAC, or mission-critical infrastructure products.
• Familiarity with Cyberselect or similar product configuration tools.
• Experience with MS Project, SAC, Power BI, or similar reporting/analytics tools.
• Lean, Six Sigma, or other process improvement certification.

Work Environment

This position is based at STULZ headquarters in Frederick, MD, in an office environment within a manufacturing facility. Regular interaction with production floor, engineering, and cross-functional teams is expected. Some travel to Dayton, TN and Denton, TX facilities may be required.

Physical Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, use hands, reach with hands and arms, and communicate verbally and in writing. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.