Head of Operations - New Building Solutions (Elevators & Escalators)

Head of Operations - New Building Solutions (Elevators & Escalators)

KONE, certified as a Top Employer in UAE, Qatar, KSA, and Oman, is committed to creating a better work environment through excellent people practices. We prioritize our employees' well-being and foster a workplace that values collaboration, diversity, growth, and efficiency.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Operations – New Equipment Business based in Dubai - UAE, who will be accountable for the safe, reliable, high quality, and profitable execution of the delivery projects within his/her portfolio in Dubai, leading to customer satisfaction and fulfillment of KONE business objectives. Proactively manages portfolio performance regarding progress against schedule, planning accuracy, profitability, productivity, safety, and quality performance, using KPIs and data, and setting targets and actions for his/her Delivery Operations team. Ensures that installation methods and tools, as well as KONE Way and Frontline operations management practices, are followed.

Leads and coaches his/her Delivery Operations team in Dubai, ensuring competence and optimized allocation of the resources.

Responsibilities and key activities:

Safety and Quality

• Proactively drives outstanding performance in Safety and Quality in Delivery Operations.
• Responsible for driving a culture of Safety and Quality throughout the organization.
• Accountable for the use of correct KONE installation methods and tools by the installation team, and for proper risk assessment for parts of installation where the KONE method is not feasible.

Customers

• Establishes and promotes service-minded culture and outside-in thinking in Delivery Operations.
• Captures and feeds Voice of Customer throughout Delivery Operations.
• Manages customer disputes and escalations, and tracks NPI and transactional survey feedback.

Leadership and people development

• Leads, evaluates, and develops his/her operations team and professionals to achieve the established safety, quality, profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction goals. Identifies and addresses competence development needs for project management and installation.
• Accountable for his/her Delivery Operations team’s adherence to the KONE Way and standard ways of working requirements.
• Sets individual targets and actions together with his/her team members using data and KPIs to achieve the set objectives, as well as to identify waste, find root causes, and continually improve standard ways of working.
• Regularly performs Gemba walks on site and/or process audits to understand how Delivery Operations happen on the site level, assesses deviations from standard ways of working (installation methods, safety policies, and KONE Way/Frontline processes), and allocates improvement opportunities to the team members.

Installation

• Drives efficient, safe, and high-quality installation operations in line with regulatory and KONE methods, requirements, and site management practices.
• Responsible for Installation capacity planning.
• Accountable for optimized resource utilization (people and tools).

Project management

• Ensures that KONE adds value to customers’ projects with seamless and reliable project delivery and proactive communication.
• Drives proactive, profitable, reliable, and efficient project management practices in line with KONE methods.
• Ensures accuracy of schedule (s-plan), revenue, and cost planning as per FL policy.
• Accountable that projects in his/her portfolio deliver customer scope, as well as proactively identifies and executes value-added services, change order opportunities, and cost claims (to customers, other trades as well as KONE suppliers and subcontractors).

Delivery Operations management and routines

• Organizes effective huddles with Field Supervisors to ensure execution of projects according to standard ways of working and proactive elimination of roadblocks to ensure uninterrupted flow.
• Organizes and operates regular portfolio and operational reviews (traction control) to manage project and installation performance.
• Organizes regular reviews of completed projects to analyze root causes for outliers (positive or negative), and to ensure lessons learned; coaches his/her team to do so in their own projects.
• Maintains and communicates order book status, resource needs, and installation capacity as part of the Sales and Operations planning process.
• Supports the fulfillment that both KONE and subcontracted installers are trained, certified, competent, and capable of carrying out their work and that actions are taken to achieve it.
• Responsible for making sure that frontline requirements carry out safety and quality audits and that actions are raised and appropriately closed by his/her team.

Business performance

• Accountable for financial and customer performance of projects within his/her portfolio and for the accuracy of the order book and forecast of his/her portfolio.
• Actively monitors and reports project and installation performance, ensures action on deviations.
• Ensure effective deployment and benefit realization of KONE Way and local initiatives.
• Provide input and feedback about changes needed to KONE Way.

Continual improvement

• Proactively drives and coaches his/her team members to identify waste, find root causes, and implement improvements.
• Organizes regular retrospectives with his/her team to reflect on ways of working and identify improvements.
• Collaborates with Sales, Customer Solutions Engineers, and Service to improve and standardize ways of working.
• Identifies, consolidates, and shares the opportunities for growth, productivity, profitability, and process efficiency across the region and Frontline.
• Promotes and rewards success stories and best practices of Lean improvements and DMAIC projects.

Are you the one?

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
• Fluent in English; additional languages are a plus.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills.
• Elevator & Escalator industry experience is preferred.
• Experience in elevator installation supervision, project management, and subcontractor safety/quality management.
• Knowledge of Lean methodologies and a commitment to continuous improvement.

At KONE, we are focused on creating an innovative and collaborative working culture where we value the contribution of each individual. Employee engagement is a key focus area for us and we encourage participation and the sharing of information and ideas. Sustainability is an integral part of our culture and the daily practice. We follow ethical business practices and we seek to develop a culture of working together where co-workers trust and respect each other and good performance is recognized. In being a great place to work, we are proud to offer a range of experiences and opportunities that will help you to achieve your career and personal goals and enable you to live a healthy and balanced life.

Read more on www.kone.com/careers