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Gunter Arlt
Gunter Arlt is an executive search and personnel consulting firm serving organizations that need experienced leaders and specialists. Since 1997, the company has combined nationwide recruitment with direct approach and headhunting, social media recruiting, job-board sourcing, candidate assessment, management coaching, and onboarding support. Its clients include market leaders, mittelstand businesses, startups, and multinational companies. Gunter Arlt also supports international healthcare recruitment, sourcing qualified nursing staff from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America to help address staffing shortages. The firm emphasizes confidential, transparent, and human-centered processes built around long-term client relationships.

Chief Operating Officer, Metal Manufacturing & Defense Technology

Chief Operating Officer for a German metal supplier with two plants. Oversees production, supply chain, quality, and occupational safety across automotive and defense-technology operations.

Description

  • Oversee production, toolmaking, supply chain, quality, and occupational health and safety
  • Lead the plant management teams in Markgröningen and Pockau-Lengefeld
  • Integrate the operational activities of both plants
  • Manage sites with differing equipment technologies, cycle times, and quality standards
  • Introduce a new operational management level across the corporate group

Requirements

  • Several years of production or operations leadership in a metal-processing company
  • Experience in the automotive industry, defense technology, or both
  • Multi-site leadership experience, or a clearly demonstrated readiness to assume this responsibility
  • Manufacturing expertise in forming, stamping, or joining technologies
  • Practical understanding of toolmaking
  • Strong command of supply chain management, including just-in-sequence delivery
  • Business-fluent German
  • Good command of English
  • Willingness to travel between Stuttgart and Chemnitz
  • Proven professional experience in a metal-processing company
  • Experience in the automotive supplier sector
  • Knowledge of IATF 16949, production launches, change management, and customer and process audits for German OEM customers
  • Knowledge of security requirements, classifications, end-use declarations, and export controls in the metal-supply sector is advantageous for defense-technology supply

Benefits

  • Family-owned business with streamlined decision-making
  • Broad end-to-end responsibility
  • Confidential and discreet handling of your inquiry

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