<p>A phase-shift (PS)-based variable pole sliding mode controller (VPSMC) is employed for high-speed on/off pilot-operated proportional multi-way valves to improve main-spool positioning precision. This control approach addresses spool displacement fluctuations and low control precision caused by dead zones, nonlinearities, and displacement-control strategies in high-speed on/off valves. First, a PS triggering criterion is constructed based on the established steady-state spool displacement fluctuation model. Thereafter, a fuzzy-based variable-pole scheme is implemented to adapt the integral sliding-mode dynamics according to the evolution of the tracking error. Additionally, an integral anti-windup method based on sliding-mode surface separation is developed for large step conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that, compared with baseline methods, the evaluation metrics <i>M</i>_e, <i>μ</i> and <i>σ</i> are reduced by at least 25.8%, 31.4% and 34.2%, respectively, across all tested excitations. Ablation studies indicate that the phase-shift module provides the dominant contribution to performance improvement, achieving a reduction of over 16.7% in tracking error metrics, while the variable-pole scheme adapts system dynamics to different operating conditions and the anti-windup mechanism suppresses windup under large errors. Moreover, the controller shows strong robustness to pressure jumps, with maximum spool displacement fluctuations below 7%.</p>