DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS
Established Metal Manufacturer
On-Site | Full-Time | Executive Operations Leadership
ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY
Our client is a multi-generational, family-owned metal plating and finishing company with over 50 years of operating history. Known for reliability, technical capability, and long-standing customer partnerships, this organization serves electrical and industrial manufacturing clients in a complex, high-mix, 24/7 production environment.
The business has built its reputation on trust, responsiveness, quality, and execution. The company is now entering its next phase of operational evolution and is seeking a strong operational leader to help professionalize processes, improve throughput, strengthen accountability, and drive long-term operational performance.
This is not simply a maintenance or plant management role.
This is an opportunity to lead and shape a business with a true ownership mentality — aligning production, people, equipment reliability, customer execution, and profitability inside a legacy manufacturing operation.
THE ROLE
The Director of Manufacturing Operations will serve as the senior operational leader of the facility, overseeing production operations, scheduling, maintenance coordination, workforce performance, quality execution, financial accountability, and customer delivery performance.
This individual will lead a complex plating and manufacturing environment operating across multiple production lines, job types, and customer requirements.
The ideal candidate is highly operational, process-oriented, metrics-driven, and capable of balancing accountability with strong people leadership inside a tenured manufacturing environment.
Success in this role will ultimately be tied to improving:
- On-time delivery performance
- Production throughput and scheduling execution
- Labor efficiency and workforce utilization
- Equipment uptime and operational reliability
- Scrap, defects, and rework reduction
- Safety culture and operational accountability
——————————————————————
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Operational & Production Leadership
- Lead daily 24/7 plating and manufacturing operations across multiple production lines, including rack, barrel, and high-mix production environments
- Improve throughput, scheduling flow, and production execution to increase customer delivery performance and reduce lead times
- Drive operational discipline and accountability across production, maintenance, scheduling, and supervisory teams
- Improve labor efficiency, production output, and workforce utilization while reducing unnecessary overtime and production inefficiencies
- Establish clear production priorities, scheduling visibility, and operational communication across departments
- Improve coordination between customer service, quoting, scheduling, production, shipping, and maintenance teams
- Drive equipment reliability and operational uptime through preventative maintenance initiatives and stronger ownership accountability
- Lead root cause analysis efforts tied to downtime, defects, scrap, rework, and customer-impacting production delays
- Implement KPI-driven operational reporting and production visibility tools
- Maintain strict quality, safety, environmental, and compliance standards throughout the operation
- Improve workflow consistency, production predictability, and customer responsiveness
Financial & Commercial Accountability
- Own plant-level operational and financial performance
- Analyze operational profitability by customer, production line, and job type
- Improve cost controls, labor productivity, and operational efficiency across the facility
- Evaluate staffing strategy, shift effectiveness, overtime trends, and workforce allocation
- Introduce operational dashboards connecting production metrics to financial performance
- Partner with ownership on capital expenditures, equipment investments, and working capital decisions
- Support pricing discipline and operational planning tied to raw material volatility and customer demands
Culture & Leadership
- Lead and develop supervisors, production leadership, and operational personnel
- Clarify roles, accountability structures, and operational ownership across departments
- Build trust while implementing stronger operational discipline and performance expectations
- Improve morale through visible operational wins and leadership consistency
- Address performance issues respectfully but decisively
- Stabilize and retain key technical and operational personnel
- Lead through influence and credibility while driving operational change
- Foster a culture focused on urgency, accountability, safety, teamwork, and continuous improvement
——————————————————————
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
Required Experience
- 10+ years of manufacturing or industrial operations leadership experience
- Experience leading multi-shift production environments
- Strong operational leadership background in manufacturing, process-driven, or industrial production environments
- Demonstrated success improving throughput, reducing downtime, and increasing operational efficiency
- Strong understanding of production KPIs, labor efficiency, and operational reporting
- Experience managing plant-level P&L performance and operational cost controls
- Experience reducing scrap, rework, defects, or production inefficiencies
- Strong maintenance coordination and equipment reliability understanding
- Experience managing hourly manufacturing workforces
- Strong leadership presence with the ability to drive accountability and operational consistency
Preferred Background
- Metal plating, metal finishing, or surface treatment operations
- Metal fabrication, machining, industrial coatings, or chemical processing
- Lean Manufacturing / Six Sigma environments
- ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 environments
- Family-owned or privately held manufacturing businesses
- High-mix, customer-responsive manufacturing operations
- Operations involving raw material cost volatility and tight production timelines
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
- Competitive Base Salary: $110K–$150K+ DOE
- Performance-Based Bonus Structure (20-30%)
- Comprehensive Benefits Package
- Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage
- Retirement Plan
- Paid Time Off
- Long-Term Leadership Opportunity