Operations Manager

Operations Manager

Catalyst Recycling Plant

Role Focus: Lead a catalyst recycling facility through a critical rebuilding phase, strengthen operational performance, restore trust across the organization, and establish the leadership discipline needed for sustainable long-term success.

Position Overview

We are seeking a proven Operations Manager to lead a catalyst recycling facility through a significant operational and cultural rebuilding phase. This is a high-impact leadership role for a hands-on operator who can stabilize the organization, align the team, improve execution, and lay the foundation for long-term operational excellence.

The right candidate will bring strong industrial operations experience, a visible leadership style, and the ability to earn trust quickly with frontline employees, supervisors, managers, and executive leadership. This person must be comfortable leading through change while maintaining a steady focus on safety, environmental compliance, production, quality, reliability, cost control, and employee engagement.

Primary Purpose of the Role

The Operations Manager will be responsible for restoring organizational alignment, improving plant performance, and creating a disciplined operating culture built on safety, accountability, collaboration, integrity, service leadership, and continuous improvement. The role requires a leader who can think strategically, make practical decisions, and remain closely connected to day-to-day plant execution.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership and Performance

• Lead all aspects of plant operations during an active restructuring and rebuilding period.
• Develop and execute operating strategies that improve safety, production, quality, reliability, efficiency, and cost performance.
• Establish clear operating metrics, performance expectations, communication routines, and accountability systems.
• Identify process improvements that increase throughput, reduce downtime, strengthen reliability, and support consistent execution.
• Use operational and financial data to make practical decisions and drive measurable business results.
• Partner with executive leadership to define priorities, remove barriers, and execute the long-term operating vision.

Safety, Environmental, and Regulatory Compliance

• Champion a strong safety-first culture with visible leadership, clear expectations, and consistent follow-through.
• Ensure plant activities comply with applicable environmental, health, safety, regulatory, and operational requirements.
• Promote proactive hazard identification, effective corrective action, incident prevention, and disciplined field execution.
• Support environmental stewardship and compliance expectations in a highly regulated industrial processing environment.

People, Culture, and Change Leadership

• Rebuild trust across the organization by leading with credibility, transparency, fairness, and consistency.
• Unify teams that may be fractured or misaligned and create a more collaborative, high-performance work environment.
• Lead change management efforts with empathy, decisiveness, and clear communication.
• Strengthen employee engagement, workforce stability, and leadership alignment across all levels of the operation.
• Coach, mentor, and develop supervisors, managers, and emerging leaders.
• Create a culture where employees understand expectations, take ownership, and are supported in doing their best work.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, metallurgy, operations management, business, or a related field required.
• Ten or more years of progressive operations leadership experience in industrial manufacturing, processing, recycling, metals, chemical, mining, refining, or another heavy industry environment.
• Demonstrated success leading operational transformation, turnaround, restructuring, culture rebuilding, or organizational improvement initiatives.
• Proven ability to build trust, resolve dysfunction, align teams, and create a healthier operating culture.
• Strong leadership presence with excellent communication, coaching, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong operational and financial acumen with the ability to connect plant execution to business results.
• Experience managing complex industrial operations with a practical, visible, hands on leadership style.
• Clear track record of building cultures centered on safety, integrity, collaboration, accountability, service leadership, employee engagement, and continuous improvement.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or advanced leadership training strongly preferred.
• Metallurgical background or experience in catalyst recycling, precious metals recovery, smelting, refining, or related processing operations preferred.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or other continuous improvement training or experience is a plus.
• Experience leading operations in environmentally regulated facilities is highly desirable.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be a visible, steady, and trusted leader who can bring structure to the organization while still building confidence and buy-in from the workforce. This person should be comfortable making difficult decisions, setting clear expectations, and holding people accountable without losing respect or credibility.

• Leads by example and is present in the field.
• Communicates clearly and consistently with employees at every level.
• Balances urgency with sound judgment.
• Develops people and strengthens leadership capability across the plant.
• Builds alignment between frontline execution and executive direction.
• Stays resilient and adaptable in fast-changing or high-pressure situations.
• Focuses on sustainable improvement rather than short-term fixes.

Why This Role Matters

This is more than a plant operations role. It is an opportunity to help redefine the future of the organization. The selected leader will play a central role in rebuilding operational strength, restoring team cohesion, improving performance discipline, and establishing the cultural foundation necessary for sustainable growth and long-term success.

Ideal fit: A practical industrial operations leader who can stabilize the plant, rebuild trust, strengthen supervisors, improve performance, and create a culture that lasts.