Job SummaryLead a manufacturing group consisting of multiple teams, production areas, or related operations to safely deliver conforming aerospace products on time and at the required quality, cost, productivity, and customer-service levels.
Translate the Organization's priorities into disciplined daily and weekly execution through Team Leaders. Establish consistent operating standards, strengthen accountability, remove cross-team barriers, develop frontline leadership capability, and ensure effective escalation and resolution of issues affecting safety, quality, delivery, cost, people, and capacity.
Serve as the second-line manufacturing leader connecting Team Leaders responsible for shop-floor execution with the Operations Leader responsible for broader operational performance, capability, and direction.
Job Responsibilities1. Safety, Environmental and Workplace Control- Lead with a safety-first mindset across assigned teams and production areas; ensure Team Leaders establish clear expectations for hazards, controls, personal protective equipment, and safe work practices.
- Maintain routine floor presence, review safety observations and leading indicators, and ensure prompt escalation and correction of injuries, near misses, environmental concerns, and unsafe conditions.
- Hold Team Leaders accountable for compliance with lockout/tagout, machine guarding, material handling, housekeeping, chemical, ergonomic, emergency, and other applicable requirements.
- Stop or redirect work when conditions could compromise employee safety, product integrity, equipment, or the environment; coordinate resolution of risks that span multiple teams or functions.
2. Manufacturing Execution: Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost- Own manufacturing performance across assigned teams, shifts, product families, or production areas and translate production requirements into executable near-term priorities.
- Review safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, labor, attendance, work-in-process, scrap, rework, downtime, and constraint performance; establish clear owners and recovery actions when results deviate from plan.
- Balance staffing, skills, equipment, and workflow between teams as operating conditions change while maintaining appropriate controls and escalation.
- Ensure Team Leaders have the work instructions, specifications, tooling, materials, training, and support required for consistent execution.
3. Daily Management and Operating Discipline- Lead the daily management process for the assigned group through Leader Standard Work, tiered communication, visible metrics, routine floor reviews, and disciplined action follow-up.
- Establish consistent shift-to-shift and team-to-team communication, escalation, and decision-making expectations.
- Ensure abnormalities are contained, barriers are assigned to accountable owners, and corrective actions are verified for effectiveness.
- Prevent recurring problems from becoming accepted operating conditions by ensuring standards are documented, communicated, trained, audited, and sustained.
(cont...)4. Quality and Product Integrity- Reinforce the expectation that Manufacturing owns quality at the point of execution while respecting independent Quality authority.
- Ensure Team Leaders consistently enforce approved work instructions, specifications, process controls, documentation, traceability, and configuration requirements.
- Coordinate rapid containment of product or process abnormalities and partner with Quality and Engineering on root-cause analysis and corrective action.
- Drive reductions in scrap, rework, repeat defects, escapes, and cost of poor quality without allowing production pressure to override required controls.
5. Constraint Removal and Cross-Functional Execution- Act as the principal operating integrator for issues that cannot be resolved within a single Team Leader's span of control.
- Coordinate with Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Planning, Maintenance, Supply Chain, EH&S, Human Resources, Finance, and Continuous Improvement to resolve material, tooling, equipment, labor, quality, engineering, scheduling, and process constraints.
- Prioritize competing requirements based on safety, quality, customer need, production risk, and business impact; maintain accountability until significant constraints are resolved.
- Escalate issues requiring director-level decisions with clear facts, operational impact, options, and a recommended course of action.
6. Team Leader Leadership, Engagement and Development- Lead, coach, evaluate, and develop Team Leaders; establish clear leadership expectations and consistent operating standards across teams and shifts.
- Conduct routine one-on-one coaching and performance discussions, observe Team Leaders in real operating conditions, and provide timely, candid feedback.
- Strengthen Team Leader capability in safety leadership, employee engagement, performance management, daily management, structured problem solving, and escalation.
- Identify leadership capability gaps, establish development and succession actions, and hold Team Leaders accountable for developing their employees.
- Create and sustain a culture aligned with Great Place to Grow values through visible leadership, respectful communication, recognition, consistency, and follow-through.
(cont...)7. Continuous Improvement and Structured Problem Solving- Build structured problem solving into routine operations and lead resolution of recurring issues involving multiple teams or functions.
- Use practical Lean methods, root-cause analysis, visual management, standard work, and appropriate analytical tools to reduce waste and improve flow.
- Eliminate recurring queue, rework, waiting, handoff, and variation-related losses while protecting safety, quality, configuration control, and customer requirements.
- Ensure improvements are incorporated into standard work and sustained; develop Team Leaders to solve problems effectively at their level.
8. Workforce, Capacity and Compliance Management- Assess labor and skill requirements against production demand; coordinate staffing, cross-training, and skill deployment across assigned teams.
- Identify capacity risks, single-point dependencies, and resource gaps; support recovery, overtime, shift, staffing, and resource recommendations based on operating requirements.
- Partner with Human Resources on attendance, conduct, performance, labor-relations, employee-development, and organizational matters in accordance with company practices.
- Comply with applicable Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, Export Control, labor, security, quality, environmental, health, and safety requirements; perform other duties consistent with the role and business needs.
Required Qualifications- High school diploma or GED equivalent.
- Seven years of progressive experience in a regulatory environment such as automotive, aerospace or medical products.
- Three years of manufacturing supervisory or leadership experience, including responsibility for frontline leaders or multiple production teams.
- Demonstrated ability to manage safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and workforce performance in a regulated manufacturing environment.
- Experience with daily management, performance metrics, structured problem solving, corrective-action follow-through, and cross-functional issue resolution.
- Strong communication, coaching, prioritization, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
- Ability to use business and manufacturing systems for performance tracking, analysis, documentation, and follow-up.
- Ability to work on-site in an active manufacturing environment and support the schedule required by the assigned operation.
- Must satisfy all position-specific employment eligibility, export-control, site-access, and security requirements applicable to the work performed, including ITAR/EAR requirements.
Preferred Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing, Business, Management, or a related field.
- Experience leading in a unionized manufacturing environment.
- Experience managing multiple production teams, shifts, production areas, or value streams.
- Demonstrated experience coaching and developing frontline leaders and succession candidates.
- Experience with Lean manufacturing, daily management, Leader Standard Work, visual management, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.
- Experience supporting capacity improvement, production recovery, or manufacturing transformation.
