Manufacturing Operations Leader is responsible for overseeing day-to-day factory operations, production support, facility readiness, EHS coordination, staffing, budget management, and cross-functional execution for a specialized manufacturing site. This role ensures safe, reliable, and efficient operations while supporting manufacturing, engineering, quality, materials, facilities, finance, and external stakeholder relationships.

The role requires a hands-on operational leader with strong technical, manufacturing, financial, and people-management capabilities.
Position
Manufacturing Operations Leader
Location
USA, New Haven, CT

How You'll Create Possibilities

Key Responsibilities

Operations and Manufacturing Support

• Lead and support daily factory operations, production execution, troubleshooting, and issue resolution.
• Responsible for operational performance and improvement of key metrics including safety, quality, delivery, cost and morale. Align area metrics with overall department/value stream goals; organize resources to deliver on these metrics.
• Oversee the daily start-up of production area. Ensure line is properly staffed and manage staffing throughout the day; monitor expected and unexpected absenteeism. Review daily plan with Team Leaders.
• Support production, including technical support, manufacturing troubleshooting, and escalation of production risks.

• Maintain strong understanding of fabrication capabilities, equipment constraints, production flow, and process requirements. Maintain a good technical knowledge of operations; follow the escalation process to address and respond to abnormalities and recommend corrective action as required.

• Coordinate with engineering, quality, maintenance, supply chain, and production teams to remove operational barriers.
• Act as a first responder to Team Leaders and production team members within the production area. Facilitate delegation of issues to appropriate level in escalation process.
• Ensure the Lean manufacturing practices and Escalation Process.
• Support equipment maintenance priorities and ensure production issues are addressed with urgency and discipline.
• Promote standard work, accountability, 5S, and continuous improvement across the facility.

Engineering, Quality, and Technical Systems

• Support project quoting, manufacturing BOMs, standard costs, and technical documentation.
• Use and support GEA systems including Windchill, Agile, Oracle, and related manufacturing / engineering systems.
• Participate in meetings to review department issues. Assist in prioritizing and assigning ownership for open items in assigned production area. Track items to closure and ensure follow-up with key stakeholders.
• Maintain working familiarity with BCR and NPI processes.
• Support quality documentation, audit readiness, UL audits, and corrective action follow-up.
• Help resolve technical issues related to product design, manufacturability, process capability, and production readiness. Lead work team to react aggressively to factory inefficiencies. Drive problem-solving and root cause identification of problems for the production area. Engage all members of escalation team to address and resolve problems, ex. PIE, quality, facilities engineer, etc.

LEADERSHIP & ADMINISTRATION:  Provide active day-to-day leadership, work direction and support for a manufacturing team within a production area.

• Partner with site Human Resources team to ensure fair and consistent administration of all policies, work rules and processes.
• Oversee line staffing and allocate employees to cover absenteeism.

EHS and Compliance Support

• Support LOTO, Job Safety Instructions, SDS management, PPE management, emergency response, and compliance calendar activities.
• Reinforce safe working practices across production, maintenance, facilities, and contractor work.
• Partner with EHS resources to identify hazards, support corrective actions, and maintain compliance readiness.
• Ensure safety considerations are built into production decisions, maintenance work, and facility projects.

QUALITY:  Ensure the product produced on manufacturing line is defect-free and produced according to specification.

• Ensure all quality processes/standards are followed within assigned production area.
• Monitor quality issues on a daily basis and drives the resolution or escalation for any defect.
• Ensure Team Leaders include quality standards in Standardized Work to meet design intent and build in quality.
• Work cross-functionally with multiple stakeholders to address and solve production line quality issues (i.e. Team Leader, engineering, quality).
• Monitor scrap data/reports to drive resolution of scrap issues and work projects to prevent future scrap.

Materials, Supply Chain, and Planning Oversight

• Review and oversee the materials resource responsible for day-to-day inventory, ERP, and material planning activities.
• Monitor inventory levels, material availability, and Oracle / ERP information as needed to support production.
• Support forecasting and production planning by helping evaluate demand, labor, inventory, equipment capacity, and operational constraints.
• Coordinate with materials, supply chain, production, and engineering teams to resolve shortages, delays, substitutions, and inventory issues.
• Escalate material risks that could affect production schedules, customer commitments, or project timelines.

Facilities, IT, and Site Infrastructure

• Oversee contracted building maintenance vendors to ensure they address facility needs including repairs and infrastructure readiness.
• Identify and escalate facility or infrastructure risks that may affect safety, compliance, production, security, or employee experience.

Finance, Budgets, and Labor Management

• Support budget breakdowns, spending allocations, program deck management, and financial reporting inputs.
• Understand and manage cost distinctions including COGS vs. non-COGS, direct vs. indirect spend, expense vs. CapEx, material cost, VLOH, and standard cost.
• Partner with finance to review budget variances, cost drivers, labor costs, and spending risks.
• Manage factory and 1B staffing needs, labor budget visibility, Magnit system activity, and weekly approval of hours.
• Coordinate with supervisors, HR, and staffing partners to ensure appropriate labor coverage.

Community and External Relationships

• Maintain relationships with local government, civic, education, and community partners.
• Interface with the fire department, health department, permitting office, Mayor’s Office, Stamford Partnership, Chamber of Commerce, UConn, and other community partners.
• Represent the site professionally in external meetings, tours, events, and partnership discussions.

What You'll Bring to Our Team

Desired Key Skills and Capabilities

• Manufacturing operations leadership.
• Factory floor troubleshooting and technical problem-solving.
• EHS, LOTO, SDS, PPE, emergency response, and 5S familiarity.
• ERP and manufacturing systems experience, including Oracle, Windchill, Agile, and Magnit.
• BOM, standard cost, NPI, BCR, and quality documentation familiarity.
• Budgeting, cost tracking, labor planning, and financial literacy.
• Facilities management and contractor coordination.
• Cross-functional leadership across production, engineering, quality, supply chain, finance, HR, IT, and external partners.
• Strong communication, escalation, organization, and follow-through.

Required:

• BS/BA degree required, ideally in engineering, supply chain management or business.
• Leadership experience and/or technical acumen within supply chain (ie: manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, materials, quality, procurement, fulfillment or related functional area.)
• Demonstrated experience working with individuals at all levels of the organization to achieve operational results and positive union relations.
• High level of initiative, energy and motivation to develop & grow in a team environment
• Exceptional Organizational skills, and ability to handle multiple priorities and tasks.
• Demonstrated technical competency & experience.
• Proven  leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Bias for action; self starting problem-solver & follow-through ability.
• Ability to facilitate team projects.
• Position supports 24/7 manufacturing facilities. Occasional off shift, on call and weekend work may be required.

Preferred:

• 7 years of leadership experience in a manufacturing environment, supplier management and project implementation.
• Six Sigma certification preferred, with strong knowledge of Lean, DMAIC, workout and other change mechanisms.
• Demonstrated accomplishments showing results-driven methodology, analytical methods, schedule achievement, team work.
• Lean Manufacturing implementation experience.
• Strong verbal and written communication, interpersonal and leadership influencing skills.