NEWS PROJECT MANAGER - WRECKER BUILDSNew England Wrecker Sales (NEWS) | a NETC Fleet Services company | Exeter, NH
Full-Time, On-Site, Monday - Friday | $70,000 - $100,000 | Full Benefits + 401(k) + PTOWhat the build shop needs now is someone to run the production plan like a project portfolio and bring lean discipline to how material and information move through the shop. That is this seat: the connective tissue between sales, the build floor, parts, vendors, finance, and the customer. Done well, the shop never waits on a part or a piece of information, the salesman always has a price he can quote, and every build has a date everyone can trust.
MISSIONOwn the NEWS build plan and the flow of every wrecker build from body order through customer delivery. Turn the data that arrives from NRC, the chassis manufacturers, and parts vendors - order lists, delivery dates, spec changes, confirmations - into one actionable production schedule in Grist that the whole team runs on. Keep the rolling three-month build plan current, quote builds for the salesman, coordinate payment and delivery with customers and their banks, and lead the NEWS Parts Associate. Apply lean manufacturing principles - standard work, point-of-need kitting, visual management, and measured continuous improvement - so the build shop increases throughput without adding headcount.
OUTCOMES (FIRST 12 MONTHS)Specific, measurable results expected by the end of your first full year:
1. The build plan is yours and it is always current. A rolling three-month build schedule - by week, by build track, by unit - is developed, updated weekly, and loaded into Grist so that Grist is the single source of truth for every active and planned build. Every build carries a current status, its gate dates (body order, chassis order, sales order, kit checks, build start), and a projected completion date. Any slip of more than three working days is flagged to the Build Shop Manager, Sales, and the COO within one business day.
2. Vendor data becomes production data. NRC order-list updates, chassis manufacturer delivery changes, and parts vendor confirmations are reconciled into Grist within two business days of receipt, with a written change summary of what moved and what it does to the build sequence. No one in the shop plans off a stale date or an unread vendor email.
3. Zero build days lost to missing material. Every build passes its 30-day and 10-day kit checks on time; body, chassis, and parts shortages are surfaced to the Build Shop Manager before build start, not after. Build-days lost to material shortages are tracked monthly and driven to zero.
4. Schedule attainment of 90% or better: builds start within three working days of body and chassis arrival and finish within the published build-day standard for their class (carrier, QuickSwap, rotator). A six-month build-load forecast is published monthly so the Build Shop Manager can staff ahead of demand.
5. You can quote a build. By day 90 you price standard carrier and wrecker builds for the salesman from Grist pricing without assistance, turn quotes within one business day, and have a standard-build quick-reference (bodies, chassis, common options, install pricing) in place so quoting is consistent and fast.
6. No truck leaves without funds confirmed and paperwork closed. For every delivery you coordinate payment with the customer and their lender - deposits, bank funding, payoffs - schedule the handoff, and close the end-of-sale package (title/MSO, FET record, warranty registration, build folder) within five business days. No filing backlog at any month-end.
7. Two completed, documented lean improvement projects in Year 1, co-led with the Build Shop Manager and your Parts Associate - for example point-of-need kitting at the bays, a standard build-sheet and checklist, or a visual production board - each with a measured before-and-after result in build-tech hours, parts cost, or lead time.
CHARACTERISTICS WE'RE HIRING FORThe person who succeeds in this seat brings the following:
- Project manager's mindset. You think in milestones, dependencies, and critical paths. You build the plan, hold the dates, re-flow the sequence when something moves, and tell people what changed before they ask.
- Data translator. Vendor order lists, OEM delivery updates, and spec changes arrive in six formats from six places. You turn them into one clean schedule the floor can act on, and keep the database behind it accurate.
- Lean practitioner. You have used 5S, standard work, kanban or kitting, and visual boards in a real shop. You see waiting, walking, and rework as waste and you go after it with the people doing the work, not from a desk.
- Finisher. You close out what you start. When you cannot hit a date, you say so early and offer a new one.
- Accurate. Chassis specs, body delivery dates, quote pricing - you get the details right the first time and verify before you enter. Sales quotes off your numbers and the floor builds off your dates.
- Calm with twenty priorities. Twenty open items and a quote request landing in the middle of them. You triage, ask for priorities when you need them, and keep moving. You do not freeze.
- Communicator. You run a weekly rhythm with sales, the build floor, parts, and finance, and you are comfortable on the phone with a customer or a bank. Bad news travels fast and comes with a recommendation.
- Owner's bias for action. You act, then adjust. Fear of an error never becomes a reason to slow down; mistakes are recoverable, stalled work is not.
COMPENSATION$70,000 - $100,000 base salary depending on experience, with full medical, dental, and vision, 401(k), and paid time off.
Reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer. One direct report: the NEWS Parts Associate. Works daily with the Build Shop Manager, the NEWS salesman, and Finance (which owns NEWS invoicing, vendor-cost inputs, and cash flow). A structured turnover with the current production coordinator is planned.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE- Three or more years in production planning, production control, project management, or operations in a manufacturing, aviation or aerospace maintenance and production, truck-equipment, upfit, or heavy-equipment environment
- Demonstrated project management: you have built and maintained multi-project schedules, tracked milestones and dependencies, and reported status to leadership
- Demonstrated data management: you have turned vendor data (order confirmations, delivery schedules, spec changes) into a working schedule or database others rely on
- Working knowledge of lean manufacturing tools (5S, standard work, kanban, kitting, visual management, root-cause problem solving) applied in a shop setting
- Strong Excel skills; comfort maintaining a structured database or scheduling tool and working in an accounting system (QuickBooks today; Microsoft Business Central from December)
- Clear written and verbal communication with technicians, vendors, finance, customers, and lenders
- Valid driver's license
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE- PMP, CAPM, or equivalent project management certification
- Lean Six Sigma Yellow or Green Belt, or documented lean project results
- Experience quoting or estimating configured, built-to-order equipment
- Supervisory experience, or clear readiness to lead a direct report
- Experience with a truck body builder, upfitter, or dealership build program; familiarity with NRC, Miller Industries, or Jerr-Dan product
- Working knowledge of Federal Excise Tax on heavy trucks, MSO/title, and equipment-financing paperwork
HOW TO APPLYApply through our applicant portal. Include a brief note describing (1) a production schedule or project plan you personally built and kept current - scope, moving parts, how you handled changes - and (2) one process improvement you led, with the measured result. Confidentiality respected for candidates currently in seat elsewhere.
