Plant Manager

A well-established global manufacturer of process equipment and engineered technologies is seeking an experienced Plant Manager to lead operations at one of its precision metal machining facilities in Southwestern Ontario. The organization serves a diverse range of industries, including animal feed, consumer food, renewable energy, advanced materials, and sustainable packaging, and has a long-standing reputation for quality and innovation across multiple continents.

This is a hands-on leadership role at a smaller, agile facility where wearing many hats and a strong bias for action are essential to success.

The Position

Reporting to the VP of Manufacturing Operations, the Plant Manager is accountable for safe, efficient, and cost-effective operations that drive the achievement of company objectives, consistent product quality, and on-time delivery to customers.

The successful candidate will provide leadership, direction, decision-making, and stability across all functional areas of the plant, including production, maintenance, process engineering, warehousing and shipping, quality control, and inventory control. The role also works closely and collaboratively with engineering and order processing teams across other North American locations.

This position is responsible for the planning and direction of all manufacturing activities at a precision metal machining facility that produces specialized components for industrial process equipment.

As you learn the business, expect significant hands-on time understanding and improving existing processes while building and developing your team.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure plant operations comply with all regulatory requirements and maintain a vigorous, well-executed Safety Program.
• Develop plant objectives, priorities, and operating plan targets — including key metrics — and deploy these throughout the team to drive results.
• Continuously evaluate and improve plant operations across EHS, quality, productivity, and profitability. Lead change initiatives with input from key stakeholders.
• Promote a company culture rooted in integrity, teamwork, customer focus, learning, innovation, accountability, respect, inclusiveness, and perseverance.
• Establish effective communication channels with sales management, sister facilities, and engineering teams to keep employees informed on key initiatives.
• Actively participate in recruiting and onboarding to strengthen culture and reduce turnover. Represent the company in the local community and build relationships that help advance the workforce.
• Support capital planning and build out the manufacturing organization to support approximately 25% capacity growth.
• Provide management, oversight, and supervision across production, engineering and maintenance, process control, quality control, purchasing and inventory control, and labor relations.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of planning and plant production management experience in a related industry, ideally in a job shop environment.
• Significant experience with metal machining. A strong understanding of materials flow and purchasing/supply chain within a manufacturing facility is essential.
• Demonstrated experience using MRP/ERP systems; implementation experience is an asset.
• Completion of relevant manufacturing management training programs is helpful.
• Strong background in Continuous Improvement, Root Cause Corrective Action, problem solving, and waste elimination / process improvement.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a technical field.

The Person

The successful candidate will be a strong cultural fit who brings a high level of ethical, intellectual, professional, and personal values to the team.

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and successfully manage staff at all levels to achieve plant goals. Assertive in style but respectful of others, and skilled at navigating competing organizational priorities.
• Strong relationship builder with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, able to motivate staff, facilitate change, and influence peers.
• High-energy, self-motivated, and hands-on leader who works across all levels of the organization to drive performance and continuous improvement through an analytical, metrics-based approach.
• Strong bias for action with the willingness and ability to wear many hats in a smaller plant environment.

Details of the Role

Location: Chatham- Kent

Salary: $125,000-145,000/ annual + pension and benefit package

Interview immediately with a start date in June