Production Manager

Responsibilities

• Define, communicate, and execute the manufacturing strategy in alignment with overall company objectives.
• Lead and develop a multi-level production organization through line supervisors and production leadership.
• Drive a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, safety, and quality.
• Serve as a key operations leader, contributing to long-range planning, capacity planning, and capital investment decisions.
• Direct daily production activities through line supervisors to meet safety, quality, delivery, and cost targets.
• Translate customer demand and production plans into executable schedules, priorities, and resource plans.
• Partner with the Master Scheduler to proactively manage capacity, constraints, and schedule changes.
• Oversee workstation utilization, production flow, staffing models, overtime, and shift structures to maximize efficiency and throughput.
• Ensure effective coordination of preventive and corrective maintenance activities to minimize downtime.
• Lead Lean Six Sigma initiatives to improve productivity, reduce waste, improve quality, and lower cost.
• Establish and maintain standardized work, process documentation, and best practices consistent with company policies and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor KPIs related to safety, quality, delivery, cost, and employee engagement; take corrective action as needed.
• Champion data-driven decision-making across the production organization.
• Ensure compliance with FDA/GMP, ISO 13485, and other applicable regulatory and quality system requirements.
• Partner with Quality to design, implement, and sustain quality awareness and continuous improvement programs.
• Ensure adherence to environmental, health, and safety policies and drive proactive risk mitigation.
• Support audits, inspections, and corrective/preventive action initiatives.
• Assess and forecast staffing needs; engage in the hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, and succession planning for production personnel.
• Conduct performance reviews, provide coaching, and address performance or conduct issues in accordance with company policies.
• Build leadership capability within the production team to support scalability and business growth.
• Ensure accurate timekeeping and labor reporting for production personnel.
• Develop, manage, and control departmental budgets, forecasts, and labor costs.
• Identify opportunities for cost reduction and productivity improvement while maintaining quality and delivery performance.
• Support business cases for capital expenditures, equipment upgrades, and capacity expansion.

Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum of 7 years of progressive manufacturing experience. At least 5 years in a production or operations management role with direct leadership responsibility.
• Skills: Proven experience leading teams through change, growth, or operational transformation. Demonstrated experience working within FDA/GMP and/or ISO 13485 regulated manufacturing environments. Strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills. Proven ability to manage complex production environments and competing priorities. Experience driving Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives. Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities. Ability to collaborate effectively across multiple functions and levels of the organization.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations Management, Business Administration, or related field. Preferred: Experience with laser workstation setup and operation. Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification. Experience scaling operations in a high-mix, regulated manufacturing environment.