Upstream Manufacturing Supervisor

About the role

The Manufacturing Operations Supervisor is responsible for leading daily manufacturing execution for a chemical reference standards operation producing organic and inorganic chemical standards, reagents, and related products. This role ensures safe, compliant, efficient, and customer-focused production while developing people, strengthening technical capability, and driving continuous improvement across manufacturing processes, systems, and performance metrics. The successful candidate will combine hands-on manufacturing leadership with strong chemistry knowledge, operational discipline, and data-driven decision making. This role is expected to build a high-performing team culture, improve production flow, support quality and regulatory compliance, and partner cross-functionally with Quality Control, Quality Assurance, Planning, Procurement, Logistics, Engineering, Technical Support, and Commercial teams. This is a 100% on‑site role based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Applicants must already reside locally or within a reasonable commuting distance. Relocation is not provided.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily manufacturing operations to meet safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity goals for catalog and custom chemical standards.
• Ensure production activities involving organic and inorganic chemistry are executed according to approved procedures, specifications, and applicable regulatory expectations.
• Promote a strong safety culture, ensure proper chemical handling practices, and maintain compliance with site procedures, environmental health and safety requirements, and quality system expectations.
• Partner with Quality Control, Quality Assurance, and technical teams to resolve production issues, support investigations, reduce nonconformances, and maintain process integrity.
• Identify and lead improvements that reduce waste, improve flow, increase schedule adherence, strengthen standard work, and improve productivity using lean, root cause analysis, and structured problem-solving methods.
• Coach, develop, and engage production employees and frontline leaders through clear expectations, regular feedback, training plans, skill development, and career growth discussions.
• Use production, quality, inventory, labor, and schedule data to identify trends, prioritize actions, and communicate performance insights to stakeholders.
• Work closely with Planning, Procurement, Quality, Logistics, Engineering, Technical Support, Customer Service, Product Data Management, and Commercial teams to align production priorities with customer and business needs.
• Assess staffing, equipment, material availability, and process constraints to support short-term execution and long-term production capability.
• Support accurate use of manufacturing systems, batch records, work instructions, production schedules, inventory transactions, and related documentation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Operations Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered.
• Experience leading manufacturing, production, laboratory operations, or technical operations in a chemical, or regulated manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of organic and inorganic chemistry concepts, chemical formulation, solution preparation, raw material control, and safe chemical handling practices.
• Demonstrated ability to lead people, manage priorities, communicate clearly, and build trust with production teams and cross-functional partners.
• Experience using data to monitor performance, solve problems, identify process gaps, and drive operational decisions.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to balance safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer impact.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced manufacturing environment with changing priorities and operational constraints.

Skills

• Experience with SAP or a similar ERP system for production orders, inventory transactions, material availability, scheduling, or manufacturing execution.
• Experience in ISO 9001, ISO 17025, ISO 17034, GMP, DEA-regulated, or other regulated quality environments.