Complex Plant Manager ( Full-time ) Defiance, OH - DK

Plant Manager

The Plant Manager is expected to:

• Safety & Environmental Performance:

  • Achieve year-over-year improvement in safety metrics, ensuring the Defiance complex meets or exceeds JM safety, health, and environmental commitments.

  • Maintain full regulatory compliance while reducing risk through proactive hazard identification, strong safety culture, and disciplined operating practices.

• Operational Excellence:

  • Improve plant productivity, throughput, yield, and uptime through disciplined execution of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement systems.

  • Ensure Defiance remains a reliable, high-quality supplier to internal JM plants and external customers, improving customer satisfaction and reducing quality escapes.

  • Balance short-term operational demands with long-term process stability and asset reliability.

• People & Culture:

  • Build and sustain an engaged, accountable, performance-driven culture aligned with JM values.

  • Develop leaders and succession pipelines by coaching, setting clear expectations, and holding leaders accountable for results.

  • Effectively lead within a union environment, maintaining productive labor relations while driving performance.

• Financial Performance:

  • Deliver annual operating results against budget and forecast, including cost, working capital, and inventory performance.

  • Translate financial analysis into actionable operating decisions that improve profitability and asset efficiency.

• Capital & Strategic Execution:

  • Lead major capital programsincluding furnace rebuilds, automation, and capacity expansionsdelivering projects safely, on schedule, and within approved funding.

  • Improve plant efficiency and strategic flexibility through disciplined evaluation and execution of capital investments.

• Systems, Governance & Reporting:

  • Establish and maintain robust operating metrics, management routines, and reporting systems that drive accountability and continuous improvement.

  • Partner with senior leadership to align site execution with both near-term business priorities and long-range strategic objectives.

• External Leadership:

  • Serve as the primary representative of JM for the Defiance complex with community stakeholders, regulatory agencies, customers, and corporate leadership.

Why This Role Stands Out:

• Enterprise-Critical Leadership Role: Lead one of JM's largest, most complex, and most visible manufacturing complexes with direct impact on network-wide supply and performance.

• True Scale and Accountability: Full responsibility for a multi-site, capital-intensive operation with 600+ hourly and 60+ salaried employees, multiple unions, and diverse product lines.

• Transformation Opportunity: Drive major capital investmentsincluding furnace rebuilds, automation, and potential expansionshaping the future of the plant, not just maintaining it.

• High Visibility, High Impact: Significant interaction with senior leadership and corporate stakeholders; success here is highly visible and career-accelerating.

• Career-Defining Challenge: Ideal for a proven plant leader seeking complexity, influence, and the chance to leave a lasting operational and cultural legacy.

Qualifications & Leadership Capabilities:

• Bachelor's degree required (engineering or technical related degree preferred) with 12+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including 5+ years as a Plant Manager or equivalent senior site leadership role.

• Demonstrated success leading large, complex, multi-line manufacturing operations with union and salaried workforces.

• Proven ability to deliver measurable improvements in safety, productivity, quality, cost, and employee engagement.

• Strong financial acumen with experience managing P&L performance and capital programs.

• Deep knowledge of continuous improvement disciplines (Lean, Six Sigma, Kepner-Tregoe, or similar).

• Experience with environmental permitting, regulatory agencies, and safety program leadership.

• Strong technical and mechanical aptitude with the ability to challenge and improve manufacturing systems.

• Highly effective communicator and collaborator, capable of influencing at all levels of the organization.

• Demonstrated ability to set clear direction, prioritize competing demands, and drive disciplined execution.

• Willingness to travel periodically (1129 days per year).

Security Clearance Required: No Visa Candidate Considered: No

Compensation

Base Salary - USD $200,000 to $240,000