Director of Manufacturing

Thomas Brooke International; Alabama; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Moving allowance

Temporary housing

Paid house-hunting trip

Job summary

Thomas Brooke International is seeking a Senior Production Leader for a growing, family-owned coatings manufacturer in Alabama. You will own facility-wide safety, the master production schedule, and cost performance, while developing supervisors across shifts.

You’ll work in a data-driven environment investing in AI-enabled tools and Power BI, with a pathway to shape a future facility. This role offers relocation support and a chance to lead meaningful continuous improvement across a diverse

Qualifications

• 7+ years in paint/coatings manufacturing with progressive leadership.
• 3+ years in a production/plant management role across multiple shifts.
• Hands-on experience with waterborne and solvent-borne coatings.
• Financial literacy to manage a production cost center with plant controller collaboration.
• Bachelor's degree in technical, engineering, or business preferred; equivalent experience considered.
• Strong proficiency with Excel and ERP systems; Power BI a plus.
• Collaborative, values-driven leader who develops supervisors and teams.

Responsibilities

• Own facility-wide safety culture and standards across all shifts.
• Own the master production schedule and drive On-Time, In-Full delivery as a top metric.
• Manage production cost performance including labor, materials, scrap, and overtime.
• Lead and develop Production Supervisors across shifts; align day and night performance.
• Drive continuous improvement using Lean and root-cause tools; champion ERP and data systems.
• Partner with QA/lab on specs, holds, and issue resolution; maintain 5S and housekeeping.

Skills

Safety leadership

Production management

Cost control

ERP systems

Power BI

Lean / Six Sigma

Education

Bachelor's degree in technical/engineering/business

Equivalent combination of education & leadership experience

Tools

ERP systems

Power BI

Excel

Job description

• Step into the senior production leadership seat at a growing, family-owned industrial coatings manufacturer that has spent the last three years transforming from having almost no formal metrics or process discipline into a genuinely data-driven operation with real room left for this person to take it further.
• Serve as the direct right hand to the COO, freeing him to focus on strategy while you own the day-to-day performance of the plant: safety, delivery, cost, quality, and people, across all shifts.
• Work with a genuinely collaborative, low-ego team culture. Command-and-control operators don't tend to last here — people who lead through competence and buy-in do.
• Bring your expertise to a company investing seriously in AI-enabled operations data, well beyond what's typical for a company this size, to get better information into the hands of the people making decisions.
• Work across a genuinely varied, high-performance product portfolio — including a premium, high-margin fluoropolymer coating used on architectural metal panels — rather than a single commodity line.
• Real upside: a meaningful KPI-based incentive on top of base salary, plus the potential to be part of shaping a future new facility as the company's growth continues.
• Full relocation support, including a moving allowance, temporary housing, and a paid house-hunting trip for you and your spouse.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own facility-wide safety culture and standards across every shift — not just compliance, but genuine accountability.
• Own the master production schedule and drive On-Time, In-Full delivery as a top-tier metric, treating every customer commitment as a promise.
• Manage production cost performance — cost per gallon, labor, raw material yield, scrap, and overtime — partnering closely with a strong plant controller rather than working in a vacuum.
• Lead and develop your Production Supervisors across all shifts, building consistent standards and closing the gap between day shift and off-shift performance.
• Drive continuous improvement — cycle time, throughput, OEE — using Lean and root-cause tools, and champion the plant's ERP and data systems.
• Partner closely with the lab and QC team on specifications, quality holds, and customer issue resolution, bringing a genuinely collaborative approach rather than a territorial one.
• Set and hold the facility-wide housekeeping and 5S standard — this is a genuinely important part of the role here, not a box-checking exercise, and you should be ready to point to real examples of how you've built that discipline elsewhere.

THE RIGHT CANDIDATE

Education & Technical Skills

• 7+ years of experience in paint or coatings manufacturing is required, with progressive responsibility from the floor through supervisory or management roles.
• 3+ years in a production or plant management role with direct cost-center accountability is required, ideally including management across multiple shifts.
• Hands-on experience in both waterborne and solvent-borne coatings is required; familiarity with higher-performance or coil-adjacent coating technologies is a meaningful plus.
• Experience in a small-batch, custom-order manufacturing environment is a strong plus. If your entire background is in large-batch, highly automated production, this may be a harder transition unless you've specifically worked in a smaller-batch facility.
• Financial literacy — the ability to read and manage a production cost center and work effectively alongside a plant controller — is essential.
• A bachelor's degree in a technical, engineering, or business discipline is preferred; an equivalent combination of education and progressive manufacturing leadership experience will be considered.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office (especially Excel) and ERP systems is required. Experience with Power BI and/or AI-driven tools is a plus.
• A collaborative leader, not a command-and-control operator. You earn buy-in rather than demand it, and you genuinely enjoy developing supervisors and teams.
• Proactive about cost and performance — you speak up about the financial implications of decisions rather than waiting to be told what they are.
• A natural partner across functions, especially with quality and lab teams; you build relationships rather than draw lines.
• Energized by being part of a real transformation story — you want to build on strong early progress, not start from zero, and not just maintain what's already working.
• Genuinely excited about small-company life: hands-on, close to the business, and motivated by mission and impact as much as title.
• Aligned with a mission-driven, values-led company culture, and comfortable working within that kind of environment.