Plant Manager

Hood Container Corporation; Bowling Green (KY); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay & benefits

Annual bonus program

Training & development

Job summary

Hood Container Corporation is seeking a hands-on Plant Manager in Bowling Green, KY to lead our packaging facility. You will own operations, drive safety, quality, and productivity, and mentor cross-functional teams to deliver top performance.

In this role, you will shape plant culture, direct process improvements, and manage financials, labor, and capital investments, advancing our commitment to operational excellence.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing.
• Proven ability to lead large teams in a production environment.
• Strong understanding of safety, quality, maintenance, production planning, and operational metrics.

Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership for all plant operations, ensuring safety, quality, productivity, and engagement.
• Lead Production, Maintenance, Quality, and Warehouse teams to achieve excellence.
• Drive continuous improvement to enhance productivity, quality, equipment reliability, and costs.
• Oversee production scheduling and alignment with customer expectations and business objectives.
• Develop leadership capability through coaching, mentoring, accountability, and succession planning.
• Partner with maintenance leadership to maximize equipment reliability and plant performance.

Skills

Leadership

Manufacturing ops

Safety culture

Production planning

Operational metrics

Team development

Education

High school diploma or GED

Technical training / college coursework

Job description

If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact this employer to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.

Full-time Regular Bowling Green, KY, US

At Hood Container Corporation, we're looking for a highly engaged and results-driven Plant Manager to lead our Bowling Green Packaging facility.

This is an opportunity to take ownership of a high-performing operation that recently invested in significant equipment upgrades, including a new corrugator and multiple converting assets. As Plant Manager, you'll have the ability to shape plant culture, develop talent, drive operational excellence, and make a measurable impact on the success of our business.

If you're a hands-on manufacturing leader who thrives on building strong teams, improving performance, and delivering exceptional results in a fast-paced corrugated environment, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

As Plant Manager, you will provide overall leadership for all aspects of plant operations, ensuring the highest standards of safety, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, and employee engagement.

Your key areas of impact will include:

• Creating and maintaining a world-class safety culture where every employee returns home safely each day.
• Leading, developing, and inspiring Production, Maintenance, Quality, and Warehouse teams to achieve operational excellence.
• Driving continuous improvement initiatives that enhance productivity, quality, equipment reliability, and cost performance.
• Ensuring efficient execution of production schedules while meeting customer expectations and business objectives.
• Building leadership capability throughout the organization through coaching, mentoring, accountability, and succession development.
• Partnering with maintenance leadership to maximize equipment reliability and plant performance.
• Leveraging operational metrics to identify opportunities, solve problems, and improve results.
• Managing financial performance, capital investments, labor productivity, and operating expenses.
• Maintaining a strong presence on the manufacturing floor and fostering a culture of teamwork, communication, and accountability.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate will:

• Build strong relationships and credibility across the organization.
• Create an engaged, high-performing workforce focused on safety, quality, and customer satisfaction.
• Drive measurable improvements in productivity, efficiency, and profitability.
• Develop future leaders while strengthening organizational capability.
• Champion continuous improvement and operational excellence across the facility.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive leadership experience managing manufacturing operations.
• Demonstrated success leading large teams in a production environment.
• Strong understanding of safety, quality, maintenance, production planning, and operational metrics.
• Proven ability to drive performance, improve processes, and develop people.
• High school diploma or GED plus relevant college coursework and/or technical training.

Preferred Qualifications

• Lean Manufacturing and/or Six Sigma certification.
• OSHA certification.
• Prior experience managing a large corrugated converting facility.

Here’s why you’ll love working at Hood Container:

• Competitive pay & benefits: We offer a competitive base salary, an annual bonus program, and a comprehensive benefits package to keep you healthy and happy. Check out more detailed information on our benefits via www.hoodcontainer.com/benefits
• Continuous learning: We invest in paid training and development to help you grow your skills and advance your career.
• Caring & Empowering Company Culture: Supportive & collaborative team dedicated to seeing you unbox your potential to help make a difference & make customers happy.

Our goal is to have a diverse and representative workforce, at all job levels, of the citizens and customers we serve. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.

Hood Container Corporation is a family-owned, Mill to Market company, specializing in containerboard and kraft paper, corrugated boxes, high graphic displays, and contract packaging. Our commitment to customer happiness, employee well-being, environmental stewardship, and operational excellence drives our business. Over the last decade, Hood Container Corporation has grown to become one of the top ten Paper and Packaging Companies in the United States.

To learn more about Hood Container Corporation, visit www.hoodcontainer.com or check us out on social media!