Plant Manager

Confidential Careers; California; On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Confidential Careers seeks an elite Plant Manager to lead an aerospace and defense manufacturing facility, driving profitability, productivity, and on-time delivery.

The role demands hands-on leadership with a business mindset, deep knowledge of precision CNC machining, and a proven track record in managing P&L, production scheduling, estimating, and continuous improvement. You will partner with finance and engineering to optimize capacity and customer satisfaction.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• Significant experience managing precision CNC machining operations.
• Aerospace and/or defense manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated responsibility for a P&L or significant plant financial performance.
• Strong understanding of job costing, estimating, margins, labor utilization, and manufacturing economics.
• Proven success improving plant profitability.
• Strong knowledge of production planning and scheduling.
• Experience with complex, high-value, tight-tolerance components.

Responsibilities

• Assume ownership and accountability for the plant's P&L and financial performance.
• Develop and execute strategies to increase revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, and overall profitability.
• Analyze labor, material, tooling, overhead, scrap, rework, overtime, and other cost drivers.
• Identify and eliminate sources of margin erosion and operational waste.
• Establish financial and operational KPIs and hold leadership teams accountable for results.
• Partner with Finance to develop budgets, forecasts, capital plans, and financial improvement initiatives.
• Understand job costing, labor utilization, machine utilization, standard hours, actual hours, and manufacturing variances.
• Make sound decisions regarding capital expenditures, staffing, equipment utilization, outsourcing, and capacity.
• Lead all aspects of plant manufacturing operations, including CNC machining, production, engineering, quality, maintenance, materials, and scheduling.

Job description

Our organization is seeking an elite Plant Manager to lead the operational and financial performance of a high-performance aerospace and defense manufacturing facility.

This is a hands-on, business-minded leadership position for an experienced manufacturing executive who understands that successful plant leadership goes far beyond production. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in precision CNC machining, aerospace and defense manufacturing, P&L management, production scheduling, estimating, business development, and operational improvement.

The Plant Manager will have significant responsibility for improving profitability, productivity, delivery performance, customer satisfaction, capacity utilization, and overall plant performance.

We are looking for a leader who can walk onto the floor, understand the machining challenges, review a financial statement, identify margin leakage, challenge an estimate, improve a production schedule, work with customers, and hold the organization accountable for results.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Assume ownership and accountability for the plant's P&L and financial performance.
• Develop and execute strategies to increase revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, and overall profitability.
• Analyze labor, material, tooling, overhead, scrap, rework, overtime, and other cost drivers.
• Identify and eliminate sources of margin erosion and operational waste.
• Establish financial and operational KPIs and hold leadership teams accountable for results.
• Partner with Finance to develop budgets, forecasts, capital plans, and financial improvement initiatives.
• Understand job costing, labor utilization, machine utilization, standard hours, actual hours, and manufacturing variances.
• Make sound decisions regarding capital expenditures, staffing, equipment utilization, outsourcing, and capacity.

Manufacturing & Machining Leadership

• Lead all aspects of plant manufacturing operations, including CNC machining, production, engineering, quality, maintenance, materials, and scheduling.
• Possess a strong understanding of precision machining, including CNC milling, turning, multi-axis machining, large-format machining, tight tolerances, difficult-to-machine materials, and complex aerospace components.
• Develop a culture of operational discipline, accountability, continuous improvement, and ownership.
• Improve machine utilization, labor productivity, throughput, first-pass yield, and overall equipment effectiveness.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions to increase plant capacity without unnecessarily increasing headcount or capital.
• Partner with Engineering and Production to improve manufacturability, tooling, processes, cycle times, and production flow.
• Ensure the facility consistently meets customer requirements for quality, cost, and delivery.

Production Planning & Scheduling

• Establish effective production planning and scheduling processes.
• Balance customer demand, machine capacity, labor availability, material requirements, tooling, and outside processing.
• Improve on-time delivery (OTD) and reduce past-due orders.
• Establish realistic production commitments and ensure execution against the schedule.
• Identify constraints before they impact customer delivery.
• Improve visibility into plant capacity and future workload.
• Drive accountability throughout the organization for schedule adherence.
• Provide leadership and oversight for RFQ review, estimating, quoting, and job profitability.
• Review complex aerospace and defense machining estimates for accuracy and competitiveness.
• Ensure labor hours, machine rates, tooling, material, outside processing, setup time, programming, inspection, and overhead are appropriately considered.
• Challenge assumptions that could negatively impact profitability.
• Establish feedback loops between estimating and actual production performance.
• Use historical production data to continuously improve estimating accuracy.
• Help determine which opportunities the company should pursue based on capacity, capability, strategic fit, and expected profitability.

Business Development & Customer Relationships

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key aerospace and defense customers.
• Partner with Business Development and Sales to identify new opportunities and expand existing customer relationships.
• Participate in customer meetings, RFQ reviews, negotiations, and strategic account discussions.
• Understand customer requirements and translate them into operational and financial objectives.
• Help identify opportunities for additional programs, capabilities, and revenue growth.
• Serve as a senior operational representative with customers when required.

Operational Excellence & Profitability Improvement

• Lead initiatives focused on lean manufacturing, Kaizen, continuous improvement, cost reduction, and productivity improvement.
• Establish a culture where every leader understands the relationship between operational performance and profitability.
• Reduce scrap, rework, downtime, overtime, excessive WIP, and unnecessary operating costs.
• Improve labor utilization and workforce productivity.
• Evaluate make-versus-buy decisions and outside processing strategies.
• Identify opportunities to improve facility layout, workflow, automation, tooling, technology, and equipment utilization.
• Establish a culture of continuous improvement rather than temporary problem solving.

Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead, develop, and hold accountable a cross-functional plant leadership team.
• Establish clear goals, expectations, KPIs, and performance standards.
• Develop high-performing supervisors and managers.
• Build a culture of accountability, teamwork, urgency, and operational excellence.
• Ensure the organization has the talent, structure, and capabilities required to support growth.
• Address performance issues decisively and professionally.
• Develop succession plans and strengthen the leadership pipeline.

Quality, Safety & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with applicable aerospace and defense quality and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain strong operational discipline around AS9100, ISO 9001, customer-specific requirements, NADCAP and other applicable standards.
• Partner with Quality to reduce defects, escapes, scrap, and customer complaints.
• Promote a strong safety culture and ensure compliance with all applicable OSHA and company requirements.
• Ensure manufacturing processes consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

The successful candidate will be a proven manufacturing operator and business leader, not simply a production manager.

The ideal candidate will bring:

• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• Significant experience managing precision CNC machining operations.
• Aerospace and/or defense manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated responsibility for a P&L or significant plant financial performance.
• Strong understanding of job costing, estimating, margins, labor utilization, and manufacturing economics.
• Proven success improving plant profitability.
• Strong knowledge of production planning and scheduling.
• Experience working with complex, high-value, tight-tolerance components.
• Experience with titanium and other difficult-to-machine materials preferred.
• Experience with large-format CNC machining preferred.
• Strong understanding of aerospace quality systems, particularly AS9100 / ISO 9001.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.
• Strong customer-facing and business development capabilities.
• Excellent analytical, financial, communication, and leadership skills.
• Demonstrated ability to make difficult decisions and drive accountability.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within the first 12-18 months, the successful Plant Manager will be expected to demonstrate measurable improvement in:

• Plant profitability and EBITDA
• Gross margin
• Revenue growth
• Labor productivity
• Capacity utilization
• Scrap and rework
• Overtime
• WIP
• Quoting/estimating accuracy
• Employee accountability and leadership effectiveness

THE RIGHT LEADER

This opportunity is best suited for an individual who is commercially minded, operationally aggressive, financially accountable, and technically credible.

The ideal leader doesn't manage from behind a desk. They spend time on the manufacturing floor, understand the numbers, ask difficult questions, identify problems quickly, and build teams capable of solving them.

We are seeking someone who can simultaneously think like a Plant Manager, General Manager, Manufacturing Engineer, and business owner—someone who understands that every production decision ultimately impacts the customer, the workforce, and the bottom line.

This is an opportunity for a high-performing manufacturing leader to have a direct and measurable impact on the growth and profitability of a sophisticated aerospace and defense manufacturing operation.