Production Leader: Safety‑Driven Ops & Growth

Stepan Company; Elwood (IL); On-site; USD 77,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary Bonus

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance

401K with Match

Profit Sharing

PTO

STD/LTD

HSA

Job summary

Stepan Company in the United States is seeking a Production Leader to oversee the production area’s performance—EH&S, quality, and reliability—and supervise hourly employees in the operation.

The role includes planning production, maintaining equipment safety, training staff in HSE, ensuring SAP data accuracy, and driving cost-effective root-cause analysis for customer issues. Strong leadership and SAP experience are essential.

Qualifications

• 5 years of chemical operations/manufacturing experience.
• 3 years minimum of Management Experience in Manufacturing.
• Understanding of chemical process and production equipment required.
• SAP experience.
• Ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization.

Responsibilities

• Manage manufacturing (Planning, Production and Warehousing) to ensure HSE, operational, financial and customer service targets are achieved and develop the team and area in line with business needs.
• Responsible for managing the safe operation of plant and equipment in line within internal and legislative requirements.
• Ensure that all employees within the operations area are suitably trained in all aspects of HSE to deliver appropriate performance.
• Promote and maintain a behavioral Safety culture in the operations area.
• Responsible for the setting and delivery of production plans.
• Ensure availability of identified capacity bottlenecks and proposals for the next steps for plant capacity increases.
• Oversee stock accuracy of materials within SAP system and ensure accurate data in SAP for all processes.
• Root causes of manufacturing related customer complaints are identified and addressed in a cost-effective way in a timely manner.
• Identify technical and commercial functions to ensure customer requirements are fully defined and understood.
• Manage the team members and ensure their performance is in line with expectations.
• Recruit and select team members for area and undertake disciplinary action according to the procedure when required.
• Manage budget with fixed cost performance for manufacturing budgets.

Skills

Leadership

Safety culture

Communication

Education

High school diploma

Associate/Bachelor's degree preferred

Tools

SAP

Job description

Stepan Company in the United States is seeking a Production Leader to oversee the production area’s performance—EH&S, quality, and reliability—and supervise hourly employees in the operation.

The role includes planning production, maintaining equipment safety, training staff in HSE, ensuring SAP data accuracy, and driving cost-effective root-cause analysis for customer issues. Strong leadership and SAP experience are essential.