Production Manager

Novax Recruitment Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 105,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

Novax Recruitment Group seeks a seasoned Production Manager to lead Processing & Plate in a growing structural steel/fabrication operation. You will develop supervisors, strengthen accountability, and improve throughput, utilization, and overall production performance.

The role emphasizes people leadership, safety, quality, and collaboration across Fabrication, Welding, Quality, Engineering and Maintenance to scale operations with strong KPI discipline.

Qualifications

• Proven production leadership experience in structural steel or bridge fabrication.
• Experience managing supervisors responsible for their own teams.
• AWS D1.1 experience is required; D1.5 and bridge fabrication experience valued.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop supervisors across Processing & Plate production.
• Drive safety, quality, productivity, and schedule adherence.
• Manage manpower, shifts, equipment, and workflow to meet demand.
• Maximize CNC processing throughput and equipment utilization.
• Address bottlenecks, downtime, and rework to improve performance.
• Establish KPIs for throughput, downtime, quality, and schedule performance.
• Recruit and strengthen frontline leadership as production scales.
• Collaborate with Fabrication, Welding, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance, PM.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Production planning

KPIs & metrics

Safety & quality

Throughput optimization

CNC/plate-processing familiarity

Automation & robotics exposure

Problem solving

Manpower planning

Job description

Why This Role Matters

Join a well-funded, growing structural steel and heavy fabrication operation that is investing heavily in modern manufacturing technology and production capability.

This is a key leadership position focused on turning strong equipment, increasing workloads and a developing workforce into a disciplined, high-performing production operation.

You'll take ownership of Processing & Plate, developing supervisors, strengthening accountability and improving throughput, utilisation and production performance.

The biggest priority isn't simply machinery, it's people, leadership and performance.

• Lead and develop supervisors responsible for production teams across Processing & Plate.
• Build accountability around safety, quality, productivity, schedule and performance.
• Manage manpower, shifts, equipment and workflow against changing production requirements.
• Drive throughput and maximise utilisation of CNC processing, automation and robotic equipment.
• Identify and address bottlenecks, downtime, rework and production inefficiencies.
• Establish and manage KPIs covering throughput, utilisation, downtime, quality and schedule performance.
• Recruit, develop and strengthen frontline leadership as production continues to scale.
• Collaborate with Fabrication, Welding, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance and Project Management.
• Proven Production Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Fabrication Manager or similar leadership experience within structural steel or bridge fabrication,
• Demonstrated experience managing supervisors who are responsible for their own teams, rather than solely supervising operators directly.
• Strong exposure to CNC plate-processing equipment such as plasma, laser, oxy-fuel cutting, drilling, beveling, machining or plate rolling.
• Experience working around automation, robotics, heavy fabrication and large welded assemblies.
• Proven ability to improve throughput, equipment utilisation, manpower planning and overall production performance.
• Strong knowledge of production KPIs, continuous improvement and identifying operational bottlenecks.
• AWS D1.1 experience required; AWS D1.5 and bridge fabrication experience would be highly valuable.