Senior Director, Plant Manager - Prototyping & System Integration

Leidos; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos in Huntsville, AL is seeking a Plant Manager to lead a manufacturing facility supporting system prototyping and high-volume electronics for defense programs. You will oversee production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials, facilities, and talent acquisition to ensure safe, compliant, and on-time delivery.

This role emphasizes operational leadership, lean improvements, cost control, and collaboration with customers and cross-functional teams to meet evolving program commitments

Responsibilities

• Plant Operations & Production Execution: Lead all manufacturing and production activities, including missile subsystem integration, system-level assembly, test operations, and high-volume electronics manufacturing.
• Safety & Regulatory Compliance: Foster a zero-harm culture and ensure compliance with environmental, health, safety, hazardous-material handling, and facility requirements.
• Quality & Mission Assurance: Partner with Quality and Engineering to maintain process controls, product traceability, configuration management, and nonconformance resolution.
• Delivery & Production Planning: Translate program demand into production plans, staffing, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules.
• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement: Lead lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, and standard work.
• Financial & Business Performance: Own plant operating budgets, cost, and capital planning to improve cost competitiveness while ensuring safety and quality.
• Supply Chain & Materials Management: Improve material availability, inventory accuracy, and supplier performance; manage constraints.
• People Leadership & Organizational Development: Lead a high-performing organization across production, technicians, engineers, and support.
• Equipment, Facilities & Capital Investment: Ensure equipment and facilities are reliable and capable of meeting demand; prioritize maintenance and investments.
• Performance Management & Reporting: Track KPIs for safety, quality, delivery, throughput, yield, and labor productivity; report to senior leadership.
• Cross-Functional & Customer Collaboration: Coordinate with stakeholders to align on goals and commitments.

Job description

At Leidos, we deliver innovative solutions through the efforts of our diverse and talented people who are dedicated to our customers' success. We empower our teams, contribute to our communities, and operate sustainably. Everything we do is built on a commitment to do the right thing for our customers, our people, and our community. Our Mission, Vision, and Values guide the way we do business.

Are you ready for your next career challenge?

Job Summary

The Plant Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and operational effectiveness of a manufacturing facility supporting system prototyping, advanced developmental machining, and integration/testing of large defense systems. This is a 'brown-field' facility start-up opportunity that will support multiple rapidly growing programs within Leidos' Defense portfolio. The Plant Manager role provides strategic and hands-on leadership across production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials management, facilities, and talent acquisition to ensure safe, compliant, efficient, and predictable execution of customer commitments.

Key Responsibilities

• Plant Operations & Production Execution: Lead all manufacturing and production activities, including missile subsystem integration, system-level assembly, test operations, and high-volume electronics manufacturing. Establish daily operating rhythms, production priorities, and performance reviews to achieve customer delivery commitments.
• Safety & Regulatory Compliance: Foster a zero-harm culture and ensure compliance with applicable environmental, health, safety, hazardous-material handling, and facility requirements. Maintain disciplined work practices appropriate to defense manufacturing and test environments.
• Quality & Mission Assurance: Partner with Quality and Engineering to maintain rigorous process controls, product traceability, configuration management, workmanship standards, test documentation, and nonconformance resolution. Ensure compliance with applicable customer, contractual, and regulatory requirements.
• Delivery & Production Planning: Translate program demand and customer commitments into executable production plans, staffing requirements, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules. Identify constraints and implement recovery plans to protect on-time delivery.
• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement: Lead lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, standard work, and production-flow improvements. Improve first-pass yield, cycle time, labor productivity, equipment effectiveness, and overall operational performance.
• Financial & Business Performance: Own plant operating budgets, labor and overhead performance, manufacturing cost, capital planning, and resource utilization. Develop and execute initiatives that improve cost competitiveness without compromising safety, quality, or delivery.
• Supply Chain & Materials Management: Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, and Planning to improve material availability, inventory accuracy, supplier performance, work-in-process flow, and shortage resolution. Establish effective escalation mechanisms for material and component constraints.
• People Leadership & Organizational Development: Lead and develop a high-performing organization spanning production supervisors, manufacturing personnel, technicians, engineers, and support functions. Establish clear accountability, workforce development plans, cross-training, succession planning, and staffing strategies aligned with production demand.
• Equipment, Facilities & Capital Investment: Ensure production equipment, test assets, utilities, infrastructure, and manufacturing workspaces are reliable and capable of meeting current and projected demand. Prioritize maintenance, equipment acquisition, facility modifications, and capital investments based on capacity, risk, and business value.
• Performance Management & Reporting: Establish and monitor key performance indicators, including safety, quality, on-time delivery, throughput, first-pass yield, scrap and rework, labor productivity, inventory, schedule attainment, and cost performance. Communicate operational risks, recovery actions, and business results to senior leadership.
• Cross-Functional & Customer Collaboration: