Senior Manufacturing Ops Leader - AI/HPC Data Center

Actalent; Whitsett (NC); On-site; USD 100,000 - 186,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare coverage

Retirement savings plans

Paid time off (PTO)

Career development opportunities

Onsite job in Whitsett, NC

Job summary

Actalent, based in Whitsett, NC, seeks an Operational Manager to lead all manufacturing operations, driving Lean practices and deep technical expertise in AI/HPC infrastructure manufacturing. You will oversee schedules, staffing, equipment utilization, and implement performance KPIs to ensure safety, quality, and on-time delivery.

The role requires 10+ years in manufacturing leadership, experience with data center hardware, and a track record of capacity planning and cost control.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, plant operations, or production management.
• Proven experience in manufacturing operations management within server and data center hardware manufacturing environments.
• Hands-on experience supporting manufacturing of servers, storage, networking hardware, AI infrastructure, GPU-based platforms, or rack-scale data center solutions.
• Expertise with Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) and Direct Water Cooling (DWC), thermal-management systems, liquid-cooled server platforms or high-density computing solutions.
• Experience leading system integration, rack build, system configuration, manufacturing test, and customer-specific hardware deployment operations.
• Working knowledge of power distribution, cooling infrastructure, data center hardware architecture, and enterprise compute platforms.
• Experience scaling manufacturing operations for AI, HPC, cloud, or enterprise infrastructure products.
• Lean Manufacturing, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Proven site leadership experience including workforce leadership and plant management responsibilities.
• Ability to manage operating budgets, financial performance, and capital investment plans.
• Capacity planning and resource management in complex manufacturing environments.
• Strong production management skills including scheduling, staffing, and equipment utilization.
• Establishing and managing KPIs related to quality, productivity, safety, cost, delivery, inventory, yield, and OEE.

Responsibilities

• Lead all manufacturing operations to achieve production, quality, inventory, delivery, cost and safety objectives.
• Direct daily production activities including schedules, staffing, equipment utilization, materials management and capacity planning.
• Establish manufacturing standards and ensure operational accountability across the facility.
• Mentor managers, supervisors, engineers, technicians, and production personnel to build a high-performing team.
• Drive Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma and Operational Excellence to improve efficiency, quality and throughput.
• Track and improve KPIs related to quality, productivity, safety, cost, delivery, inventory, yield, and OEE.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement corrective actions to improve flow, capacity and reliability.
• Support NPI, product launches, manufacturing readiness and scalability for AI, HPC, cloud and enterprise infrastructure products.
• Manage operating budgets, forecasts, capital investments and resource plans.
• Report performance, trends and business risks to executive leadership with clear analysis and recommendations.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA, EHS, environmental regs, quality standards and internal policies.
• Lead system integration, rack build, system configuration, manufacturing test and customer-specific hardware deployment operations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align capabilities with strategy and roadmaps.
• Influence large-scale manufacturing growth and workforce development initiatives.

Skills

Leadership

Operations management

Budget management

KPIs & metrics

Lean Manufacturing

Continuous improvement

NPI & launches

Staff development

Capacity planning

Governing standards

Cross-functional collaboration

Data center hardware

AI/HPC infrastructure

Thermal management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Manufacturing/Indust Eng/Operations Management

Job description

Actalent, based in Whitsett, NC, seeks an Operational Manager to lead all manufacturing operations, driving Lean practices and deep technical expertise in AI/HPC infrastructure manufacturing. You will oversee schedules, staffing, equipment utilization, and implement performance KPIs to ensure safety, quality, and on-time delivery.

The role requires 10+ years in manufacturing leadership, experience with data center hardware, and a track record of capacity planning and cost control.