Unit Production Specialist

Ashland Specialty Ingredients, GP; Hopewell (VA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Team recognition rewards

Sponsored lunches

Monetary incentives

Benefits package

401(k) match

Referral bonus

Work-life balance

Remote/Hybrid

Job summary

Ashland Specialty Ingredients, GP is seeking a Unit Production Specialist for our Hopewell, VA site. The role centers on leading shift teams, developing leaders, and ensuring safe, compliant operations in a high-volume chemical manufacturing environment.

You will coach operators, coordinate major process moves, and partner with maintenance and engineering to optimize performance. Strong leadership and problem-solving are essential.

Qualifications

• Minimum of a high school diploma or GED.
• 8+ years working in a refining, chemical, or pharmaceutical manufacturing environment.
• Proven leadership results and the ability to connect with people.
• High initiative and problem-solving capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead culture change and develop shift team members.
• Coach operators for cross-shift consistency and best practices.
• Plan, develop and direct operational tasks for major process moves.
• Manage contractors and act as job contact for certain tasks.
• Coordinate operations scheduling, training, and documentation workflows.
• Serve as the operations representative for safety reviews and outages.

Job description

Ashland Specialty Ingredients, GP Are you the kind of person that is always thinking, sketching, seeking, and adjusting? Who needs to understand how things work and then figure out how they can work better? Are you a passionate, tenacious, solver who loves to work with others who share your drive? Are you positive, constructive, and ingenious? Are you always solving? Then we’d like to meet you and bet you’d like to meet us. Ashland has an exciting opportunity for a Unit Production Specialist to join our Specialty Additives business at our Hopewell, VA location. This is a very visible, significant role within the Company and the SA function. This position will report to Unit Operations Leader. The responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to, the following:

Leader - Culture change/developer Model and exemplify excellence leadership behaviors Develop shift team members to "Get our Good Day" Key input into Tier 1, 2, and 3 meetings Provide informal coaching/mentoring, create a high accountability culture Exhibit adhereance to stewardship and quality rules Provide feedback regarding policies/rules that don't appropriately fit operational capabilities Facilitate effective union/company relationship Technical Assessor/Risk Evaluator Primary operational contact point for Shift Supervisors, Engineers, and Maintenance/Work Ex Provide key troubleshooting on process and / or equipment Coach / mentor operators for cross shift consistency and best practices Coordinator Plan/Develop/Direct operational tasks for major process moves (ie SD, major product changes) Manage/facilitate contractors while performing work in the unit Act as the job contact for certain jobs Operations/Maintenance Integrator Gatekeeper of initial work order entries - vet for validity, redundancy, minimum expectations, and process moves needed to execute - provide suggested scopes as needed Develop energy control and decon procedures - partner with Training to manage the system Utilize systems (ie drawings) to convey scopes and plans Operations Scheduler - Developer Develop systems to consistently manage operations schedule, trainings, and ways of working Operations Representative Operations rep for PHA, Project Reviews, MOC's, Task Force Teams, Outages Key communicator with the Operations Team on status of projects Provide occasional temporary supervisory backfill Administrator Govern and develop adminstrative workflows within the unit and provide feedback/suggestions to needed participants on improvement

In order to be qualified for this role, you must possess the following: A minimum of a high school or GED degree 8 years+ working in a refining, chemical, or pharmaceutical manufacturing environment Proven leadership results, ability to connect with people High initiative and problems solving capabilities Demonstrated responsible and ethical behavior at all times The ability to help the company drive greater value through understanding the business, making complex decisions and creating the new and different The following skill sets are preferred by the business unit: 15 years+ working in a refining, chemical, or pharmaceutical manufacturing environment Lean manufacturing knowledge and application Previous supervisory experience

Third party recruiters and agencies ("Agency") should not contact employees of Ashland or its subsidiaries directly. Any resumes sent by an Agency to a hiring manager, recruiter or submitted to Ashland’s career portal are considered unsolicited and property of Ashland. Ashland will not pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume, unless the Agency has a signed contract with Ashland’s Human Resources/Procurement department in advance of submitting a candidate for consideration. Verbal and written approvals will not be considered a valid contract for service.

NOTE: We do not accept resumes from external staffing agencies or independent recruiters for any of our openings unless we have a signed recruiting agreement in place to fill a specific position.

Perks of working at Ashland

• Team recognition rewards, sponsored lunches and monetary incentives based on performance
• Comprehensive Benefit package, Medical, Dental and Vision starting on Day 1 for you AND your family
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Referral bonus plan – get a job with us and get paid to refer your friends
• Supporting work/life balance, we offer Flexible office location – Remote/Hybrid

In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland LLC. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, personal care and pharmaceutical. Visit www.ashland.com to see the innovations we offer.

Ashland is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

Infinite possibilities Creating good chemistry isn’t just about what happens when you add the right ingredients together. It’s about what happens when the right people are one of the ingredients. Good chemistry – the kind that can transform a market or a world – is what makes Ashland different and what makes us better. If you’re passionate about the infinite possibilities created through good chemistry, we have a rewarding and challenging opportunity for you to help us make great things happen every day for our customers, our communities, our investors and our colleagues around the world.