Plant Operations Manager (Continuous Manufacturing)

Location: Meriden, CT onsite position
Employment Type: Direct Hire, Full-Time
Industry: Manufacturing (Plastics & Extrusion Preferred)

Position Overview

We are seeking a hands-on, people-centered Plant Operations Manager to oversee daily operations at a continuous manufacturing site. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role that serves as the operational bridge between production teams and executive leadership.

The ideal candidate brings strong people leadership, a passion for building culture, and experience driving performance in multi-shift environments. Experience in plastics, extrusion, or other continuous manufacturing settings is strongly preferred. The successful candidate will lead production teams, enhance processes, maintain equipment and safety standards, and ensure that output, quality, and workforce engagement consistently exceed expectations.

Key Responsibilities

Operations Leadership

• Lead and manage all plant operations within a continuous production environment.
• Oversee supervisors, team leads, and hourly employees across multiple shifts.
• Maintain structured communication between shifts-daily briefings, handoffs, and accountability processes.
• Ensure consistent execution of production plans to meet volume, quality, and delivery targets.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with quality, maintenance, safety, and logistics teams to meet operational goals.
• Ensure equipment and facilities remain safe, reliable, and compliant with company and regulatory standards.
• Support capital improvement initiatives and vendor relationships alongside executive leadership.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive Lean, 5S, Six Sigma, and other CI efforts to improve uptime, reduce scrap, and enhance throughput.
• Monitor KPIs to identify performance gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Implement process controls and efficiency measures to increase consistency across shifts.

People Leadership & Development

• Build, coach, and develop supervisors and floor teams to ensure strong performance across all shifts.
• Foster a positive, respectful, and engaged workplace culture.
• Improve retention through transparency, recognition, and hands-on leadership.
• Maintain a strong floor presence, including occasional off-hours visits to support night/weekend teams.

Workforce & Resource Management

• Lead labor planning, scheduling, and overtime management to ensure reliable production coverage.
• Ensure safe work practices and a culture of safety excellence.
• Maintain clean, organized production areas through structured 5S practices.

Qualifications

Required

• 8+ years of plant or operations management experience in manufacturing.
• Proven experience leading multi-shift operations with strong people leadership.
• Demonstrated continuous improvement success (Lean, 5S, Six Sigma, etc.).
• Strong, visible floor presence with the ability to motivate and engage teams.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Hands-on leadership style combined with strategic oversight and decision-making capability.

Preferred

• Experience with plastics, extrusion, or continuous manufacturing processes.
• Experience leading cultural transformation or workforce development initiatives.