Operations Lead

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drive a zero-injury, safety culture and ensure consistent compliance with safety systems, procedures, and standards.
• Lead the Autonomous Maintenance TPM pillar and support Environment, Health and Safety and Training and Development priorities.
• Identify and deliver improvements that reduce environmental risk and support company goals and community interests.
• Use leading and lagging indicators, including recordable injuries, first aids, near misses, and safety tags, to focus action and strengthen prevention.
• Deliver plant targets through stable, capable, and efficient operations and data-driven decision-making.
• Establish clear performance expectations and proactively manage operating performance against plan.
• Own operating-plan delivery, conversion cost, productivity, labour utilisation, manufacturing gains and losses, volume, overtime, and operational reliability.
• Prioritise the people, capital, technology, maintenance, and operating investments needed to improve safety, reliability, productivity, and quality.
• Align resources to the plant’s highest risks, losses, and strategic priorities.
• Lead through frontline leaders by setting direction, clarifying expectations, and ensuring alignment across shifts and departments.
• Develop Production Supervisors and broader operational talent through coaching, development plans, cross-training, internal promotion, and succession planning.
• Create an environment in which employees are engaged, empowered, and accountable for results.
• Partner with Human Resources and functional leaders on performance management, organisational capability, talent development, labour relations, and sustainable conflict resolution.
• Use employee feedback, engagement, absenteeism, overtime, turnover, and labour-utilisation measures to identify and remove organisational barriers.
• Promote a zero-defect mindset and consistent on-time delivery that strengthens customer confidence.
• Drive adherence to the Quality Management System and Daily Management System.
• Use customer feedback and operating insight to improve quality, service, reliability, and plant priorities.
• Build understanding of customer requirements, markets, and the operational factors that create customer value.
• Translate plant, regional, and business strategy into clear day-to-day priorities, expectations, and measures.
• Develop and execute operating plans while building the operational capabilities, resources, technology, and talent required over the next one to three years.
• Drive continuous improvement through TPM, standard work, structured management systems, and loss elimination.
• Lead organisational and cultural change required to implement and sustain improved operating systems and evolving business priorities.
• Communicate clear performance updates so employees understand priorities, results, and how they can contribute to improvement.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Post-secondary degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and progressive manufacturing leadership experience.
• 10+ years of manufacturing experience, including proven people leadership in a unionised environment.
• Demonstrated success leading through frontline leaders and cross-functional teams in a 24/7 manufacturing operation.
• Strong planning, resource-allocation, delegation, communication, financial and operational decision-making, and change-leadership capabilities.
• Demonstrated success designing and leading organisational or cultural change.
• Strong experience with continuous improvement systems such as TPM, Lean, or Six Sigma.
• Proven ability to use operational and financial data to identify losses, prioritise action, and improve performance.
• Experience developing leadership capability and moving talent across functions is strongly preferred.
• May require travel. Must have no legal restrictions on travel between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Valid passport eligibility is mandatory.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

WHAT YOU'LL LOVE ABOUT US!