Department Head - Mechanical Fabrication

Corning•Village of Fairport, NY

1d•$106,400 - $146,300

About The Position

The Department Head will facilitate and direct daily production activities for the Laser Optics or Precision Optics fabrication business in Fairport. The role leads a high-precision manufacturing organization producing critical optical components and ensures compliance with process controls, specifications, standard work, and operating procedures. It is accountable for meeting plant and customer requirements for safety, quality, delivery, selects, yield, equipment uptime, throughput, and cost. The role works closely with Engineering, Planning, Quality, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and other functional partners to set priorities, resolve manufacturing constraints, improve process capability, and align operational capacity with customer demand. It also builds a strong, flexible, and accountable fabrication organization through clear expectations, disciplined execution, effective training and qualification, and employee development.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Science, or another technical/STEM discipline.
5+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing or a technically complex operating environment, including demonstrated experience leading and developing frontline teams.
Proven ability to translate technical and operational requirements into disciplined execution and results across safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading operations in a technically complex or high-precision manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated experience leading, developing, and building high-performing teams, including coaching, talent development, and succession planning.
Experience applying structured problem-solving and continuous-improvement methodologies, including Lean, DMAIC, root-cause analysis, and data analysis.
Demonstrated ability to partner across Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, Planning, and Supply Chain to resolve manufacturing constraints and improve operational performance.
Experience driving improvements in process capability, yield, throughput, cycle time, equipment utilization, and cost.
Experience supporting new product introductions, process changes, equipment changes, and manufacturing scale-up or capacity expansion.
Experience working with manufacturing systems such as SAP and MES.
Strong business and financial acumen, including experience with departmental spending, forecasting, budgeting, and cost reduction.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to work effectively across all levels of an organization.

Responsibilities

Schedule resources and prioritize fabrication activities to support efficient production schedule compliance.
Provide daily direction and leadership to production and maintenance employees, technicians, and engineers in accordance with established procedures and policies.
Communicate and report production and process performance metrics to production teams, plant operations staff, and functional leaders; ensure production targets and customer delivery requirements are met daily and weekly.
Own execution against operational measures, including safety, quality, delivery, selects, yield, throughput, equipment uptime, productivity, and cost, and establish corrective actions when performance deviates from plan.
Work with plant teams and functional groups to identify and implement process and capacity improvements and cost-reduction projects using structured problem solving, data analysis, Lean, DMAIC, and other continuous-improvement methodologies.
Conduct performance reviews and develop and reinforce career and talent development plans for hourly/direct labor employees.
Ensure fabrication processes comply with process-control set-points, specifications, standard work, and operating procedures; maintain process discipline and rigorous change control.
Develop, implement, and monitor training, qualification, certification, cross-training, and development programs for new and experienced operators.
Partner with Engineering and technical teams to improve process capability, manufacturability, yield, cycle time, equipment performance, and process stability.
Facilitate and monitor process and equipment changes and experimental plans involving production.
Manage monthly department spending, analyze variances, take corrective actions, identify cost-reduction opportunities, and provide operational input to annual budgeting and forecasting.
Champion safety expectations, including EHS requirements, cleanroom protocols, safe work practices, and timely completion of corrective actions.
Build cross-functional relationships and communicate production performance, risks, recovery plans, capacity constraints, and priorities throughout the Laser and Precision Optics organization.