Manufacturing Strategy Manager

Corning•Village of Fairport, NY

4d•$189,165 - $260,102•Remote

About The Position

Corning is a global innovator in materials science, seeking a Director of Manufacturing Strategy to lead the transformation of its Advanced Optics business. This high-impact leadership role is responsible for defining the future manufacturing system, including footprint, capabilities, partnerships, and network design, to support rapid growth, improve margins, enhance agility, and build a lasting competitive advantage. The position operates at the intersection of operations, finance, engineering, supply chain, and commercial strategy, serving as a key thought partner to the leadership team and leading a small team. The role requires translating business strategy into a clear roadmap for manufacturing footprint and network design, make-versus-buy strategy, capacity planning, capital deployment, structural cost transformation, and long-range capability development over a 3-5 year horizon.

Requirements

10–15+ years of combined experience in manufacturing strategy, operations strategy, supply chain strategy, industrial transformation, or related fields
Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field
Experience working in a highly matrixed organization, with demonstrated success influencing across functions, priorities, and leadership levels
Experience in a growing business or division where manufacturing strategy needed to evolve to support scale, competitiveness, and stronger operational performance
Experience helping a growing, low-volume, high-complexity business build a more scalable, competitive, and operationally excellent manufacturing model
Experience in one or more of the following: Global manufacturing footprint design, Capacity strategy and capital planning, Make-versus-buy and sourcing strategy, Complex, high-mix or high-complexity manufacturing environments
Strong financial modeling and business case development skills, including experience with capital analysis and return metrics such as NPV and ROIC
Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and drive cross-functional decisions
Ability to bring structure and clarity to complex, ambiguous problems

Nice To Haves

MBA or master’s degree highly preferred

Responsibilities

Lead the design of Advanced Optics’ manufacturing system over a 3–5 year horizon.
Translate business strategy into a clear roadmap across manufacturing footprint and network design.
Define make-versus-buy strategy and external partnerships.
Develop capacity planning and capital deployment strategies.
Drive structural cost transformation and gross margin expansion.
Oversee long-range manufacturing capability development.
Serve as a key thought partner to the Advanced Optics leadership team.
Lead a small team of two.
Operate effectively in a highly matrixed environment.