HR Manager - Manufacturing Operations

M.C. Dean, Inc•Caroline County , MD

5d•Onsite

About The Position

M.C. Dean is seeking a hands-on, operationally grounded HR leader to support and scale our Modular Mission Critical (MMC) manufacturing facility. This role will serve as the senior HR leader onsite and is expected to evolve into the Site HR Director as the facility expands from 500 to 1,000+ employees. The HR Manager will drive disciplined execution of workforce strategy, talent management, employee and labor relations, and recruiting operations within a high-growth, production-based manufacturing environment. This leader will partner closely with plant leadership to build a structured, performance-oriented workforce aligned with production volume, quality standards, and operational forecasting. This is a critical leadership role responsible for building the HR infrastructure required to support rapid workforce growth, strengthen frontline supervisor capability, reinforce manufacturing discipline, and mitigate workforce risk in a non-union environment.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive HR experience with a bachelor's degree.
3+ years supporting manufacturing, industrial, or production-based workforce environments.
Experience supporting hourly-heavy workforces (300+ hourly employees strongly preferred).
Significant employee relations experience in non-union environments.
Demonstrated experience leading investigations and mitigating workforce risk.
Experience executing performance management and succession planning processes.
Experience supporting or overseeing high-volume recruiting.
Demonstrated success coaching frontline supervisors in performance discipline and documentation.

Nice To Haves

Experience serving as the senior HR leader at a plant or site level.
Experience supporting workforce growth or facility expansion.
Experience aligning workforce planning with operational forecasting.
Experience in shift-based manufacturing environments.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior HR leader for the MMC manufacturing facility.
Partner with Plant Leadership to align workforce planning with production forecasts and expansion plans.
Develop scalable HR processes to support rapid growth from 500 to 1,000+ employees.
Drive workforce structure, headcount planning, and labor allocation aligned to shift-based production demands.
Support organizational design and leadership capability as the facility scales.
Reinforce structured, production-oriented workforce management practices.
Lead execution of performance management cycles, ensuring completion, calibration, and accountability.
Facilitate structured talent reviews and succession planning for frontline, supervisor, and management roles.
Drive adoption of career frameworks and development planning within a production workforce.
Strengthen performance documentation practices across frontline supervisors.
Build supervisor capability in coaching, feedback, and performance accountability.
Ensure training compliance and workforce capability tracking aligned to production standards.
Oversee recruiting strategy and execution for high-volume hourly hiring and skilled production roles.
Partner with Corporate Talent Acquisition to align hiring plans with workforce forecasts.
Monitor and improve hiring metrics including time-to-fill, quality of hire, early-stage turnover, and ramp-to-productivity.
Ensure structured interview and selection processes are consistently applied.
Support workforce forecasting aligned to production growth and expansion timelines.
Serve as the primary advisor to plant leadership on all employee and labor relations matters within a non-union manufacturing environment.
Ensure consistent, fair, and legally compliant application of company policies, procedures, and disciplinary standards.
Lead and/or oversee workplace investigations, ensuring timely resolution, proper documentation, and mitigation of organizational risk.
Oversee investigation protocols that align with corporate standards and the operational cadence of a shift-based manufacturing environment.
Proactively identify employee relations trends and workforce risks, including attendance patterns, supervisor inconsistency, turnover hotspots, and morale indicators.
Implement preventive strategies to mitigate risk, including supervisor coaching, policy clarification, and targeted training.
Monitor ER-related metrics (disciplinary trends, turnover, absenteeism, complaints) and report insights to plant and corporate HR leadership.
Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment regulations impacting manufacturing operations (wage & hour, FMLA, ADA, OSHA coordination with EHS, etc.).
Partner with legal and corporate HR when escalation is required.
Develop frontline supervisor capability in managing performance, attendance, conduct, and documentation with consistency and confidence.
Train supervisors on progressive discipline, corrective action processes, and difficult employee conversations.
Support leaders in navigating high-risk employee relations scenarios while maintaining partnership and operational stability.
Promote a fair and respectful workplace culture that minimizes union vulnerability through proactive engagement, transparency, and policy consistency.
Ensure leaders understand early indicators of employee dissatisfaction and respond appropriately.
Partner with plant leadership to reinforce positive employee engagement practices aligned with manufacturing discipline.
Maintain readiness to respond effectively to labor-related risk exposure.
Support the cultural transition from construction-based workforce norms to a structured manufacturing environment.
Align employee relations practices with the repeatable, shift-based cadence of manufacturing operations.
Collaborate with the Education team and operations leadership to support site training programs, including onboarding, production bootcamps, skills certification, and supervisor development.
Contribute to aligning workforce development initiatives with production, safety, quality, and operational excellence.
Support scalable training processes, including skills gap identification, structured documentation, and coordination of a site-wide training schedule.
Support tracking and maintaining accurate workforce capability data, including certification status, training completion, and time-to-productivity metrics.
Partner with Education and Operations to ensure training compliance requirements are met and documentation standards are upheld.
Support the continued transition from a project/construction-based workforce model to a disciplined, production-driven manufacturing culture.
Reinforce standardization, process adherence, and operational accountability.
Partner with operations leaders to drive consistency in shift management and workforce expectations.
Strengthen aligbment between production metrics and workforce performance expectations.