Senior Director, Plant Manager – Missile Integration & Electronics

Leidos•Huntsville, AL

5d•$139,100 - $251,450

About The Position

The Plant Manager provides overall leadership, performance management, and operational direction for a manufacturing facility supporting missile integration and test operations and high-volume electronics manufacturing. This brown-field facility start-up will support multiple rapidly growing programs in Leidos’ Defense portfolio. The role leads production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials management, maintenance, facilities, and talent acquisition to ensure safe, compliant, efficient, and predictable execution of customer commitments. The successful candidate will lead the non-recurring effort to reconfigure or remodel an existing facility in the Huntsville area. The Plant Manager will establish a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement while balancing the requirements of defense product integration and test with the throughput, process-control, and scalability needs of high-volume electronics production. The role drives performance in safety, quality, cost, delivery, inventory, and productivity, develops organizational capability, and positions the facility for current programs and future growth.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or a related discipline, plus 12 or more years of related experience; equivalent relevant experience may substitute for educational credentials.
Significant progressive manufacturing-operations leadership experience with responsibility for production performance, workforce leadership, and operational results.
Experience managing complex manufacturing environments with demanding quality, delivery, cost, and compliance requirements.
Experience leading production teams and cross-functional organizations in a factory or multi-workstream manufacturing operation.
Ability to develop and execute production plans, manage constraints, allocate resources, and recover performance against challenging delivery commitments.
Understanding of manufacturing quality systems, root-cause analysis, corrective action, process control, and continuous improvement.
Experience managing operating budgets, labor costs, productivity, capital requirements, and manufacturing performance metrics.
Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with ability to engage from the production floor through senior leadership.
Must reside in North Alabama or be willing to relocate to the Huntsville–North Alabama area.
Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain a Secret Clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience in defense, aerospace, missile systems, military electronics, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
Direct experience with missile or complex electronic-system integration, verification, qualification, and test operations.
Experience leading high-volume electronics manufacturing, including printed circuit board assembly, electronic assembly, automated production equipment, test, inspection, and process controls, as applicable to the facility.
Familiarity with IPC workmanship standards, AS9100, ISO 9001, configuration management, product traceability, and defense customer quality requirements.
Experience implementing lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, statistical process control, Theory of Constraints, or other structured operational excellence methodologies.
Experience scaling production, activating manufacturing facilities, introducing new products, expanding capacity, or transitioning programs from development and low-rate initial production to higher production rates.
Experience with ERP/MRP systems, manufacturing execution systems (MES), production scheduling, and data-driven performance management.
Experience leading capital equipment investments, facility modernization, test-capacity expansion, and manufacturing layout optimization.
Experience managing multiple product lines with different production volumes, process requirements, technical complexity, and customer priorities.

Responsibilities

Lead manufacturing and production activities, including missile subsystem integration, system-level assembly, test operations, and high-volume electronics manufacturing; establish operating rhythms, production priorities, and performance reviews.
Foster a zero-harm culture and ensure compliance with environmental, health, safety, hazardous-material handling, facility, customer, contractual, and regulatory requirements.
Partner with Quality and Engineering to maintain process controls, product traceability, configuration management, workmanship standards, test documentation, and nonconformance resolution.
Translate program demand and customer commitments into production plans, staffing requirements, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules; identify constraints and implement recovery plans.
Improve high-volume electronics manufacturing efficiency, yield, defect reduction, process repeatability, equipment utilization, and throughput using lean manufacturing, statistical process control, and structured problem-solving methods.
Ensure disciplined missile integration, verification, and test execution through qualified personnel, controlled work instructions, calibrated equipment, approved test procedures, and cross-functional coordination.
Lead continuous improvement, including root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, standard work, and production-flow improvements; improve yield, cycle time, labor productivity, equipment effectiveness, and operational performance.
Own plant operating budgets, labor and overhead performance, manufacturing cost, capital planning, and resource utilization; pursue cost improvements without compromising safety, quality, or delivery.
Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, and Planning to improve material availability, inventory accuracy, supplier performance, work-in-process flow, and shortage resolution; establish escalation mechanisms for constraints.
Lead and develop an organization spanning production supervisors, manufacturing personnel, technicians, engineers, and support functions; establish accountability, workforce development, cross-training, succession planning, and demand-aligned staffing strategies.
Ensure production equipment, test assets, utilities, infrastructure, and workspaces are reliable and capable of meeting demand; prioritize maintenance, equipment acquisition, facility modifications, and capital investment.
Establish and monitor KPIs covering safety, quality, delivery, throughput, yield, scrap and rework, labor productivity, inventory, schedule attainment, and cost; communicate risks, recovery actions, and business results to senior leadership.
Collaborate with Program Management, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and customer representatives to align production execution with contractual requirements, program milestones, technical readiness, and business objectives.
Lead the non-recurring effort to reconfigure or remodel the existing facility in the Huntsville area.