Senior Director, Plant Manager - Prototyping & System Integration

Leidos•Huntsville, AL

About The Position

The Plant Manager provides overall leadership, performance management, and operational direction for a manufacturing facility supporting system prototyping, advanced developmental machining, and integration and testing of large defense systems. This brown-field facility start-up will support multiple rapidly growing programs in Leidos’ Defense portfolio. The role includes leading the non-recurring effort to acquire and activate equipment at a recently acquired facility in the Huntsville area. The position leads production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials management, facilities, and talent acquisition to deliver safe, compliant, efficient, and predictable execution of customer commitments. The Plant Manager establishes a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement while balancing defense system integration and test requirements with the process control, throughput, and scalability needs of high-volume electronics production. The role is accountable for performance in safety, quality, cost, delivery, inventory, and productivity, and for developing organizational capability to support 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 relevant experience; equivalent relevant experience may be considered in lieu of educational credentials.
Significant progressive leadership experience in manufacturing operations, including responsibility for production performance, workforce leadership, and operational results.
Demonstrated 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.
Proven ability to develop and execute production plans, manage constraints, allocate resources, and recover performance against challenging delivery commitments.
Demonstrated 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 the ability to engage effectively from the production floor through senior leadership.
Must be a resident of the North Alabama area or willing to relocate to the Huntsville–North Alabama, Alabama area.
Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain a Secret Clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience in defense, aerospace, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
Direct experience with complex machining or complex system assembly, integration, and testing in a high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment.
Experience leading facility start-ups, capital activation, and site construction planning and execution.
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 differing 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 daily operating rhythms, production priorities, and performance reviews to meet customer delivery commitments.
Foster a zero-harm culture and ensure compliance with applicable environmental, health, safety, hazardous-material handling, and facility requirements.
Partner with Quality and Engineering to maintain process controls, product traceability, configuration management, workmanship standards, test documentation, and nonconformance resolution.
Ensure compliance with applicable customer, contractual, and regulatory requirements.
Translate program demand and customer commitments into executable production plans, staffing requirements, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules.
Identify production constraints and implement recovery plans to protect on-time delivery.
Lead lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, standard work, and production-flow improvements.
Improve first-pass yield, cycle time, labor productivity, equipment effectiveness, and overall operational performance.
Own plant operating budgets, labor and overhead performance, manufacturing cost, capital planning, and resource utilization.
Develop and execute initiatives that improve cost competitiveness 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 effective escalation mechanisms for material and component constraints.
Lead and develop an organization spanning production supervisors, manufacturing personnel, technicians, engineers, and support functions.
Establish accountability, workforce development plans, cross-training, succession planning, and staffing strategies aligned with production demand.
Ensure production equipment, test assets, utilities, infrastructure, and workspaces can meet current and projected demand.
Prioritize maintenance, equipment acquisition, facility modifications, and capital investments based on capacity, risk, and business value.
Establish and monitor key performance indicators, including safety, quality, on-time delivery, throughput, first-pass yield, scrap and rework, labor productivity, inventory, schedule attainment, and cost performance.
Communicate operational risks, recovery actions, and business results to senior leadership.
Collaborate with Program Management, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and customer representatives to align production with contractual requirements, program milestones, technical readiness, and business objectives.
Lead the non-recurring effort to acquire and activate equipment at the recently acquired facility in the Huntsville area.