Senior Mill Operations Manager

Weyerhaeuser • Magnolia, MS

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Operations Manager is a critical leadership role within Weyerhaeuser’s Lumber business, responsible for driving safe, reliable, and cost competitive operations at a lumber manufacturing facility. Operating as the second in command to the Mill Manager, this role provides day to day leadership across production, maintenance, and operational support teams while ensuring alignment with Weyerhaeuser’s values, business objectives, and commitment to continuous improvement. This leader plays a key role in cultivating a safety-first culture, strengthening employee engagement, and driving results through sustainable operational performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Forestry, Manufacturing, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10 years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing or industrial operations.
• Demonstrated success leading teams in a safety-critical, high-paced production environment.
• Experience managing supervisors and a large hourly workforce.
• Outstanding teaming and interpersonal skills that effectively engage teams to meet business goals and ensure successful teaming/networking within the region, the Wood Products business and the company as needed.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Demonstrated ability to raise performance by building and maintaining positive relationships with all associates and leaders through coaching, development and instilling a continuous improvement mindset.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, verbal and electronic communication skills.
• Strong planning and organizational skills.
• Able to work flexible hours as needed in a mill environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in lumber, wood products, or forest products manufacturing.
• Lean/Continuous Improvement experience.
• Experience with reliability-centered maintenance and capital project execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead with an uncompromising commitment to safety—Weyerhaeuser’s top priority.
• Model and reinforce safe behaviors, ensuring compliance with all safety policies and regulatory requirements.
• Drive incident prevention through proactive hazard identification, employee involvement, and root cause analysis.
• Partner with teams to continuously improve safety performance and build a culture where employees feel empowered to speak up.
• Lead daily mill operations to meet or exceed production, recovery, quality, and cost targets.
• Partner with the Mill Manager to execute business and operational strategies aligned with Weyerhaeuser’s objectives.
• Utilize data and key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive performance, accountability, and decision-making.
• Ensure seamless coordination across log yard, sawmill, planer, kiln, and shipping operations.
• Drive operational discipline and a culture of excellence through leader standard work, daily management routines, improvement in SMP scores, setting clear performance expectations.
• Build and sustain an engaged, high-performing workforce grounded in Weyerhaeuser’s core values: safety, integrity, respect, inclusion, citizenship, and sustainability.
• Coach and develop department managers, supervisors and frontline leaders to strengthen leadership capability and succession pipelines.
• Foster a culture of trust, accountability, and collaboration through visible leadership and clear communication.
• Develop and improve onboarding, training, and job qualification programs to accelerate readiness and support consistent performance.
• Partner with HR on employee relations, talent development, workforce planning, and engagement strategies.
• Champion Lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement efforts to eliminate waste and improve process stability.
• Collaborate with maintenance and reliability teams to maximize uptime and improve asset performance.
• Lead structured problem-solving efforts using root cause analysis (RCA) to address recurring issues and strengthen a continuous improvement culture.
• Drive cost discipline and operational efficiency to meet financial targets.
• Identify opportunities to improve margins through productivity gains, yield improvement, and cost reduction.
• Support capital planning and lead execution of projects that enhance safety, reliability, and production capability.
• Build financial capability across the organization by coaching and developing leaders on cost management, budgeting, and business fundamentals.
• Maintain strong alignment with plant leadership, regional leadership, and corporate partners.
• Communicate clearly and consistently on performance, priorities, and improvement initiatives.
• Represent the mill in a manner that reflects Weyerhaeuser’s commitment to responsible operations and community engagement.
• Strengthen workforce engagement through visible leadership, consistent communication, and follow-through on commitments—reinforcing the same expectations for all leaders.

Benefits

• Annual merit-increase program
• Annual Incentive Program (cash bonus)
• Medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, and life insurance coverage
• Pre-tax Health Savings Account option with company contribution
• Voluntary Long-Term Care
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Personal volunteerism support
• Diversity networks
• Mentoring programs
• Training and development opportunities
• Company's 401k plan with paid company match and annual contribution
• 3-weeks of paid vacation during the first year of employment
• Vacation accrual after six months of employment
• Eleven paid holidays per year
• Paid parental leave for all full-time employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior