Tooling Specialist

Independent Stave Company•Louisville, KY

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Tooling Specialist is responsible for improving cost visibility and performance across all tooling used in stave mills and cooperages. This role works closely with plant maintenance, engineering, and procurement teams to document tooling specifications, benchmark tool life and cost, and identify opportunities to reduce spend and improve uptime. This is a strategic, technical sourcing role that does not involve issuing POs.

Requirements

3+ years' experience in a manufacturing environment with exposure to tooling, maintenance, or sourcing.
Strong technical aptitude: ability to read specifications and engage with maintenance teams.
Organized, self-directed, and capable of managing cross-site collaboration.
Skilled in Excel and capable of building simple cost analysis tools.
Willingness to travel with overnight stays required to visit internal manufacturing sites across the company

Responsibilities

Map all tooling types, vendors, and specifications used across company manufacturing locations.
Benchmark tooling usage and performance metrics across facilities (e.g., cost-per-cut, breakage rate).
Identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, tooling redesign, or shared inventory strategies.
Support trials of alternative tooling or supplier options and document outcomes.
Partner with plant teams to track inventory, lead times, and cost variations.
Develop tooling cost dashboards and reports to support decision-making and strategic reviews.
Coordinate with the Procurement Analyst to include tooling in spend and cost reduction reports.