Plant Manager

Leidos · Huntsville, AL · $139,100.00 - $251,450.00 The Plant Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and operational effectiveness of a manufacturing facility supporting system prototyping, advanced developmental machining, and integration/testing of large defense systems. This is a 'brown-field' facility start-up opportunity that will support multiple rapidly growing programs within Leidos' Defense portfolio. The Plant Manager role provides strategic and hands-on leadership across production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials management, facilities, and talent acquisition to ensure safe, compliant, efficient, and predictable execution of customer commitments. Key Responsibilities: Lead all manufacturing and production activities, including missile subsystem integration, system-level assembly, test operations, and high-volume electronics manufacturing. 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 rigorous process controls, product traceability, configuration management, workmanship standards, test documentation, and nonconformance resolution. Translate program demand and customer commitments into executable production plans, staffing requirements, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules. Lead lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, standard work, and production-flow improvements. Own plant operating budgets, labor and overhead performance, manufacturing cost, capital planning, and resource utilization. Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, and Planning to improve material availability, inventory accuracy, supplier performance, work-in-process flow, and shortage resolution. Lead and develop a high-performing organization spanning production supervisors, manufacturing personnel, technicians, engineers, and support functions. Ensure production equipment, test assets, utilities, infrastructure, and manufacturing workspaces are reliable and capable of meeting current and projected demand. 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. Work closely 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. Basic Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or a related discipline, plus twelve (12) years or more of relevant experience. 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. Preferred Qualifications: Experience in defense, aerospace, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments. Direct experien