Complex Plant Manager

This is the base salary pay range that an applicant can expect to make upon hire.   Pay within this range will vary based upon relevant experience, skills, and education among other factors. In addition, this position is eligible for an incentive bonus. 

The Complex Plant Manager is accountable for the overall operating performance of JM’s Defiance manufacturing complex—one of the company’s largest, most complex, and most visible operations. This role leads two manufacturing facilities, offsite warehouse and a customer service building, ensuring these operations consistently deliver safe, reliable, high‑quality, and cost‑competitive products that support both internal and external customers.

The Defiance complex is the sole producer of marbles, fiberglass pipe covers, and several critical OEM and performance material product lines, supplying multiple JM plants and external customers. The Plant Manager must sustain operational excellence while leading significant capital investments including furnace rebuilds, automation initiatives, and potential expansion projects.

Success in this role is defined by the ability to improve safety performance, increase engagement, raise throughput, improve quality, strengthen financial results, and execute capital projects on time and on budget—all while leading a unionized workforce of 600+ hourly and 60+ salaried employees in a highly visible, multi‑site environment.

Key Performance Outcomes

The Plant Manager is expected to:

• Safety & Environmental Performance
  • Achieve year‑over‑year improvement in safety metrics, ensuring the Defiance complex meets or exceeds JM safety, health, and environmental commitments.
  • Maintain full regulatory compliance while reducing risk through proactive hazard identification, strong safety culture, and disciplined operating practices.
• Operational Excellence
  • Improve plant productivity, throughput, yield, and uptime through disciplined execution of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement systems.
  • Ensure Defiance remains a reliable, high‑quality supplier to internal JM plants and external customers, improving customer satisfaction and reducing quality escapes.
  • Balance short‑term operational demands with long‑term process stability and asset reliability.
• People & Culture
  • Build and sustain an engaged, accountable, performance‑driven culture aligned with JM values.
  • Develop leaders and succession pipelines by coaching, setting clear expectations, and holding leaders accountable for results.
  • Effectively lead within a union environment, maintaining productive labor relations while driving performance.
• Financial Performance
  • Deliver annual operating results against budget and forecast, including cost, working capital, and inventory performance.
  • Translate financial analysis into actionable operating decisions that improve profitability and asset efficiency.
• Capital & Strategic Execution
  • Lead major capital programs—including furnace rebuilds, automation, and capacity expansions—delivering projects safely, on schedule, and within approved funding.
  • Improve plant efficiency and strategic flexibility through disciplined evaluation and execution of capital investments.
• Systems, Governance & Reporting
  • Establish and maintain robust operating metrics, management routines, and reporting systems that drive accountability and continuous improvement.
  • Partner with senior leadership to align site execution with both near‑term business priorities and long‑range strategic objectives.
• External Leadership
  • Serve as the primary representative of JM for the Defiance complex with community stakeholders, regulatory agencies, customers, and corporate leadership.

Why This Role Stands Out:

• Enterprise‑Critical Leadership Role: Lead one of JM’s largest, most complex, and most visible manufacturing complexes with direct impact on network‑wide supply and performance.
• True Scale and Accountability: Full responsibility for a multi‑site, capital‑intensive operation with 600+ hourly and 60+ salaried employees, multiple unions, and diverse product lines.
• Transformation Opportunity: Drive major capital investments—including furnace rebuilds, automation, and potential expansion—shaping the future of the plant, not just maintaining it.
• High Visibility, High Impact: Significant interaction with senior leadership and corporate stakeholders; success here is highly visible and career‑accelerating.
• Career‑Defining Challenge: Ideal for a proven plant leader seeking complexity, influence, and the chance to leave a lasting operational and cultural legacy.

Qualifications & Leadership Capabilities

• Bachelor’s degree required (engineering or technical related degree preferred) with 12+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience, including 5+ years as a Plant Manager or equivalent senior site leadership role.
• Demonstrated success leading large, complex, multi‑line manufacturing operations with union and salaried workforces.
• Proven ability to deliver measurable improvements in safety, productivity, quality, cost, and employee engagement.
• Strong financial acumen with experience managing P&L performance and capital programs.
• Deep knowledge of continuous improvement disciplines (Lean, Six Sigma, Kepner‑Tregoe, or similar).
• Experience with environmental permitting, regulatory agencies, and safety program leadership.
• Strong technical and mechanical aptitude with the ability to challenge and improve manufacturing systems.
• Highly effective communicator and collaborator, capable of influencing at all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated ability to set clear direction, prioritize competing demands, and drive disciplined execution.
• Willingness to travel periodically (11–29 days per year).

#LI-DNI

Please Keep in Mind

If you do not meet 100% of these requirements, we at JM still want to hear from you. So, if you are interested in the role, we encourage you to apply so we can learn how your skills and talents can contribute to our team.

Benefits

Johns Manville (JM) offers a wide range of benefits to employees. Some are subsidized by the company and others are fully employee-paid. Health benefits include a choice of comprehensive medical plans, a dental plan, vision plan, wellness program and critical illness insurance. JM sponsors a 401(k) plan which includes a sizeable company match. JM offers paid vacation and also provides paid sick and parental leave for eligible employees.

Additionally, Johns Manville provides basic life Insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an employee assistance program, and business travel accident coverage. Supplemental life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment insurance are available as well. The company also offers a variety of tax saving accounts; health spending account, traditional flexible spending account, and a dependent care spending account. JM also offers a tuition reimbursement program for undergraduate and certain graduate programs.

Johns Manville supports employee growth with vast educational opportunities and a company-wide mentoring program. This program pairs employees and leaders to grow skills, build stronger internal networks and strengthen the company’s succession planning process. Johns Manville also offers soft and hard skills training facilitated by internal and external presenters. Our talent management team prioritizes the holistic growth of our workforce.

Diversity & Inclusion

Johns Manville believes diversity and inclusion in our workplace is critical for the long-term success of our company. We are committed to retaining, developing and attracting a diverse workforce that fosters an inclusive work environment in which all employees are treated with dignity and respect. This is the right thing to do for our employees, our company and our communities.

Incumbent must be physically able to perform essential job functions. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.