Manufacturing Leader I

Manufacturing Leader

Hypertherm Associates is looking for a Manufacturing Leader for our Waterjet team.  This position reports to the Operations Leader and will require a balanced approach to strengthen both employee engagement (promoting development, performance accountability, and recognition) and operational efficiency across the team. 

As the Manufacturing Leader, you will:

• Lead a manufacturing team by aligning company objectives with departmental activities, including staffing, training, coaching, performance management, and recognition

• Foster a safe, positive work environment that supports Associate well-being and team effectiveness

• Develop organizational capability through mentoring, training, and continuous improvement initiatives that build lean manufacturing skills

• Translate company objectives into actionable production plans; partner with Front Line Leaders to achieve weekly and monthly targets

• Promote a safety-first culture, ensuring compliance and collaborating on incident resolution and risk mitigation

• Monitor quality metrics, identify issues, and implement corrective actions to improve performance

• Provide input on production and capacity planning - address material shortages in collaboration with Category Managers and Master Schedulers

• Collaborate with leaders and technical teams to develop annual operating plans, communicate strategies, and monitor performance to exceed expectations for quality, delivery, and cost efficiency

Who you are and the experience you bring:

• Associate’s degree with 7+ years leadership experience or 4 years leadership experience with Bachelor’s degree in a manufacturing environment or equivalent combination of education and experience

• Ability to regularly work across multiple shifts (Role is majorly first shift)

• Excellent ability to prioritize and multitask

• Project Management experience

• Intermediate computer skills including proficiency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint)

• Excellent written and oral communication skills with intermediate presentation skills

• Demonstrated ability to apply lean manufacturing principles

• Data and financial analytical skills

Preferred experience that differentiates you:

• Bachelor’s degree with 4+ years manufacturing and leadership experience in a lean environment

• Green belt certification

• Lean Leader Development Program certification (Hypertherm internal program)

• ERP experience (i.e., Oracle)

• Lead and supported Kaizen activities

• Proficient in SQDC methodology

Location: Kent, WA 

Travel: Minimal

Additional benefits in joining Hypertherm Associates:

• Collaborative, 100% employee-owned culture  

• Profit-Sharing and Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP)  

• Five days/year paid Community Service Time  

• Strong commitment to Environmental Stewardship  

• Stable, growing organization with a no-layoff philosophy  

Sponsorship of new applicants for employment authorization, or any other immigration-related support, is not available for this position at this time.

#LI-MJ1

At Hypertherm Associates, we are committed to building an inclusive diverse, flexible, and collaborative environment. If our mission resonates with you, but you don’t meet all posted requirements, we encourage you to still apply.  We will evaluate your application materials and may suggest alternative roles that better leverage your strengths and talents.  For positions with multiple levels, we will evaluate your prior experience to determine the level within our organization you are best aligned based upon the job applying.