Manager of Preproduction

Leadership and People Development

Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary team across three functions; set clear expectations and hold the team accountable with both candor and care.
Build individual development plans for each team member; identify successors and grow bench strength for critical roles.
Conduct regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, and real-time coaching conversations.
Recruit, onboard, and retain technical talent; partner with HR on workforce planning, job design, and compensation alignment.
Create a culture of cross-functional service — Pre-Production exists to set Engineering, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing up to win.

Estimating

Own the accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of estimates for custom equipment and project-based work.
Establish and maintain standard estimating methods, labor and burden rates, historical cost libraries, and risk/contingency guidelines.
Review and approve significant quotes; ensure scope, assumptions, exclusions, and commercial risk are clearly documented.
Drive quote-to-actual variance analysis and feed lessons learned back into estimating standards.
Partner with Sales and Engineering on bid strategy, technical feasibility, and win/loss review.

Order Processing

Own accurate and timely order entry, contract review, and job order creation in the ERP system.
Ensure clean handoff from quote to order: scope, pricing, terms, delivery commitments, revision control, and customer-specific requirements.
Standardize job structures, BOM and routing frameworks, milestone definitions, and documentation packages.
Manage change orders and ECO-driven scope changes with disciplined pricing, schedule, and communication control.

Project Management

Ensure projects are planned, resourced, scheduled, and executed to committed cost, schedule, and quality targets.
Establish consistent PM standards: kickoff, milestone gates, schedule baselines, risk registers, customer communication cadence, and closeout.
Serve as the escalation point for at-risk projects; drive cross-functional recovery plans.
Own the primary customer-facing project relationship posture — proactive, transparent, and credible.

Process and Performance

Define, publish, and manage departmental KPIs (quote turnaround, hit rate, estimate accuracy, order-entry accuracy, on-time release, project margin, on-time delivery).
Drive continuous improvement in Pre-Production workflows, ERP utilization, and data quality.
Partner with Finance on job costing accuracy, margin reporting, and forecasting inputs.