Job Description
Production Manager
Location: Greater Chicago Area (Northwest Suburbs)
Hire Type: Direct Hire
Shift: 1st Shift
Compensation: $95,000 - $110,000 annually
Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k), Paid Time Off, Paid Holidays, Life Insurance, and additional company-sponsored benefits.
About the Opportunity
We're partnering with a well-established manufacturer of industrial heating and temperature sensing products to identify an experienced Production Manager to lead daily manufacturing operations. This leadership role is responsible for driving safety, quality, productivity, and on-time delivery while developing a high-performing production team.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on manufacturing leader who enjoys improving processes, eliminating waste, mentoring employees, and building an efficient operation focused on continuous improvement.
Responsibilities
- Lead daily production operations to achieve safety, quality, cost, and delivery goals.
- Plan, coordinate, and monitor production schedules to maximize efficiency and customer satisfaction.
- Identify manufacturing bottlenecks and implement process improvements to increase throughput.
- Reduce material scrap, labor waste, work-in-process inventory, and manufacturing lead times.
- Develop, coach, and mentor supervisors, group leaders, and production employees.
- Manage employee performance, training, reviews, coaching, and corrective actions.
- Partner with Engineering to improve product designs and manufacturing processes.
- Evaluate and implement new manufacturing equipment and process improvements.
- Ensure compliance with OSHA regulations, company safety policies, and quality standards.
- Drive Lean Manufacturing and continuous improvement initiatives across the production floor.
- Monitor key production metrics and implement corrective actions when needed.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations Management, or a related discipline preferred.
- Previous Production Manager or Manufacturing Manager experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Demonstrated success leading production teams and developing supervisors.
- Strong understanding of production planning, scheduling, manufacturing operations, and process improvement.
- Proven ability to reduce waste, improve productivity, and drive operational performance.
- Excellent leadership, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience collaborating with Engineering, Quality, and Operations teams.
- Bilingual Spanish is a plus.
Preferred Experience
Experience in one or more of the following is highly desirable:
- Industrial manufacturing
- Custom manufacturing
- Electrical or mechanical assembly
- Lean Manufacturing
- Continuous Improvement
- KPI development and performance management
- OSHA compliance
- ISO or quality-driven manufacturing environment
Why Join?
This is an opportunity to join a stable manufacturing organization where you'll have the ability to make a direct impact on operations, lead meaningful continuous improvement initiatives, and help shape the future of the production team. If you're passionate about building strong teams and improving manufacturing performance, we'd love to speak with you.
Equal Opportunity Employer
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
Numbers & Facts
| Location | Wood Dale, IL |
| Industry | Staffing/Employment Agencies |
| Salary | $95,000–$110,000 Per Year |
| Company Size | 500 to 999 employees |
| Year Founded | 1969 |
| Website | http://www.sterling-engineering.com |
About Company
Sterling Engineering has been a trusted partner for engineering, project management, and staffing solutions for over five decades. We provide exceptional engineering/technical recruitment and engineering project services to clients nationwide:
- Engineering & Technical Recruitment - With our focus on engineering, technical, and IT, Sterling has the in-depth knowledge, industry expertise, and robust employee pipeline it takes to rapidly find talent for even the most difficult to fill positions. Sterling’s extensive recruitment methodology allows us to engage the most talented employees in the marketplace. We offer exciting work and career-building opportunities for our candidates, along with expert support at every step of the process.
- Engineering Project Services – Our experienced, multi-disciplined team of project managers, engineers, and designers, led by licensed Professional Engineers (PE), provide project management, engineering, design, and Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation (CQV) to manufacturing, OEM, and R&D customers. We work on complex, highly technical projects across a number of industry sectors, and our ability to scale and seamlessly integrate at multiple levels of your organization is what differentiates us.
Sterling offers a unique combination of engineering solutions and Best of Staffing level service to help our clients and talent achieve their goals.
Skills
- Business Operationsunmatched
- Calendar Managementunmatched
- Coachingunmatched
- Communication Skillsunmatched
- Continuous Improvementunmatched
- Corporate Policiesunmatched
- Corrective Actionunmatched
- Customer Satisfactionunmatched
- Electricityunmatched
- ISO (International Organization for Standardization)unmatched
- Leadershipunmatched
- Lean Manufacturingunmatched
- Maintain Complianceunmatched
- Manufacturingunmatched
- Manufacturing Equipmentunmatched
- Manufacturing Managementunmatched
- Manufacturing Operationsunmatched
- Manufacturing/Industrial Processesunmatched
- Mechanical Assemblyunmatched
- Mentoringunmatched
- Metricsunmatched
- Multilingualunmatched
- OSHAunmatched
- Operational Strategyunmatched
- Operationsunmatched
- Operations Managementunmatched
- Operations Processesunmatched
- People Managementunmatched
- Performance Managementunmatched
- Performance Metricsunmatched
- Problem Solving Skillsunmatched
- Process Improvementunmatched
- Process Manufacturingunmatched
- Product Designunmatched
- Production Controlunmatched
- Production Managementunmatched
- Production Planningunmatched
- Production Scheduleunmatched
- Productivity Managementunmatched
- Quality Metricsunmatched
- Regulatory Complianceunmatched
- Safety/Work Safetyunmatched
- Spanish Languageunmatched
- Staff Trainingunmatched
- Team Lead/Managerunmatched
- Time Managementunmatched
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