Job Description

Company Name:

ASTEMO AMERICAS, INC.

Job Family:

Manufacturing & Operations

Job Description:

Duties and Responsibilities

Operational Leadership and Daily Management

• Lead daily production activities across assigned departments and shifts, ensuring clear priorities, standard escalation, and effective handoffs between Operations, Quality, Engineering, Maintenance, PC&L, and HSE.
• Establish and sustain tiered daily management using visual controls, leader standard work, Gemba observation, Morning Market reviews, and fact-based escalation of abnormal conditions.
• Monitor plan attainment, OEE, downtime, cycle time, labor efficiency, overtime, scrap, rework, inventory, premium freight, and other operating indicators; assign ownership and verify countermeasure effectiveness.
• Maintain visible presence on the manufacturing floor, confirm actual conditions, remove barriers, and ensure supervisors respond promptly to safety, quality, delivery, and people concerns.
• Provide stable ownership of highly automated processes by defining accountable leaders, escalation paths, technical-support response, and recovery expectations across all operating shifts.

Machining Operations Leadership

• Lead high-volume machining operations with accountability for safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, equipment effectiveness, process stability, and workforce performance.
• Apply practical knowledge of CNC machining, metal-removal processes, cutting tools, inserts, tool life, fixtures, workholding, machining parameters, GD&T, dimensional control, process capability, and automated manufacturing systems to evaluate actual operating conditions and support effective decisions.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Maintenance, and Quality to eliminate chronic losses associated with tooling, machines, fixtures, coolant and chip management, process variation, dimensional capability, cycle time, downtime, scrap, and changeover.
• Ensure machining processes operate within approved standards and defined process windows; require structured containment, escalation, root-cause analysis, and corrective action when abnormal conditions occur.
• Drive measurable improvement in OEE, machine utilization, cycle time, tool life, first-pass yield, scrap, downtime, changeover, and labor productivity.
• Ensure clear ownership and technical escalation for automated machining cells across operating shifts, including verification of recovery actions and prevention of recurrence.

Safety, Environmental, and Compliance

• Create a culture in which safety is a condition of operation; ensure hazards, unsafe behaviors, near misses, incidents, and equipment risks are identified, contained, escalated, and permanently corrected.
• Ensure compliance with company requirements and applicable OSHA, EPA, state, and federal regulations; support incident investigations, corrective actions, audits, training, and record retention.
• Verify that standardized work, lockout/tagout, machine guarding, ergonomics, PPE, environmental controls, and emergency-response requirements are understood and consistently followed.

Quality and Customer Protection

• Ensure production controls, standardized work, reaction plans, traceability, error-proofing, layered process audits, containment, and escalation processes are executed and sustained.
• Partner with Quality and Engineering to address customer concerns, internal defects, repeat failures, scrap, rework, and Cost of Poor Quality through structured root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Stop or contain production when product or process conditions could affect employee safety, customer requirements, regulatory compliance, or product conformity.

Delivery, Cost, and Resource Management

• Develop and execute production plans, manpower strategies, overtime controls, expense budgets, and capacity actions aligned with sales, inventory, customer demand, and site financial objectives.
• Drive schedule attainment and flow by addressing bottlenecks, downtime, staffing gaps, material constraints, changeover performance, and interdepartmental dependencies.
• Control operating cost through labor productivity, scrap reduction, overtime discipline, consumable control, inventory management, maintenance coordination, and verified continuous-improvement savings.
• Prepare concise operating reviews that communicate performance, risk, recovery timing, resource needs, and required leadership decisions using objective evidence.

People Leadership and Organizational Capability

• Lead, coach, and hold accountable production managers, supervisors, and frontline leaders; establish clear performance expectations, routine feedback, and consistent follow-through.
• Build organizational depth through talent assessment, succession planning, cross-training, skills matrices, standardized onboarding, and development plans for critical roles.
• Ensure training and qualification systems prepare associates to perform work safely, correctly, and independently; verify effectiveness at the point of operation.
• Promote respectful employee relations, consistent policy application, attendance accountability, engagement, recognition, and timely resolution of workplace concerns.
• Make and recommend staffing, assignment, and organizational changes based on business need, span of control, process ownership, capability, and performance.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead Operations deployment of the site operating system and continuous-improvement priorities, translating annual business-plan gaps into owned actions at department and line level.
• Drive recurring-loss elimination through structured problem solving, 5S, visual management, standard work, line balancing, flow improvement, error-proofing, and Lean manufacturing methods.
• Require improvement actions to include a defined baseline, target, owner, timing, business impact, verification method, and sustainment plan.
• Share lessons learned and standardize successful countermeasures across departments, shifts, products, and similar equipment.

Launch, Transfer, and Change Readiness

• Partner with Program Management, Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, PC&L, and other functions to ensure manufacturing readiness for new launches, transferred business, equipment installation, process changes, and capacity expansion.
• Confirm Operations readiness for staffing, training, standardized work, material flow, escalation, maintenance support, production trials, Safe Launch, ramp-up, and handoff to serial production.
• Identify and escalate operational risks before Start of Production and ensure recovery plans protect current customer performance while new business is introduced.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant manufacturing leadership experience.
• Eight or more years of progressive manufacturing experience, including significant leadership responsibility in high-volume machining or precision-manufacturing operations.
• Automotive or similarly regulated manufacturing experience strongly preferred, including responsibility for machining safety, quality, delivery, cost, equipment effectiveness, and workforce performance.
• Demonstrated experience leading multiple departments or shifts, managing budgets and manpower, developing leaders, and improving underperforming operations.
• Demonstrated technical knowledge of CNC machining processes, cutting tools, tooling and fixtures, workholding, feeds and speeds, GD&T, dimensional control, SPC, process capability, and automated manufacturing equipment.
• Demonstrated experience improving machining performance through reduction of equipment downtime, tooling losses, scrap, cycle time, changeover losses, and process variation.
• Strong working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, 5S, visual management, standardized work, OEE, SPC, structured problem solving, root-cause analysis, and corrective action.
• Experience leading automated machining cells and coordinating Manufacturing Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and Production resources to resolve complex technical and operational problems.
• Experience supporting machining-equipment and process launches, transferred business, production ramp-up, and cross-functional readiness preferred.
• Strong leadership presence, business judgment, accountability, conflict-management, negotiation, data analysis, and change-leadership skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and manufacturing performance-reporting systems.

Physical and Work Environment Requirements

Work is performed in both office and manufacturing environments and may involve routine exposure to production noise, temperature variation, dust, moving equipment, and other conditions typical of an industrial facility. The role requires regular floor presence and the ability to stand, sit, walk, bend, reach, communicate, and move safely throughout the facility. The incumbent must follow all regulatory and company safety requirements and use company-provided material-handling or movement-assist equipment when require

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) – Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, identity, disability, protected veteran status and national origin.

At Astemo, we’re challenging the status quo with the power of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration. Our goal is to build an inclusive work environment that celebrates the differences of our employees. We want to ensure that every employee feels valued, respected and empowered. We don’t just accept difference—we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Astemo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job at Astemo, please send the nature of the request and contact information to am-jobs@hitachiastemo.com when applying for the position.