Plant Manager

The Plant Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and operational effectiveness of a manufacturing facility supporting missile integration and test operations and high-volume electronics manufacturing.

This is a 'brown-field' facility start-up opportunity that will support multiple rapidly growing programs within Leidos' Defense portfolio. The Plant Manager role provides strategic and hands-on leadership across production, manufacturing engineering, quality, materials management, maintenance, facilities, and talent acquisition to ensure safe, compliant, efficient, and predictable execution of customer commitments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead all manufacturing and production activities, including missile subsystem integration, system-level assembly, test operations, and high-volume electronics manufacturing.
• Foster a zero-harm culture and ensure compliance with applicable environmental, health, safety, hazardous-material handling, and facility requirements.
• Partner with Quality and Engineering to maintain rigorous process controls, product traceability, configuration management, workmanship standards, test documentation, and nonconformance resolution.
• Translate program demand and customer commitments into executable production plans, staffing requirements, material priorities, equipment capacity, and test schedules.
• Drive production efficiency, yield improvement, defect reduction, process repeatability, equipment utilization, and manufacturing throughput.
• Ensure disciplined execution of integration, verification, and test activities through qualified personnel, controlled work instructions, calibrated equipment, approved test procedures, and effective coordination among Operations, Engineering, Quality, and Program Management.
• Lead lean manufacturing, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, waste reduction, standard work, and production-flow improvements.
• Own plant operating budgets, labor and overhead performance, manufacturing cost, capital planning, and resource utilization.
• Partner with Supply Chain, Procurement, and Planning to improve material availability, inventory accuracy, supplier performance, work-in-process flow, and shortage resolution.
• Lead and develop a high-performing organization spanning production supervisors, manufacturing personnel, technicians, engineers, and support functions.
• Ensure production equipment, test assets, utilities, infrastructure, and manufacturing workspaces are reliable and capable of meeting current and projected demand.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators, including safety, quality, on-time delivery, throughput, first-pass yield, scrap and rework, labor productivity, inventory, schedule attainment, and cost performance.
• Work closely with Program Management, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and customer representatives to align production execution with contractual requirements, program milestones, technical readiness, and business objectives.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, Business, or related discipline, plus twelve (12) or more years of related experience.
• Significant progressive leadership experience in manufacturing operations, including responsibility for production performance, workforce leadership, and operational results.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex manufacturing environments with demanding quality, delivery, cost, and compliance requirements.
• Experience leading production teams and cross-functional organizations in a factory or multi-workstream manufacturing operation.
• Proven ability to develop and execute production plans, manage constraints, allocate resources, and recover performance against challenging delivery commitments.
• Demonstrated understanding of manufacturing quality systems, root-cause analysis, corrective action, process control, and continuous improvement.
• Experience managing operating budgets, labor costs, productivity, capital requirements, and manufacturing performance metrics.
• Strong leadership, communication, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with the ability to engage effectively from the production floor through senior leadership.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in defense, aerospace, missile systems, military electronics, or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
• Direct experience with missile or complex electronic-system integration, verification, qualification, and test operations.
• Experience leading high-volume electronics manufacturing, including printed circuit board assembly, electronic assembly, automated production equipment, test, inspection, and process controls, as applicable to the facility.
• Familiarity with applicable IPC workmanship standards, AS9100, ISO 9001, configuration management, product traceability, and defense customer quality requirements.
• Experience implementing lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, statistical process control, Theory of Constraints, or other structured operational excellence methodologies.
• Experience scaling production, activating manufacturing facilities, introducing new products, expanding capacity, or transitioning programs from development and low-rate initial production to higher production rates.
• Experience with ERP/MRP systems, manufacturing execution systems (MES), production scheduling, and data-driven performance management.
• Experience leading capital equipment investments, facility modernization, test-capacity expansion, and manufacturing layout optimization.
• Experience managing multiple product lines with differing production volumes, process requirements, technical complexity, and customer priorities.

Core Competencies:

• Operational Leadership: Establishes clear priorities, drives execution, and maintains accountability for plant-wide results.
• Safety & Quality Mindset: Embeds safety, product integrity, process discipline, and compliance into daily operations.
• Manufacturing Excellence: Applies data-driven problem solving and continuous improvement to improve throughput, yield, and cost.
• Execution & Accountability: Converts business objectives into actionable plans, measurable commitments, and sustained results.
• Strategic & Financial Acumen: Balances near-term production demands with long-term capacity, capital, workforce, and cost objectives.
• People Development: Builds capable teams, develops future leaders, and creates a culture of ownership and continuous learning.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Aligns Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Program Management around shared outcomes.
• Change Leadership: Leads organizational, process, technology, and capacity changes while sustaining production performance.
• Customer Focus: Maintains a strong commitment to customer requirements, contractual performance, product reliability, and on-time delivery.