Location: Millville NJ
Industry: Lumber & Millwork
$90,000.00 $100,000.00
Who They Are
Our client is seeking an experienced First Shift Production Manager to lead daily manufacturing operations within a high-volume structural component facility. This role will be responsible for driving safety, quality, productivity, and team performance while overseeing first-shift production activities. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on manufacturing leader with strong floor experience in roof truss, floor truss, wall panel, or structural component manufacturing. This individual must have a passion for developing people, improving processes, and creating a culture of accountability and teamwork. This is an excellent opportunity for a proven production leader who enjoys being visible on the plant floor, coaching teams, and making a measurable impact on operational performance.
What You’ll Do
Our client is seeking an experienced First Shift Production Manager to lead daily manufacturing operations within a high-volume structural component facility. This role will be responsible for driving safety, quality, productivity, and team performance while overseeing first-shift production activities. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on manufacturing leader with strong floor experience in roof truss, floor truss, wall panel, or structural component manufacturing. This individual must have a passion for developing people, improving processes, and creating a culture of accountability and teamwork. This is an excellent opportunity for a proven production leader who enjoys being visible on the plant floor, coaching teams, and making a measurable impact on operational performance.
What You’ll Do
- Lead first-shift production operations with responsibility for safety, quality, productivity, and employee engagement
- Directly manage and develop 5–8 shift leads, providing coaching, accountability, and leadership development
- Oversee approximately 50 production employees across multiple manufacturing functions
- Maintain a strong presence on the manufacturing floor, identifying opportunities to improve workflow, efficiency, and employee performance
- Ensure daily production schedules, output goals, and customer commitments are achieved
- Build a culture of teamwork, accountability, safety, and continuous improvement
- Train, coach, and mentor supervisors, leads, and production employees to improve performance
- Partner with plant leadership on staffing, scheduling, labor planning, and operational improvements
- Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve production flow and reduce downtime
- Monitor key production metrics including safety performance, quality, productivity, labor efficiency, and on-time completion
- Support onboarding and training programs for new employees
- Assist with process improvement initiatives focused on reducing waste and improving manufacturing performance
- 5+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership experience in a production environment
- Hands-on experience working in roof truss, floor truss, wall panel, or structural component manufacturing preferred
- Proven experience leading production teams of 40+ employees
- Experience managing frontline leaders, supervisors, or shift leads
- Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, production flow, labor management, and scheduling
- Demonstrated success improving team performance, productivity, and employee engagement
- Experience working in a fast-paced, high-volume manufacturing environment
- Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to quickly identify and resolve production challenges
- Must be comfortable spending significant time on the manufacturing floor working directly with employees
- Health, vision and dental insurance
- Vacation & Sick pay
- Holiday pay
- Jury duty pay
- Disability coverage – long and short term
- Optional life insurance available at competitive age-based rates
- 401(k) after one year of employment; employer matching
