Plant Manager (Wausau)

From apartments in New York to hospitals and stadiums in Dallas, libraries at prestigious universities to creating modern retail experiences, our teams contribute architectural glass and building products to projects that shape the way people live, work, heal, learn, and play. At OBE, the work of our employees truly matters. With over 6,500 employees, we operate more than 80 manufacturing and distribution facilities in five countries. You can see some of our favorite projects here.

Start your journey with OBE and help us build the future.

As Plant Manager, you'll own the operational and financial performance of the plant, reporting to the Director of Operations. This is a highly visible role. Leadership is deliberately selective about who steps into this seat because the plant is being folded into a growing, multi site portfolio. You'll inherit a strong foundation and a clear mandate: protect and mature what's been built, continue formalizing the plant's quality systems, and keep raising the bar on operational excellence.

Key responsibilities: 

• →Own the full operational and financial performance of the plant, staying close to every part of the business rather than just production output.
• →Lead, sustain, and mature a Lean and TPS based operating system, including pull production, kitting, visual management, and a strong corrective action discipline, acting as an owner of the system rather than a caretaker of someone else's work.
• →Build out formal quality management practices, continuing a maturing quality function's progress toward a more rigorous, compliance ready state.
• →Drive plant operations, safety culture, operational excellence, production, and efficiency across a multi shift environment, including growing capacity where the business needs it.
• →Develop your managers and supervisors into a genuine Winning Culture, mentoring functional leaders and building real succession depth for the plant.
• →Champion continued technology adoption. This plant is often first to pilot new systems and tools, and you'll be expected to keep pushing that mindset forward.
• →Create, recommend, and manage capital projects that support the plant's continued transformation.
• →Assure attainment of business objectives and production schedules while holding product standards that exceed customer expectations on complex, engineered products.

We know great candidates come from all kinds of backgrounds. If you don’t check every box below, we’d still love to hear from you.

• Solid, proven managerial experience in a manufacturing environment, ideally within a highly structured, systems driven operation such as automotive, aerospace, or a comparable industry. Deep familiarity with Lean or TPS principles is a strong plus, and coming from outside building products is completely welcome.
• Hands on experience owning budgeting, quality assurance, and equipment troubleshooting at the plant level.
• Direct experience operating within, or ideally helping build, a TPS based or comparable Lean operating model, including pull systems, kitting, visual management, and standardized corrective action processes.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field, or equivalent hands on managerial experience.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification is a plus.
• A builder's mindset. You should be genuinely energized by standing up new systems and processes from scratch rather than only maintaining what already exists.
• A collaborative, transparent leadership style. This plant's culture runs on trust, open communication, and continuous improvement, not top down control or micromanagement.
• Comfort bringing clarity to ambiguity. You'll be expected to sort through complexity and give your team clear direction, especially as the business scales and conditions shift.
• Strong coaching and mentoring instincts. Developing managers and supervisors, and building real succession bench strength, is a core part of this role.
• Resilience and steadiness under pressure. You should be comfortable leading through variability in volume and cost conditions without losing focus on the fundamentals.
• A genuine respect for structure and discipline on the plant floor, paired with the curiosity to keep improving it rather than treating it as finished

• Benefits that benefit you – industry competitive benefits at the lowest cost to the employee
• Work-life balance – PTO and holidays, including floating holidays you can choose
• Compensation that rewards your hard work – A pay-for-performance culture with potential for annual raises and bonuses
• Training – We will equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed

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