Senior Operations Manager

The Senior Operations Manager is a key leadership position within a manufacturing operation, responsible for driving safe, reliable, and cost-effective performance at a lumber production facility. Serving as the second-in-command to the Mill Manager, this role provides day-to-day leadership across production, maintenance, and operational support teams while ensuring alignment with organizational values, business goals, and continuous improvement initiatives.

This leader plays a vital role in fostering a safety-first culture, strengthening employee engagement, and delivering sustainable operational results through strong leadership and execution.

Key Responsibilities

Safety Leadership

• Champion an uncompromising commitment to workplace safety.
• Model and reinforce safe behaviors while ensuring compliance with all safety policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Drive incident prevention through proactive hazard identification, employee involvement, and root cause analysis.
• Partner with teams to continuously improve safety performance and create an environment where employees feel empowered to raise concerns and suggest improvements.

Operational Excellence

• Lead daily manufacturing operations to meet or exceed production, recovery, quality, and cost objectives.
• Partner with the Mill Manager to execute business and operational strategies.
• Utilize data, metrics, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive accountability, performance, and informed decision-making.
• Ensure effective coordination across log yard, sawmill, planer, kiln, and shipping operations.
• Promote operational discipline through leader standard work, daily management routines, continuous improvement efforts, and clear performance expectations.

People \& Culture

• Build and sustain an engaged, high-performing workforce grounded in principles of safety, integrity, respect, inclusion, accountability, and sustainability.
• Coach and develop department managers, supervisors, and frontline leaders to strengthen leadership capability and succession planning.
• Foster a culture of trust, collaboration, and accountability through visible leadership and effective communication.
• Enhance onboarding, training, and qualification programs to accelerate employee readiness and improve performance consistency.
• Partner with Human Resources on employee relations, talent development, workforce planning, and engagement initiatives.

Continuous Improvement \& Reliability

• Champion Lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement practices to reduce waste and improve process stability.
• Collaborate with maintenance and reliability teams to maximize equipment uptime and asset performance.
• Lead structured problem-solving efforts utilizing root cause analysis (RCA) to address recurring operational challenges and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement.

Financial \& Business Accountability

• Drive operational efficiency and cost discipline to achieve financial objectives.
• Identify opportunities to improve profitability through productivity enhancements, yield improvements, and cost reduction initiatives.
• Support capital planning efforts and lead execution of projects that enhance safety, reliability, and production capability.
• Build financial acumen within the organization by coaching leaders on budgeting, cost management, and business fundamentals.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Maintain strong alignment with facility leadership, regional teams, and corporate partners.
• Communicate performance results, priorities, and improvement initiatives clearly and consistently.
• Represent the facility in a professional manner that reflects a commitment to operational excellence and community engagement.
• Strengthen workforce engagement through visible leadership, open communication, and consistent follow-through on commitments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Forestry, Manufacturing, Business, or a related field; equivalent experience will be considered.
• 10\+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing or industrial operations.
• Proven success leading teams in a safety-critical, fast-paced production environment.
• Experience managing supervisors and a large hourly workforce.
• Strong interpersonal and team-building skills with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders and achieve business objectives.
• Demonstrated business and financial acumen.
• Proven ability to improve performance through coaching, employee development, and fostering a continuous improvement mindset.
• Excellent written, verbal, electronic, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Strong planning, organizational, and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work flexible hours as needed in a manufacturing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in lumber, wood products, forestry products, or related manufacturing industries.
• Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement experience.
• Experience with reliability-centered maintenance programs.
• Experience leading capital projects and operational improvement initiatives.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

• Base salary range of $165,000 to $195,000, based on experience and qualifications, as well as geographical market and business considerations.

Your well-being is important to Wimmer Solutions. All regular, full-time employees working a minimum of 30 hours per week are eligible to participate in the benefits plan. Outside of offering excellent medical, dental, and vision benefits, we also offer the following:

• Paid time off and holidays
• 401k \& company match
• Flexible Health Care, Dependent Care, and Commuter Spending Accounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• Life \& Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
• Short and Long-Term Disability
• Payroll advance program, Charitable donation match, Athletic event sponsorship,
• Referral reward program, and more…

MORE ABOUT WIMMER SOLUTIONS

Wimmer Solutions is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment regardless of race, color, religion or belief, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, parental status, veteran, or disability status. Wimmer Solutions is committed to achieving a diverse employee network through all aspects of the hiring process and we welcome all applicants.