Project Manager

Job Description
Location: Hopkinsville, Kentucky (Christian County). Onsite.
Reports to: Plant General Manager.
Direct reports: 3 to 5.
FLSA / Grade: Exempt, Manager level.

This is a brand-new, $225 million "smart plant" that started production in late 2025. The launch is not finished. This seat leads the next programs and capital projects through the door and is the single point that pulls Manufacturing, Production Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Production Control, HR, and Administration onto the same timeline. It reports straight to the GM.

Why This Role Matters

"It's not just the departments you mentioned, it's also HR. It's pretty much touching every department that we have in the company. And they have to be able to reach and work together with all of those different departments and, at the same time, hold those individuals accountable for what they are not receiving from them."

This plant is seven months into real manufacturing inside a facility that did not exist a couple of years ago. Every new program, every piece of capital equipment, and every process still has to be stood up for the first time. When a launch is on the line, the plant does not need a technician. It needs one person who can stand in the middle of eight departments, none of which report to them, and make the launch land on schedule, on budget, and safely. That is the job. When that person is missing or weak, launches slip because a department went quiet and nobody was accountable for chasing it down. This role exists so that never happens here.

The Mission

In the first twelve months, take ownership of the plant's active program launches and capital projects and drive each one from planning through equipment install, commissioning, validation, and startup. Stand up the launch discipline that a startup plant does not have yet: the schedules, the milestone tracking, the open-issue accountability. Then hold every department to it. The hiring team was direct about what separates a good hire from a great one here. A good one checks the boxes on paper. A great one gets all the departments in the same room, learns what makes each of them move, and, in their words, is "the one that is leading every part of this process" and makes sure it is successful. This is a program launch, and it is also a project manager's job: manage the deliverables, manage the stakeholders, manage the people responsible for each piece.

Performance Objectives

• Lead active program launches and capital projects from planning through startup, delivering each launch safely, on schedule, and on budget, measured by on-time equipment installation, commissioning, validation, and production readiness against plant launch milestones.

• Bring every department to the table and keep them there, running the cross-functional launch cadence across Manufacturing, Production Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Production Control, HR, and Administration, measured by held milestones and zero launch delays traced to a department that went dark.

• Own equipment procurement, reception, installation, commissioning, and validation for new programs, coordinating suppliers and contractors so equipment is production-ready to standard on the committed date.

• Track and control PEFF and capital budgets across active programs, reporting status to the General Manager and executive stakeholders on a set cadence with no surprise overruns.

• Manage engineering change requests, engineering change instructions, and customer-driven changes through to implementation across every affected department, measured by on-time change execution and clean communication to each pillar.

• Stand up and mature the launch-management process for a startup plant within the first year, establishing the schedules, milestone tracking, and open-issue discipline that do not yet exist, and holding them to standard as the plant scales.

Fit Traits

Cross-Functional Bridge-Builder. Signal from the Conversation: "You don't have to speak engineering and quality and HR, but you have to know the people to be able to bring them all together." The differentiator this hiring team named first. This person builds the relationships that get deliverables out of departments they do not control, and reads what makes each stakeholder move. The team called the hard version of this "finding someone that might be a little bit of a prickly pear" and figuring out "what's their carrot."

Leads and Holds Accountable Without Authority. Signal: "You have to be the one that is leading every part of this process. Even though you have various departments that might be responsible for certain things, you have to lead it and make sure it's successful." The team's shorthand was "herd the cats and get everybody in line." This person owns the outcome across functions and holds peers accountable for what they owe the launch, without a reporting line to lean on.

Builder Who Wants a Blank Canvas. Signal: "It's literally a brand-new toy and you get to make it." This is a build, not a maintenance seat. The right person is drawn to standing up process where none exists and is energized, not unsettled, by the absence of a finished playbook.

Composed at a Deliberate, Standards-First Pace. Signal: "Once a decision is made, we act quickly. However, that decision could take time because we want to analyze and make sure we're making the right decisions." This is a Japanese-company culture that holds to a firm standard and analyzes before it commits. The right person keeps momentum on what can move while a decision is still open and does not read deliberation as dysfunction.

Who You'll Work For

This role reports to the plant General Manager. The wider leadership culture the hire will operate inside is standards-driven and people-first, built on the "TB Way," which the plant works through every morning as a discussion, not a recital. The leadership team described a place where standardization is a source of pride, where "the standard is the standard," and where trust and camaraderie are treated as the foundation of everything. One leader, the daughter of a military family, put the plant's whole hiring philosophy in one line:

"Every role here is very important. We do not fill a role just to fill a role. Everything here makes a difference, and how you make that difference is truly up to you."

This is a leadership group that came up close to the floor, invests in people's development, and expects performance to a real standard. They value people who bring solutions and who tell them when something is not working before it becomes a crisis.

Why Veterans Succeed Here

The core of this role is leading a mission across sections that do not report to you and holding each one accountable for its piece. Operations officers, executive officers, maintenance and logistics officers, and senior NCOs have run exactly that: synchronizing multiple elements toward one objective without owning them outright. The scale is different. The discipline is identical.

The culture is built for this crossover. The plant runs 24 hours a day, holds to a firm standard, and analyzes before it acts, then moves fast once the call is made. The leadership team said the plant's guiding principles are "very similar in really any military branch," and named courage, creativity, and self-discipline as the first of them. The plant even runs a "stop, call, wait" protocol for when something goes sideways, which any service member will recognize as a battle drill for escalation. Standing up launch process where none exists is the civilian version of standing up a new unit or a new program from nothing.

VHS matched this role because the performance objectives, the standards-first culture, and the 24-hour operational tempo align tightly with transitioning NCOs and company- or field-grade officers from operations, logistics, maintenance, and engineering backgrounds who led without direct authority.

#LI-BN1

Requirements

Minimum qualifications, with the military lens applied.

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Manufacturing, Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.Military equivalent: professional military education (Captains Career Course, ILE/SLC/MLC) or technical/logistics schooling plus a leadership track record.Maps to: overall role readiness. The team weighs translated experience heavily and does not treat the exact degree discipline as a hard gate when the work history fits.

• Greater than eight years of relevant experience, with greater than four years in a management role.Military equivalent: a senior NCO (E-7 to E-9) or company- or field-grade officer who has led complex operations and personnel through a full cycle.Maps to: launch leadership objectives. The team was explicit that eight is "not a hard or fast number." A large, multi-phase project that mirrors a new-program startup counts toward it.

• Proven cross-functional leadership and influence without direct authority.Military equivalent: operations officer (S-3), executive officer, maintenance or logistics officer, or senior NCO who synchronized multiple sections toward one mission they did not own outright.Maps to: the cross-functional cadence objective. This is the real filter for the role.

• Project and program schedule, milestone, and open-issue management.Military equivalent: running the plan, from planning through execution, and tracking it to completion under a live timeline.Maps to: launch and change-management objectives.

• AutoCAD or comparable CAD software experience desirable, not required hands-on.Military equivalent: engineering or technical-drawing exposure (combat engineers, facilities, aviation or ground maintenance).Maps to: design-review support. The team was clear this is a learning-curve advantage, not a gate. Familiarity with any CAD software helps; the skill itself is teachable here.

• Strong written and verbal communication in English. Solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office.

• Ability to work a fixed or rotating shift schedule, including occasional overtime, and maintain on-call flexibility for abnormal conditions. Travel 0 to 5 percent.Military equivalent: duty rotations, staff duty, and deployment tempo. Name this honestly on the first call.

Benefits

Base salary range: $98,000 - $122,500 per year. The role is exempt, based in an open office environment, with 0 to 5 percent travel. Because this is an exempt salaried seat inside a plant that runs 24 hours a day, occasional long days beyond a standard 8-to-5 come with the role. Full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401K.