General Manager

Position Summary:

Our client, a privately held, family-owned business of engineers, contractors, and manufacturers with manufacturing locations across the country, is seeking a General Manager for its Rialto, CA plant. The client is one of the largest providers of pressure and gravity pipe solutions in North America, and this facility is a single-site operation with a diversified, multi-decade customer base in municipal and private-sector infrastructure.

Reporting directly to the President of Pipe & Precast, the General Manager will own full P&L responsibility for the plant, directing manufacturing, production, distribution, maintenance, quality, safety, and commercial operations. This is a highly visible, fully onsite leadership role, with a team of direct reports (Operations Director, Commercial Operations, and Sales Manager) and a broader team spanning EHS/Safety, HR, Accounting, Purchasing, Dispatch, and USCP.

The ideal candidate will bring consistent floor presence, follow through on plans to ensure they're carried out, and genuinely invest in coaching and developing the team below them. Success in this role will depend on building visibility and trust across the plant.

The successful candidate will bring a strong operational mindset — a genuine curiosity about the product, the plant, and the numbers — paired with a habit of following through and checking in on results. There's also a commercial dimension to the role: the plant has room to grow utilization, and the client welcomes a leader who can help identify additional private-sector opportunities alongside its public-works base. This is a hands-on, plant-floor leadership role, and a background in industrial manufacturing matters more than specific experience with concrete pipe or precast.

Absolute Minimum Must-Haves / Experience / Requirements:

Education

• Bachelor's degree (Engineering degree preferred)
• Minimum 15 years of total industrial manufacturing experience
• At least 3 years of operations management experience in a manufacturing environment, including management of teams, product, resources, budget, changes, and quality
• 4+ years of commercial/sales experience and 5+ years of operational or plant leadership experience
• P&L responsibility for a business or facility generating at least $50M in annual revenue
• Experience leading a team of comparable scale (~100 employees)
• Experience working with all levels of management up to C-level
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams that take ownership of product quality, hold people accountable, and proactively identify and address quality issues

Industry Experience

• Experience in concrete pipe, precast, or pipe industry background is a plus but is NOT required
• Prior experience in a construction-related, building-materials or manufacturing environment is preferred
• Passionate about operating in a hands-on, plant-floor and outdoor construction environment. This is not an administrative, behind-the-desk role.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Directs and manages all plant business activities and related operations to enhance efficiency
• Directs manufacturing and production operations, as well as distribution, maintenance, quality assurance, and safety, to ensure alignment with overall plant operations
• Owns full P&L and budget responsibility for the plant; analyzes accounting and financial data and makes data-driven decisions
• Maintains consistent, visible floor presence — walks the plant regularly, learns from daily production reports, and verifies that tasks and plans are actually being executed rather than simply trusting that they are
• Coaches and holds accountable the leads and managers who report through the Operations Director, Commercial Operations, and Sales Manager, keeping the broader team focused day to day
• Drives commercial growth by uncovering additional private-sector work to complement the plant's traditionally public-works-heavy backlog, in partnership with the Commercial Operations and Sales functions
• Builds staff through clear performance expectations, regular feedback, and development planning
• Establishes methods/systems to collect metrics, analyze productivity, and set performance targets that meet revenue and cost goals, leveraging the plant's ERP and cloud-based reporting dashboards
• Works with support functions including EHS/Safety, HR, Accounting, Purchasing, Dispatch, and USCP
• Ensures leadership decisions translate into sustained operational results through follow-up, verification, and corrective action where needed

Secondary Responsibilities:

• Coordinates periodically with the leaders of the company's other plants (located in other regions) to share learnings and align best practices across sister facilities
• Begins introducing continuous improvement / lean fundamentals (5S, floor organization, waste reduction) over time, once basic execution discipline is established
• Represents the plant's image and growth objectives in the local market; researches and identifies growth opportunities
• Other duties as required

Desired Business Outcomes / Key Accomplishments: (How will success be specifically measured within the first 180 days?)

• Has completed structured onboarding across every department — Operations, Commercial, Sales, Accounting, Safety, HR, Purchasing, Dispatch, and USCP
• Demonstrates solid understanding of the product, safety, operations, and commercial fundamentals of the business
• Has logged noticeable, consistent floor time and built relationships with team members across every department
• Has evaluated the team and prepared individual coaching plans
• Has established a regular cadence of floor walks and follow-up/verification on open items

Desired Business Outcomes / Key Accomplishments: (How will success be specifically measured within the first 365 days?)

• Hits financial KPIs
• Demonstrates strong leadership, mentorship, and coaching of the team
• Shows a clear understanding of what levers drive outcomes, with extreme ownership of results
• Has identified and begun acting on private-sector commercial opportunities to complement the plant's public-works-heavy backlog