General Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

The General Manager (GM) owns the full P&L and end-to-end performance of the pneumatic tool business unit, including manufacturing and assembly, partnering with Quality, Supply Chain, Sales, Customer Experience, Accounting, and HR. The GM is accountable for profitable growth of air-powered tools—impact wrenches, ratchets, drills, grinders, sanders, and related accessories—that meet the performance, safety, and durability standards demanded by industrial, automotive, aerospace, MRO, and construction customers. This is an outcomes-based role: success is measured by the business, operational, and people results delivered, not the activities performed. The GM sets strategy, builds the team, allocates resources, and personally removes barriers to achieve the outcomes below. Annual targets are set with the COO during the planning cycle and evaluated on a rolling 12-month basis.

Essential Key Outcomes & Responsibilities

• Financial: Meet or exceed revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA/contribution -margin plan; hit working-capital targets (inventory turns, DSO, DPO) and reduce slow-moving/obsolete inventory year over year; deliver approved capital projects on time, on budget, and to business-case payback.

• Customer & Market: Achieve OTIF ≥ 95% to customer request date; reduce lead times toward best-in-class year over year; improve NPS, customer scorecards, and warranty/complaint rates with no controllable loss of a Tier 1 customer; launch committed NPI on date and cost; maintain or grow share across industrial distribution, automotive aftermarket, OEM, and e-commerce.

• Operations, Quality & Safety: Meet or beat external PPM and warranty cost as a % of sales with no preventable field-safety incident or recall; improve labor productivity, OEE, and throughput through documented continuous-improvement gains; drive ISO 9001 readiness and pass customer audits without major findings; trend TRIR and lost-time incidents toward zero; prevent foreseeable supply interruptions and customer line-down events.

• People & Organization: Maintain a fully staffed, high-performing leadership team with annually reviewed succession plans; meet or exceed benchmarks for voluntary turnover, engagement, and internal promotion; ensure each direct report has a development plan with measurable growth; build a safe, accountable, customer-focused culture.

• Strategy & Innovation: Support execution of a board-approved 3-year strategic plan translated into annual priorities with named owners; partner with Sales & Marketing on a product roadmap covering NPI and obsolescence; run an active CI program (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Gemba) delivering documented savings at or above target; identify and mitigate top business risks (supply, single-source, cyber, regulatory, talent), reviewed quarterly.

• Own the business-unit P build the annual operating plan and lead the monthly business review; set vision, strategy, and operating cadence, and align all functions behind it.

• Represent the business unit to the executive team, customers, distributors, suppliers, and regulators; personally engage top accounts and approve roadmap priorities, pricing, channel strategy, and major customer agreements.

• Oversee machining, assembly, finishing, testing, packaging, and distribution; ensure schedules, capacity, and ERP/MRP execution meet customer commitments; drive productivity, OEE, scrap, and cycle-time improvement; steward capital plans.

• Approves operating and capital expenditures, hiring/promotion/compensation/terminations, and pricing and commercial terms within limits delegated by the COO and HR guidelines; develops ROI packages for capital projects. Escalates any decision that exceeds delegated authority, materially changes strategy, or carries significant enterprise risk.

Education, Qualifications, Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Management, Operations, Business, or related field; MBA or advanced technical degree preferred.

• 10+ years of progressive manufacturing leadership with emphasis in machining, including 3–5 years owning a P&L or in a general management role.

• Pneumatic, power tool, fluid power, or precision metalworking experience strongly preferred (motors/vanes, valving, air consumption, torque calibration, vibration/ergonomic testing); proven record of growing revenue and expanding margins in an industrial product business.

• Deep Lean/Six Sigma/CI expertise (Black Belt or equivalent preferred); strong ERP command (Infor/Syteline, GSS, or equivalent); working knowledge of ISO 9001, ISO 11148, OSHA general industry, and ANSI B186.1 where applicable.

• Excellent leadership, communication, financial acumen, and decision-making skills; equally effective on the shop floor and in the boardroom.

Physical Demands, Working Conditions and Occupational Exposure

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee:

• Be able to work in a demanding physical environment, including lifting and moving heavy objects, standing for long periods on concrete floors, and working at heights or in confined spaces.

• Will frequently sit at a desk, stand and walk for prolonged periods on concrete

• Must have the ability to lift up to 50 lbs.

• Must be able to wear appropriate PPE

• Operates and handles a computer, equipment and tools using hands and fingers frequently to complete tasks

• Will use specific vision abilities required by this job which include close vision and ability to adjust focus.

• Exposure to extreme heat, hot, dust/fumes, cold outdoor and indoor conditions

How Performance Will Be Measured

• The GM and COO agree on a one-page annual scorecard that weights the outcomes above: revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA vs. plan; OTIF, external PPM, and warranty cost as a % of sales; TRIR and lost-time incidents; inventory turns and forecast accuracy; NPI on-time and on-cost launch; employee engagement, voluntary turnover, and succession-plan health; and annual CI savings as a % of COGS.

This job description reflects the principal outcomes and responsibilities of the role. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may be updated as business needs evolve.

EOE