Operations Manager

Operations ManagerThe Operations Manager provides visible, hands-on leadership for the 24-hour metal distribution operation in Santa Teresa, NM, Plant, ensuring safe, efficient, and disciplined execution across all shifts. This role leads operational performance by aligning people, processes, and resources to deliver exceptional customer service, operational excellence, and business results. Success in this role depends on building capable supervisors, developing engaged employees, fostering a culture of accountability, respect, and continuous improvement, and creating an environment where people are empowered to perform at their best. Lead a safe, disciplined, and people-centered operation by aligning teams, optimizing performance, and creating the conditions for employees to succeed while consistently delivering exceptional customer and business results.Job Responsibilities1. Operational LeadershipLead daily operations across all shifts to ensure safe, efficient, and accurate execution.Establish clear daily, weekly, and monthly operating priorities.Align receiving, material handling, storage, processing, staging, packaging, shipping, and fulfillment activity with customer requirements and available capacity.Monitor order flow, backlog, schedule adherence, shipping performance, and daily constraints.Maintain strong shift handoff discipline between days, afternoons, nights, and weekends.Maintains a strong sense of urgency while fostering a calm, focused, and organized work environment.Ensure supervisors have the authority, clarity, and support needed to lead their teams effectively.Maintain a clean, organized, disciplined, and inspection-ready operation.2. Safety and Workplace DisciplineLead a safety-first culture across all shifts.Ensure compliance with company safety standards, legal requirements, equipment procedures, and site rules.Conduct regular floor walks focused on unsafe conditions, unsafe behaviors, housekeeping, equipment condition, and material handling risk.Ensure proper use of PPE, cranes, forklifts, lifting equipment, racking, saws, packaging stations, and other operational assets.Respond to safety concerns quickly and seriously.Ensure incidents, near misses, and hazards are investigated and corrected.Hold leaders and employees accountable for safety standards without public shaming or emotional reactions.Reinforce that safety and productivity are not competing priorities.Develop a Level 5 Mindfulness safety culture where employees actively identify, communicate, and address risks before incidents occur.3. Supervisor Development and SupportProvide supervisors with clear priorities before each shift.Ensure supervisors understand the business context behind priorities, not just the task list.Coach supervisors on communication, accountability, conflict management, planning, employee engagement, and follow-through.Empowers supervisors to lead confidently by providing coaching, support, and appropriate decision-making authority.Supports supervisors in identifying and removing operational roadblocks, enabling them to lead their teams effectively.Ensure supervisors are not left carrying unclear priorities, broken processes, or unresolved escalations.Create consistency across all shifts by aligning leadership practices, operating standards, communication, and employee expectations.Build supervisor capability through regular one-on-one coaching, floor observation, and feedback.4. People Leadership and CultureBe visible and approachable on the floor.Build trust with hourly employees through fairness, consistency, honesty, and follow-through.Treat employees as people, not just labor capacity.Recognize strong performance, effort, improvement, and teamwork.Address poor performance directly and respectfully.Create an environment where employees feel safe raising problems, concerns, and improvement ideas.Ensure rules are applied consistently across shifts and individuals.Support employee development, cross-training, and skill progression.Understand the human side of the operation, including employee pressures, family realities, health, morale, and personal challenges, without lowering standards or avoiding accountability.Build and sustain a healthy organization by creating clarity, reinforcing organizational values, fostering trust, encouraging constructive debate, and ensuring employees are aligned around priorities and expectations.5. Customer and Service PerformanceEnsure customer orders are fulfilled accurately, completely, and on time.Drive strong performance in picking, packing, staging, shipping, documentation, and inventory control.Respond quickly to service failures, late orders, quality issues, inventory discrepancies, and operational bottlenecks.Work closely with customer service, planning, sales, quality, purchasing, and transportation teams.Ensure customer commitments are realistic, visible, and actively managed.Promote a customer-focused mindset throughout the operation so employees understand how their work affects the customer.6. Inventory, Material Flow, and Asset UtilizationEnsure accurate receiving, put-away, picking, staging, and shipping transactions.Maintain inventory accuracy through cycle counts, process discipline, and root-cause correction.Reduce wasted movement, double handling, congestion, damage, and delays.Ensure proper storage and handling of copper, aluminum, steel, and other metal products.Maintain control over scrap, damage, rework, and material loss.Ensure cranes, forklifts, racking, saws, packaging equipment, and other assets are used safely and efficiently.Partner with maintenance or service providers to maximize equipment uptime.Improve layout, flow, staging, and visual management where needed.7. Performance Management and Continuous ImprovementEstablish and manage key daily performance indicators.Lead daily operating reviews with supervisors and key support functions.Use data to identify constraints, recurring problems, productivity gaps, quality issues, and service risks.Drive root-cause problem solving instead of temporary firefighting.Implement practical continuous improvement actions that improve flow, safety, quality, cost, and delivery.Ensure corrective actions are assigned, tracked, and closed.Build standard work where processes are inconsistent or dependent on individual habits.Challenge excuses while still listening to real operational constraints.Managerial RequirementsThe Operations Manager must be capable of managing a complex, high-velocity, multi-shift distribution environment.Experience leading a 24-hour or multi-shift operation.Strong understanding of warehouse, distribution, metal processing, or industrial material flow.Ability to manage supervisors, team leads, hourly employees, and support functions.Strong knowledge of safety practices in an industrial environment.Experience with cranes, forklifts, racking, heavy material handling, and metal product storage is strongly preferred.Ability to manage daily labor planning, overtime, attendance, productivity, and shift coverage.Strong understanding of inventory control, shipping accuracy, receiving discipline, and transaction integrity.Ability to use operational data to drive performance.Strong communication skills across hourly, supervisory, management, and customer-facing functions.Ability to work in a fast-paced environment where priorities change quickly.Strong discipline around follow-up, escalation, and problem closure.Comfortable being on the floor regularly across different shifts.Minimum QualificationsMinimum 7 to 10 years of progressive operations leadership experience.Minimum 3 to 5 years managing supervisors or team leaders.Experience in distribution, metal service centers, manufacturing, logistics, or industrial operations.Proven ability to lead in a fast-paced, labor-intensive environment.Strong safety leadership background.Strong communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.Demonstrated ability to hold people accountable while maintaining respect and trust.Comfortable working flexible hours to support a 24-hour operation.Preferred QualificationsExperience in metal distribution, metal processing, copper, aluminum, steel, or industrial materials.Experience with ERP/WMS systems.Experience with lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, 5S, visual management, or daily management systems.Experience leading union or non-union hourly teams.Experience supporting