General Manager - Custom Manufacturing Business Unit

Job Description

Job Description

General Manager -  Custom Manufacturing Business Unit

Lebanon, PA - F ull-Time, On-Site

$175,000-$250,000 Base + Performance Bonus

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

THE MANDATE

Take full ownership of an established custom manufacturing business, complete the operating transformation already underway, and build a leadership system that delivers profitable growth without constant executive intervention.

THE OPPORTUNITY

This is true business-unit ownership—not a traditional Plant Manager assignment. You will own the P&L and connect customer demand, sales, engineering, product mix, capacity, safety, quality, delivery, people, and financial performance into one operating plan.

The business has a respected product, deep technical knowledge, and meaningful growth potential. An interim operating executive has stabilized the organization and begun strengthening accountability. You will receive a structured first-month handoff, then become the permanent day-to-day leader.

WHAT YOU WILL INHERIT

• 100-150 on-site employees across production, engineering, quality, maintenance, planning and supply chain, sales, customer service, marketing, HR, and finance.
• A highly engineered, dealer-driven custom environment where order choices create downstream implications for engineering, materials, routing, scheduling, and production.
• A long-tenured workforce with valuable institutional knowledge, alongside uneven leadership maturity and urgent succession risk.
• An ERP transition that must move through go-live, adoption, stabilization, and trusted data.
• An established EOS operating framework that requires disciplined, consistent execution.
• An engaged parent company prepared to provide resources and partnership while giving the General Manager meaningful operating authority within clear strategic and capital guardrails.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

• Full business performance: revenue, margin, profitability, working capital, customer experience, execution, and culture.
• The EOS operating cadence: scorecards, Rocks, weekly leadership meetings, issue-solving, clear ownership, and follow-through.
• One aligned commercial and operating plan—connecting ideal customers, order quality, pricing, product mix, engineering capacity, labor, quality, delivery, and margin.
• Completion of critical initiatives, including ERP stabilization, mill consolidation, and commercial traction for a simplified high-end product line.
• A stronger leadership team: clarify decision rights, develop high-potential managers, and make timely right-seat decisions where needed.
• Knowledge continuity through standard work, cross-training, apprenticeship, and practical succession plans for critical roles.
• Measurable improvement in safety, quality, throughput, schedule adherence, on-time delivery, rework, and profitability—without defaulting to broad cost-cutting.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

First 90 Days

• Complete the leadership handoff and earn the organization's trust.
• Diagnose the business and identify the most important operational constraints.
• Map leadership capabilities, succession risks, and critical knowledge gaps.
• Establish a focused scorecard and action plan.
• Reinforce safety and quality as non-negotiable operating standards.

Within 6 Months

• EOS is running consistently across the leadership team.
• The ERP system is live, stabilizing, and producing increasingly trusted data.
• Managers understand and own their numbers.
• Sales, engineering, and operations are working from one plan.
• Mill consolidation is progressing with accountable owners and minimal business disruption.
• Leadership development and succession actions are underway.

Within 12 Months

• The business shows measurable improvement in safety, delivery, rework, throughput, customer experience, revenue quality, and profitability.
• The leadership bench is stronger.
• Critical operating knowledge is better documented and protected.
• The organization operates with greater accountability and less parent-company intervention.

WHAT YOU MUST BRING

• Repeated success leading a manufacturing business, plant, division, or business unit with meaningful P&L responsibility.
• Experience leading through managers across operations and commercial or customer-facing functions.
• A track record in high-mix, made-to-order, engineer-to-order, or otherwise complex custom manufacturing.
• Evidence of completing difficult cross-functional initiatives such as an ERP implementation, consolidation, integration, turnaround, facility launch, or product-line scale-up.
• The judgment to earn trust in a tenured, craft-oriented culture while raising standards, confronting gaps, and making people decisions.
• Comfort operating on the manufacturing floor, in the financials, with customers, and in difficult conversations.
• Commitment to leading within EOS. Prior EOS experience is preferred but not required.

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

Woodworking experience is strongly preferred, but it is not required.

We will also consider accomplished leaders from adjacent high-mix, engineered, made-to-order environments, including:

• Architectural millwork
• Furniture
• Windows and doors
• Building products
• Specialty fabrication
• Configured industrial products
• Aerospace and defense
• Complex job-shop manufacturing

Additional value includes ERP go-live leadership, Lean or daily management systems, S&OP, finishing operations, CNC-enabled manufacturing, and experience modernizing operating data or IT infrastructure.

LEADERSHIP FIT

High standards without ego. You listen, learn, and then act.

Urgency without chaos. You prioritize, communicate, and finish.

Accountability without dismissing the knowledge already in the business. You respect expertise while building a stronger operating system.

Interested? Email your resume and refer a qualified friend.

Email Resume: View email address on ziprecruiter.com

Apply Online:

If you know someone who would be a strong fit, please refer them. If you meet the core leadership and business-ownership requirements but come from an adjacent custom manufacturing sector, we encourage you to apply.

Refer a friend, get up to $1000!