Operations Manager

With around 480 locations in over 40 countries, thyssenkrupp Materials Services is the biggest materials distributor and service provider in the western world. The broad service spectrum offered by the materials experts enables customers to focus on their individual core business. The area of Materials Services spans two strategic areas: global materials distribution as one-stop-shop – from steel and stainless steel, tubes and pipes, nonferrous metals and specialty materials to plastics and raw materials – and tailored services in the areas of materials management and supply chain management. An extensive omnichannel architecture offers 250,000 customers worldwide cross-channel, round-the-clock access to more than 150,000 products and services. A highly efficient logistics system ensures that all requested services are smoothly integrated into customer production processes “just-in-time” or “just-in-sequence.Copper and Brass DivisonSales is a distributor and processor of aluminum, stainless steel, copper, brass, bronze and more quality materials serving markets across North America, including Canada and Mexico. By providing customers with what they want, when they need it, Copper and Brass Sales is able to help them succeed in today’s challenging global business environment. The company’s focus on the Aerospace, Automotive, Electrical, Medical and Oil & Gas Industries allows them to offer these market segments expertise specific to their needs. The daily commitment of its employees to provide premium service focused on the customer first has earned Copper and Brass Sales the position of a respected leader in the nonferrous metals industry for over 80 years. Job Summary The 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 Description 1. Operational Leadership Lead 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 Discipline Lead 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 behaviours, 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 Support Provide 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 Culture Be visible and approachable on the floor. Build trust with hourly employees through fairness, consistency, honesty, and follow‑through. Treat employees as people, not just labour 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 Performance Ensure 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 Utilization Ensure 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 Improvement Establish 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 Requirements The 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 labour 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 Qualifications Minimum 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, labour‑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 Qualifications Experience 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 OEM, industrial, or time‑sensitive customer requirements. Working Conditions On‑site role based at the Santa Teresa, NM, facility. Requires regular floor presence in an industrial environment. Must be available to support all shifts in a 24‑hour operation. May require occasional evening, night, weekend, or urgent operational support. Requires interaction with heavy material handling, mobile equipment, warehouse traffic, and production/distribution activity. Compensation: The hiring range for this position is $91,000-$105,000 USD annually . Placement within the range will be based on factors such as skills, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including dental, medical, vision, RRSP, and life insurance—along with the opportunity to lead a high‑impact operation and build strong, engaged teams. The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirement for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or requirements. This position has been identified as “safety sensitive #J-18808-Ljbffr