Plant Manager, STL

Plant Manager, STL

Kemira is a global leader in sustainable chemistry for water intensive industries. For more than 100 years, our chemistry has advanced human progress and quality of life. At Kemira, we foster a collaborative and inclusive work culture that empowers our employees to thrive and make a difference. We are now looking for a Plant Manager for our St. Louis site who is people-focused to lead all aspects of operations at our chemical manufacturing facility. This role is responsible for providing strategic and day-to-day leadership across production, maintenance, engineering, safety, quality, and site administration to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient plant performance. The Plant Manager will play a critical role in building a strong site culture centered on teamwork, accountability, communication, employee engagement, and operational excellence.

The ideal candidate will be a visible leader who can develop talent, strengthen cross-functional collaboration, drive continuous improvement, and create alignment across the organization while delivering business results. In this role you will be responsible for:

• Provide overall leadership and direction for all plant operations, ensuring safe, compliant, and efficient manufacturing performance.
• Build and maintain a strong site culture focused on teamwork, accountability, employee engagement, communication, and continuous improvement.
• Lead, coach, and develop site leadership and hourly teams to create a high-performing organization with strong employee ownership and accountability.
• Serve as a visible and active leader within the facility, fostering trust, collaboration, and strong working relationships across all functions.
• Drive a world-class safety culture by ensuring compliance with all environmental, health, safety (EHS), Process Safety Management (PSM), and regulatory requirements.
• Establish clear operational expectations, goals, and performance metrics while holding teams accountable for results.
• Collaborate with operations, maintenance, engineering, supply chain, quality, and commercial teams to optimize plant performance and customer satisfaction.
• Lead efforts to improve operational reliability, productivity, quality, and cost performance.
• Develop and execute plant strategies aligned with company objectives and long-term business goals.
• Manage plant budgets, capital expenditures, staffing plans, and operational resources.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives utilizing Lean Manufacturing, Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and operational excellence principles.
• Support talent development, succession planning, employee training, and workforce engagement initiatives across the site.
• Lead plant response efforts during operational upsets, emergencies, and audits.
• Ensure strong communication and alignment between site leadership, corporate leadership, and plant personnel.

What you'll bring to the team:

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, or related field preferred; equivalent manufacturing leadership experience considered.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in manufacturing or chemical plant operations, with at least 5 years in progressive leadership roles.
• Proven experience leading teams within a process manufacturing environment.
• Strong leadership presence with demonstrated ability to build teams, develop employees, and improve organizational culture.
• Experience managing plant operations, production, maintenance, safety, quality, and financial performance.
• Working knowledge of OSHA, EPA, PSM, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Strong communication, conflict resolution, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Experience with SAP or similar ERP systems preferred.
• Ability to lead effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic manufacturing environment.

Preferred:

• Experience leading operations in a PSM-regulated chemical manufacturing facility.
• Strong background in operational excellence, Lean Manufacturing, and continuous improvement.
• Experience managing capital projects, turnarounds, and major operational improvement programs.
• Six Sigma, Lean, or other operational excellence certifications preferred.
• Demonstrated success improving employee engagement, retention, and site culture.

What you can expect from us:

• Work with a global company that is committed to innovation, cares for people and dedicated to customer success.
• Opportunity for personal and professional growth.
• Attractive benefits package compensation.
• A multicultural and positive working environment.
• The starting salary range for consideration for this position is $122,500 to $152,500 per year with opportunities for performance-based bonuses. The actual starting salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to relevant employment history & experience, skill set/competencies, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. We also offer a comprehensive benefits package which includes health insurance, paid time off, life/disability insurance and a 401k retirement plan (which includes a company match).