Operational Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Job Title: Operational Manager

Job Description

Responsibilities

• Lead all manufacturing operations to consistently achieve production, quality, inventory, delivery, cost, and safety objectives.
• Direct daily production activities, including production schedules, staffing plans, equipment utilization, materials management, capacity planning, and overall resource allocation.
• Act as the operational leader responsible for establishing manufacturing standards and ensuring operational accountability across the facility.
• Develop and mentor managers, supervisors, engineers, technicians, and production personnel to build a high-performing operations team.
• Drive Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, quality, and throughput.
• Establish, track, and improve key performance indicators (KPIs) related to quality, productivity, safety, cost, delivery, inventory, yield, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
• Identify operational bottlenecks and implement corrective actions to improve flow, capacity, and reliability of manufacturing processes.
• Support new product introductions (NPI), product launches, manufacturing readiness, and scalability initiatives for AI, HPC, cloud, and enterprise infrastructure products.
• Manage operating budgets, forecasts, capital investments, and resource plans to meet financial targets and support growth objectives.
• Report operational performance, trends, and business risks to executive leadership, providing clear analysis and recommendations.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA, EHS, environmental regulations, quality standards, and internal company policies.
• Lead system integration, rack build, system configuration, manufacturing test, and customer-specific hardware deployment operations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align manufacturing capabilities with business strategy, customer requirements, and technology roadmaps.
• Influence large-scale manufacturing growth, operational strategy, and workforce development initiatives across the organization.

Essential Skills

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, plant operations, or production management.
• Proven experience in manufacturing operations management within server and data center hardware manufacturing environments.
• Hands-on experience supporting the manufacturing of servers, storage systems, networking hardware, AI infrastructure, GPU-based platforms, or rack-scale data center solutions.
• Demonstrated expertise with Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC), Direct Water Cooling (DWC), thermal-management systems, liquid-cooled server platforms, or high-density computing solutions.
• Experience leading system integration, rack build, system configuration, manufacturing test, and customer-specific hardware deployment operations.
• Working knowledge of power distribution, cooling infrastructure, data center hardware architecture, and enterprise compute platforms.
• Experience scaling manufacturing operations for AI, high-performance computing (HPC), cloud, or enterprise infrastructure products.
• Lean Manufacturing, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Proven site leadership experience, including workforce leadership and plant management responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to manage operating budgets, financial performance, and capital investment plans.
• Capacity planning and resource management expertise within complex manufacturing environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Strong production management skills, including scheduling, staffing, and equipment utilization.
• Ability to establish and manage KPIs related to quality, productivity, safety, cost, delivery, inventory, yield, and OEE.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• MBA or advanced business degree is preferred.
• Lean Manufacturing Certification is highly desirable.
• Six Sigma Certification is highly desirable.
• Operational Excellence Certification is a strong plus.
• Experience in multi-site manufacturing management.

This is a Permanent position based out of Whitsett, NC.

The pay range for this position is $100000.00 - $186000.00/yr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Benefits include comprehensive healthcare coverage, retirement savings plans, paid time off, career development opportunities, and the chance to lead operations within a rapidly expanding AI infrastructure and advanced server manufacturing environment

This is a fully onsite position in Whitsett,NC.

This position is anticipated to close on Sep 16, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications withoutregard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability,sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protectedby law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification oradjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability,please email View email address on ziprecruiter.com for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in thecity and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicantswith arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as acondition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this lawshall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process,including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applicationsand qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, youacknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.