We place plant managers, plant directors, and site leaders who cut scrap, lift OEE, and build teams that hit the number — at manufacturers from 50 to 5,000 employees across the U.S.
The plant manager is the single most consequential operational hire a manufacturer makes. One person carries safety, quality, delivery, cost, and the morale of everyone on the floor. A strong one compounds quietly month after month; a weak one bleeds margin just as quietly — through scrap, turnover, and shipments that slip.
The hard part isn't finding people with the title. It's telling the difference between a caretaker who keeps a healthy plant running and a leader who can actually change the trajectory of a struggling one. Those are two different people, and a résumé almost never tells you which is which — most candidates describe what happened around them, not what they personally changed.
We've spent decades placing plant leaders, so we screen for the things that don't show up on paper: how someone handled a bad quarter, whether the floor actually trusted them, and what they truly own versus what they inherited. You get a short list built for your situation — turnaround, startup, or steady-state — not a stack of résumés to wade through.
From single-site plant managers to multi-plant directors of operations, we know what separates a caretaker from a leader who moves the metrics.
Single-site leaders accountable for safety, quality, delivery, and cost — the P&L owners who keep the floor running and the customer supplied.
Multi-line, multi-shift leaders who drive throughput, OEE, and on-time delivery across complex operations.
Plant managers who have stood up greenfield sites, led lean transformations, or rescued underperforming facilities.
Lean and Six Sigma plant leaders who build a culture of improvement instead of running one-off kaizen events.
Directors and VPs of Operations overseeing several facilities, distributed networks, and regional footprints.
Plant leaders who put EH&S and quality first while still hitting cost and delivery targets.
Has carried genuine accountability for a plant's cost, output, and budget — and can walk you through the numbers they moved and exactly how they moved them.
Specific, quantified gains in scrap, OEE, on-time delivery, or safety that hold up under scrutiny — not vague 'improved efficiency' language.
A turnaround leader and a steady-state operator are different animals. We match the person to whether you need stabilization, growth, or a culture rebuild.
Leaders who won't trade EHS or quality for a good month of output — because that bill always comes due, usually at the worst time.
The kind of leader supervisors and operators actually follow — which is what makes any change stick once the new-hire honeymoon ends.
Most plant manager placements we run land between roughly $130K and $200K base — driven by plant size, complexity, and region — typically with a 15–30% bonus tied to safety, quality, and output. We'll give you a straight read on what your specific market and mandate actually require.
Most of our plant manager searches close in 30 to 60 days from kickoff to accepted offer. Confidential replacements and highly specialized plants can run longer — we give you a realistic timeline up front, not an optimistic one.
Base salaries generally run $130K–$200K depending on plant size, industry, complexity, and location, usually with a performance bonus. We benchmark every search to your market so your offer is competitive without overpaying.
Both. For business-critical or confidential plant leadership searches, retained search gives you our full, prioritized effort and a structured process. For more straightforward roles we also work contingent. We'll recommend the right fit for your situation.
Yes — a large share of our plant leadership work is confidential. We can run the entire search without exposing the role or your company until you're ready to make the move.
From single sites of 50 employees to plants of several thousand, across automotive, food & beverage, metals, plastics, building products, and most discrete and process manufacturing. If you make something, we likely place the leaders who run it.
We back our placements with a replacement guarantee and stay engaged through onboarding to make sure the fit holds. The specifics depend on the search agreement, which we walk through with you before we start.
Tell us about the plant and the mandate — turnaround, startup, or steady-state — and we'll bring you plant leaders with a track record of doing exactly that.