Plant Manager
Ecopool · Salado, Texas · On-site · Full-time
Run the floor of the Nation's first and only structural steel pool manufacturing plant.
Ecopool builds swimming pools the way the auto industry builds cars — in a factory, from structural steel on a paced production line. We're ramping. We need a Plant Manager who lives on the floor and owns the number.
Industrial engineering or production engineering training is a plus. The discipline matters. The previous title does not.
You own throughput this week.
The job
You run the line.
Standard work, time standards, daily cadence, labor balance, quality at the source. You don’t walk the floor. You live on the floor — every bay, every shift, every day. You can stand at the weld bay for ten minutes and tell us arc-on time is low. You can identify which phase is choking the line. When throughput drops, you have the constraint and the fix before anyone else has the explanation.
You will not run this plant from the office. You will not run it from email.
What you own
- Weekly throughput. Whatever the number is, you hit it. You raise it.
- Standard work and time standards at every operation — documented, enforced, defensible.
- Daily cadence: morning huddle, SQDC board, andon response, dedicated material runners. No operator waits for parts.
- Labor cost — not as a headcount question. You think in terms of units shipped, not in bodies.
- Yamazumi balance across the line. Weld, Blast, Paint and Assembly are the heavy bays. You protect them, and rebalance the rest of the line around them.
- The team. Hire well, develop fast, remove cleanly when developing doesn't take. You turn a slow welder into a fast one before reaching for a replacement — but you don't carry passengers or dead weight.
You probably are
- Someone who has personally run a paced, pulsed, or moving line and raised throughput on it, with the before/after numbers to prove it
- Built and enforced documented minimum rates at the operation level — not just "standards" on paper
- From a comparable build environment: boat/yacht, RV/trailer, modular/prefab, or heavy metal fab. You know weld distortion, fixturing, and multi-trade sequencing in your bones.
- A background as an Industrial Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, or Production Engineer is a strong plus — if you've moved from the engineering side to running the floor, this is your job
- Someone who reads labor cost as a percentage of total cost, not as a headcount question
- Someone who has removed low performers cleanly, legally, and without drama — because the documented rates made it obvious
- The kind of person who reads this listing without flinching
You probably aren't
- Trying to hire your way out of a flow problem
- Running production from a desk
- Looking for a stable, mature plant to manage
The first interview question
"What is the largest weekly throughput improvement you have personally led? What was it before, what was it after, and what did you change to get there?"
If you have a real answer, the conversation continues.
Compensation
Base + uncapped performance bonus + equity potential. The bonus is tied directly to weekly throughput — the better you run this plant, the more you make. Top of market for Texas.
To apply
Send a resume. If you are a fit, we will reply within hours. Bonus if you send us a short note about one floor you physically fixed. What the constraint was, what you changed, and what the line did after.
Pay: $85,000.00 - $400,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- Tell us about one floor you physically fixed. What the constraint was, what you changed, and what the line did after.
- Have you personally managed a paced, pulsed, or moving production line where you owned a weekly throughput target?
Education:
- High school or equivalent (Preferred)
Experience:
- Production/ Plant Management: 5 years (Required)
Work Location: In person
