Position Summary
The Working Industrial Finishing Lead is responsible for performing hands-on finishing work while helping coordinate, support, and guide day-to-day finishing activities. This position supports the preparation, washing, coating, painting, powder coating, touch-up, and final finish quality of manufactured products.
This is a working role first. The person in this position is expected to actively participate in finishing work while also helping ensure the department follows proper preparation, coating, safety, quality, and workflow practices.
The ideal candidate will have practical experience with industrial finishing processes, including surface preparation, wet paint, powder coating, washing, masking, touch-up, and whole good preparation. This person should understand that final finish quality depends heavily on preparation, cleanliness, process control, and attention to detail.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Perform hands-on finishing work including washing, cleaning, preparation, masking, sanding, grinding, touch-up, painting, powder coating support, and final inspection.
- Prepare whole goods, parts, and assemblies for coating by ensuring surfaces are properly cleaned, washed, dried, masked, and ready for paint or powder.
- Support wet paint operations including surface preparation, mixing or handling materials when qualified, application support, touch-up, and finish inspection.
- Support powder coating operations including preparation, hanging, masking, coating support, oven readiness, cure awareness, part handling, and finish inspection.
- Help coordinate daily finishing workflow to ensure parts and whole goods move through prep, coating, curing, touch-up, and final assembly support efficiently.
- Guide finishing employees on proper preparation, cleaning, masking, coating expectations, quality standards, and safe work practices.
- Inspect parts and finished products for cleanliness, coverage, adhesion concerns, runs, sags, thin spots, missed areas, contamination, texture issues, cure concerns, and general finish quality.
- Identify and help resolve finishing issues related to surface contamination, poor preparation, improper cleaning, moisture, coating defects, rework, or process gaps.
- Coordinate with fabrication, assembly, management, maintenance, and other departments to ensure products are ready for finishing and completed on schedule.
- Help ensure proper staging, handling, movement, and protection of parts and whole goods before, during, and after coating.
- Assist with maintaining finishing equipment, wash areas, paint areas, powder areas, booths, ovens, racks, hooks, and related tools in a clean and usable condition.
- Monitor supplies, consumables, coatings, masking materials, PPE, and other finishing-related needs.
- Assist with training new or less experienced employees in preparation, coating support, safety, cleanliness, and quality expectations.
- Promote safe handling of paints, powders, chemicals, solvents, wash materials, compressed air, and finishing equipment.
- Maintain a clean, organized, and safe finishing work area.
- Report equipment problems, safety concerns, quality issues, material shortages, and production delays in a timely manner.
- Perform other related duties as assigned based on business and production needs.
Required Qualifications
- Experience in industrial finishing, wet paint, powder coating, manufacturing, agricultural equipment, heavy equipment, or a similar production environment.
- Working knowledge of surface preparation, washing, cleaning, masking, coating readiness, and finish quality.
- Understanding of wet paint and/or powder coating processes in an industrial setting.
- Ability to identify common coating and preparation defects and help determine corrective action.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to finished product quality.
- Ability to work hands-on while also helping guide and support other employees.
- Ability to communicate effectively with management, production employees, and other departments.
- Ability to manage changing priorities and keep work moving without constant supervision.
- Commitment to safety, cleanliness, quality, and productivity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with both wet paint and powder coating.
- Experience preparing and coating large parts, assemblies, trailers, implements, whole goods, or industrial equipment.
- Experience with wash systems, blast or surface preparation processes, paint booths, powder booths, cure ovens, or related finishing equipment.
- Experience with coating defect troubleshooting, touch-up, rework reduction, and process improvement.
- Experience in a working lead, senior painter, powder coating lead, finishing lead, or similar informal leadership role.
- Forklift, overhead crane, or material handling experience.
- Experience with ERP systems, work orders, production schedules, or manufacturing documentation.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Strong understanding of industrial finishing preparation and coating processes.
- Ability to recognize the connection between preparation quality and final finish quality.
- Ability to troubleshoot finish defects and identify likely causes.
- Ability to balance personal production work with department support responsibilities.
- Ability to train, coach, and support employees without relying solely on formal authority.
- Ability to organize work, manage changing priorities, and maintain forward progress.
- Ability to communicate finishing needs, quality issues, and production concerns clearly.
- Ability to work safely around coatings, chemicals, compressed air, ovens, booths, material handling equipment, and other finishing-related hazards.
- Physical Requirements
- Ability to work in a manufacturing and finishing environment.
- Ability to stand, walk, bend, reach, climb, kneel, and move throughout the production facility as needed.
- Ability to lift, carry, push, pull, or move materials, parts, tools, and equipment within reasonable limits.
- Ability to work around wash areas, paint areas, powder coating areas, ovens, booths, chemicals, solvents, compressed air, forklifts, cranes, and other normal manufacturing operations.
- Ability to wear required personal protective equipment, which may include respirators, gloves, eye protection, hearing protection, protective clothing, and other finishing-related PPE.
- Ability to view surfaces, coatings, parts, assemblies, and finished products for extended periods as needed.
Work Environment
This position works primarily in a manufacturing and finishing environment. The role may involve exposure to noise, dust, heat, chemicals, solvents, paints, powders, wash materials, ovens, booths, compressed air, material handling equipment, and other industrial finishing conditions.
Success Factors
Success in this role will be measured by the ability to produce quality finishing work while helping the department stay organized, safe, clean, and productive.
A successful Working Industrial Finishing Lead will help ensure products are properly prepared, coated, inspected, touched up, and moved through the finishing process with fewer defects, less rework, and better overall flow.
Pay: $16.00 - $24.00 per hour
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Parental leave
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Experience:
- Purchasing: 2 years (Preferred)
- Logistics: 2 years (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
