About the Role
Kinkelder is a manufacturer and supplier of industrial circular saw blades serving forging operations, metal service centers, steel producers, and tube and pipe manufacturers. Our Alabama branch produces new carbide-tipped blades and provides sharpening, re-tipping, and grinding services across multiple blade technologies for customers throughout the region.
We are looking for a General Manager to take full ownership of this branch — how it runs, how profitably it runs, and how it grows. This is a hands-on leadership role in a small, capable operation where your decisions are visible in the results within weeks rather than years.
What makes this role different
Most branch management roles are about maintaining a system someone else built. This one is about building it. The branch has capable equipment, an experienced crew, and a solid customer base. The next stage of its growth depends on stronger production optimization, quality control, and scheduling systems — built by someone who has done it before. If you want a role where you shape how the operation works rather than inherit it, this is that role.
What You’ll Own
The role divides roughly evenly between running the operation and growing the business, with the balance shifting as the business needs it. Expect the first year to weigh toward operations while you build systems, then shift toward customer-facing work as those systems mature.
Branch Performance
● Accountability for the branch P&L — revenue, margin, and operating cost
● Control of working capital, including receivables performance and inventory levels
● Annual budget input, capital justification, and cost control through the year
Production & Quality Systems
● Build documented process control and quality standards across six process streams: new carbide-tipped blade production, resharpening, re-tipping, HSS grinding, friction blade sharpening, and segmental blade sharpening
● Establish practical in-process inspection, acceptance criteria, and corrective action that a small shop will actually use
● Improve scrap, rework, first-pass yield, setup time, and changeover performance
● Own production scheduling and sequencing across shared equipment and a small crew
Team Leadership
● Lead and develop the Shop Supervisor and a four-person production team
● Build cross-training coverage so no process depends on a single operator
● Set expectations, hold standards consistently, and set the tone on safety and quality
Workload Forecasting & Capacity Planning
● Build a rolling forecast of expected workload with customers and the sales team, covering current and upcoming projects
● Translate that forecast into staffing, capacity, and stocking decisions ahead of demand
● Flag capacity constraints early enough for the business to act on them
Business Growth
● Drive new account acquisition and organic growth across the region
● Work closely with the local sales representative and national account managers — you drive growth alongside them rather than carrying a personal quota
● Lead technical and value-based conversations with customers: cost per cut, tooling performance, and process improvement
● Serve as the branch’s senior technical resource on trials and applications
What We’re Looking ForRequired
● Five or more years in plant, branch, or production management with direct supervision of manufacturing staff
● Experience in a high-mix, low-volume or job shop environment, where scheduling and changeover drive margin
● Demonstrated results in production optimization — throughput, yield, scrap reduction, setup and changeover time
● Hands-on experience building or running quality control systems
● P&L or budget accountability
● Commercial credibility — able to hold both a technical and a business conversation with plant managers, maintenance leads, and purchasing
● Willingness to travel regularly within the territory
Preferred
● Saw blade, carbide tooling, or precision grinding experience — brazing, grinding, coating, or tool sharpening processes
● Familiarity with more than one blade technology: carbide-tipped, HSS, friction, or segmental
● Formal quality background — ISO 9001, Six Sigma, or equivalent applied experience
● Industrial B2B sales or technical account development experience
● End-market familiarity: tube and pipe, forging, steel, or metal service centers
● ERP and CRM experience — Microsoft Dynamics 365 preferred
The kind of person who does well here
● Builds systems rather than working harder inside broken ones
● Comfortable with process variety and constant changeover rather than volume and repetition
● Develops people who are strong in some areas and developing in others, instead of working around them
● Leads and influences effectively without relying on reporting lines
● Direct communicator who can deliver a hard message to an employee and to a customer in the same day
● Runs on numbers rather than impressions
What Success Looks Like in Year One
● Quality standards and in-process controls established and operating on the highest-volume processes
● A scheduling approach that reflects real machine and operator constraints, producing promise dates customers can rely on
● Cross-training coverage improved so no process stream depends on one person
● A working workload forecast driving staffing and inventory decisions
● The Shop Supervisor is visibly more capable in production planning and quality
● Measurable improvement in scrap, changeover, or throughput, and new accounts added in the region.
Pay: $100,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
