Lead Manufacturing Operations for the Balanced Unitized Team!
Company: Balanced Unitized Team
Location: Great Falls, MT — Onsite
Employment Type: Full Time
Schedule: Monday–Friday, primarily 8:00 AM–5:00 PM
Compensation: 100,000–130,000+ annually, based on experience
Relocation Assistance: Available for qualified candidates
The Opportunity
Balanced Unitized Team is seeking an experienced manufacturing leader to oversee production operations at our Great Falls facility.
This is a senior, hands-on leadership role for someone who understands fenestration, exterior-envelope systems, aluminum fabrication, or closely related manufacturing environments and knows how to lead people, improve processes, and take ownership of plant performance.
You will oversee a custom manufacturing operation supporting complex commercial and specialty projects across the Northwest. This is not a high-volume widget manufacturing environment. Our work is highly customized, technically demanding, and requires strong coordination across engineering, fabrication, quality, scheduling, and project delivery.
The right candidate will combine industry experience with high-level people leadership and will be comfortable stepping into a business where strong operational leadership is urgently needed.
What You’ll Lead
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Lead and develop a manufacturing team of approximately 30–50 employees, including production and middle-management personnel.
- Oversee daily fabrication and production activities involving:
- Unitized curtain wall systems
- Aluminum windows
- Exterior-envelope systems
- Cladding and panel systems
- Aluminum cutting, milling, drilling, and related fabrication
- Create accountability around production goals, labor efficiency, quality, scheduling, budgets, and financial performance.
- Build a strong people-management culture focused on communication, accountability, development, and team performance.
- Analyze production workflows and identify bottlenecks, waste, scheduling conflicts, and opportunities for continuous improvement.
- Improve production planning, labor allocation, resource management, and overall plant efficiency.
- Partner closely with executive leadership, engineering, project teams, vendors, and operations staff.
- Lead root-cause analysis and corrective-action efforts for production and quality issues.
- Maintain high standards for workplace safety and operational discipline.
- Support implementation and continuous improvement of quality-management systems.
- Help strengthen systems and processes as the operation continues to scale.
- Take ownership of materials, waste reduction, operational budgets, and other plant-level performance metrics.
What We’re Looking For
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Required Experience
- 5+ years of relevant leadership experience in fenestration, exterior-envelope, architectural aluminum, window, curtain-wall, panel, cladding, or closely related manufacturing.
- Direct experience leading people in a manufacturing or fabrication environment.
- Strong understanding of aluminum fabrication processes, preferably including cutting, milling, drilling, CNC, assembly, or similar production operations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and hold teams accountable.
- Experience managing production schedules, workflow, staffing, quality, and operational performance.
- Strong problem-solving ability with experience identifying and correcting manufacturing or process issues.
- Ability to communicate effectively across the shop floor, management team, engineering, vendors, and executive leadership.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Business, or a related field is preferred.
- Equivalent senior-level industry experience will be considered in place of a degree.
- Highly Preferred
- Direct experience with unitized curtain wall, commercial fenestration, architectural aluminum, exterior-envelope systems, or panel manufacturing.
- Experience implementing or working within ISO 9000 / ISO 9001 quality-management systems.
- Experience with CNC machinery and aluminum fabrication equipment.
- Familiarity with CAD, production software, ERP/MRP systems, or project-scheduling platforms.
- Experience working with Primavera P6 or similar scheduling tools.
- Lean manufacturing, continuous-improvement, Six Sigma, or comparable process-improvement experience.
- Experience using AI or emerging technology to improve manufacturing workflows or operational efficiency.
What Will Make You Successful Here
We are not looking for a general manufacturing manager whose experience is limited to unrelated industries.
The strongest candidates will understand the realities of producing technically complex, custom-built building-envelope products and will be able to combine that technical understanding with exceptional people leadership.
You should be comfortable:
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Leading experienced production teams.
- Managing through ambiguity and changing project requirements.
- Building accountability without losing the trust of the workforce.
- Learning specialized equipment and company-specific processes quickly.
- Working closely with ownership and executive leadership.
- Making decisions that balance quality, schedule, labor, cost, and customer commitments.
Projects & Environment
Our manufacturing operation supports challenging commercial and specialty work throughout the Northwest, including projects such as:
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Airports
- Hospitals
- Universities
- Large commercial facilities
- High-end architectural projects
- Government and federal work
- Specialized, technically demanding building-envelope projects
Because our work is highly customized, every project presents different engineering, fabrication, scheduling, and production challenges.
Compensation & Benefits
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Competitive base salary of 100,000–130,000+, based on experience
- Higher compensation may be considered for an exceptional candidate with directly relevant industry experience
- Relocation assistance for qualified candidates
- Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
- 401(k) with employer matching
- Paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave
- Bi-weekly payroll
- Employer-provided safety equipment
- OSHA, fall-protection, lift, manufacturer, and technical training
- Professional development opportunities
- Team outings, annual trips, and company events
Relocation
We recognize that the right candidate may not currently live in Montana.
Balanced Unitized Team is prepared to recruit nationally and provide relocation support for the right person. Temporary housing options may also be available to help make the transition to Great Falls easier.
About Balanced Unitized Team
Balanced Unitized Team manufactures custom unitized curtain wall, architectural aluminum, specialty glass, and exterior-envelope systems for commercial and specialty construction projects.
Our environment is fast-paced, highly customized, and built around solving difficult technical and production challenges. We value strong leadership, continuous improvement, accountability, technical expertise, and people who want to make a measurable impact on the business.
Balanced Unitized Team is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are based on job-related qualifications and business needs without regard to any status protected by applicable law.
Learn more at https://balancedunitized.com/.
Balanced Unitized Team is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender expression, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), political affiliation, military service, or any other status protected by law or regulations. It is our intention that all qualified applicants be given equal opportunity and that selection decisions be based on job-related factors.
