Job Title: Production Manager -Polymer Technology
Department: Polymer / Thermoforming
Reports To: Director of Operations
Type: Full-Time, On-Site
Position Summary
The Polymer Manager is the primary technical and operational leader over the polymer departments. This role is responsible for ensuring strong process control, machine efficiency, tooling/mold performance, and product quality across all polymer-related manufacturing activities. Serving as the organization’s subject matter expert in polymers, the Polymer Manager provides direct leadership to Supervisors , Polymer Specialists, Polymer Engineers, and technical personnel support.
This position requires a deep understanding of polymer science, thermoforming, injection molding principles as applied to resin behavior, molds, tooling, label-material interactions, automation systems, and complex machinery. The successful candidate will own process discipline, drive machine performance to world-class levels, and ensure all technical aspects of polymer production meet Greiner’s standards for quality, safety, efficiency, and continuous improvement.
The Polymer Manager collaborates daily with R&D, Maintenance, Quality, Decoration/Printing, Planning, and Production leadership. This collaboration supports new material trials, product launches, troubleshooting, scrap reduction initiatives, and process optimizations. The role is also the primary technical liaison with machine builders, automation partners, mold makers, and resin suppliers— Thermoforming / Injection and others.
This position demands strong leadership, deep technical knowledge, structured problem solving, and the ability to create stability in a fast-moving manufacturing environment. The Polymer Manager plays a critical role in developing the next generation of technicians, enforcing standards, improving machine uptime, and positioning the department as high-performance operations.
Key Responsibilities
1. Technical Leadership & Department Ownership
- Own the performance, reliability, and efficiency of the Thermoforming departments.
- Provide day-to-day leadership to Polymer Specialists and Engineers, ensuring they deliver strong technical support to production.
- Establish and enforce disciplined process control, including recipe adherence, start-up procedures, tooling/install steps, and safety standards.
- Define operational expectations for cycle time, parameters, scrap, performance, and uptime.
- Drive a hands-on, methodical approach to root-cause analysis and cross-functional problem solving.
2. R&D Collaboration & New Product Development
- Lead resin trials, material studies, thermoforming parameter development, and label-material interaction evaluations.
- Partner with R&D on new product introductions, ensuring that molds, labels, cooling, parameters, cycle times, and automation are validated.
- Execute pilot runs and document performance windows and operational standards for new materials or products.
- Collaborate globally with Greiner technical teams to share best practices and align on material specifications or process upgrades.
3. Vendor Management & External Technical Partnerships
- Act as primary technical liaison with machine builders
- Lead vendor visits, technical audits, remote troubleshooting calls, and performance reviews.
- Approve mold refurbishments, tooling upgrades, and automation changes.
- Ensure clear communication of expectations to suppliers and hold them accountable for issue resolution and technical performance.
- Manage the acceptance of new molds, robotics, and automation—including FAT/SAT, commissioning, and qualification.
4. Machine Trials, FAT/SAT, Mold Qualifications & Technical Validation
- Lead all technical trials, including new resin validations, mold tests, shrink behavior studies, label performance assessments, and automation tuning.
- Develop and maintain trial protocols, ensuring documentation, data capture, and results analysis meet company standards.
- Validate process windows and ensure recipes are documented and transferred to MES.
- Oversee the functional acceptance of new equipment, performing structured checks to ensure readiness for commercial production.
- Prepare trial summary reports and align cross-functional teams on next steps.
5. Maintenance Collaboration & Machine Reliability
- Align daily and weekly with the Maintenance Supervisor on preventive maintenance (PM), lubrication schedules, tooling lifespan, and automation upkeep.
- Participate in breakdown investigations and lead technical root-cause analysis for recurring equipment issues.
- Help define critical spare parts, working jointly with Maintenance and Procurement.
- Review downtime trends weekly and initiate projects that eliminate chronic failures or machine performance losses.
- Ensure alignment of maintenance activities with production priorities and Polymer department needs.
6. Collaboration with Departments
- Ensure labels, inks, substrates, and resin parameters align to achieve print quality specifications.
- Support Decoration Managers in resolving cross-department quality issues involving material interactions or label shrink behavior.
- Assist in cross-functional changeovers impacting labels, artwork, or product transitions.
7. Development of Technical Standards, Recipes & SOPs
- Create and maintain SOPs for Polymer, Inline, and injection operations.
- Develop recipes, setup guides, tooling standards, and troubleshooting procedures aligned with best manufacturing practices.
- Maintain version control and enforce revision discipline across all lines.
- Ensure documentation is clear, accessible, and consistently followed by all shifts.
- Lead structured technical audits to verify compliance.
8. Technical Training, Skill Development & Workforce Capability
- Own the technical training roadmap for Polymer and extrusion Technicians.
- Train employees on resin behavior, machine parameters, mold and tooling management, automation cycles, MES usage, and troubleshooting.
- Perform capability assessments and assign training priorities.
- Build a skill matrix aligned with company expectations and progression paths for technicians.
- Conduct hands-on coaching and lead technical workshops with internal teams and vendors.oaching and lead technical workshops with internal teams and vendors.
9. CAPEX, Projects, Technology Upgrades & Strategic Initiatives
- Support CAPEX justification for machine upgrades, tooling replacements, automation improvements, and new technology investments.
- Evaluate ROI, machine benefits, cycle-time improvements, and scrap reduction opportunities.
- Lead or support project execution, from planning through commissioning and handover.
- Ensure new technologies integrate seamlessly with existing systems, including MES and maintenance frameworks.
10. Digitalization, MES Integration & Data-Driven Leadership
- Use MES to monitor cycle time, downtime, scrap, and performance trends.
- Validate MES setups for each machine, ensuring parameter tracking, downtime coding, and scrap categorization are accurate.
- Drive decision making based on real-time data, building daily and weekly dashboards for Production, Maintenance, and Quality.
- Lead digitalization improvements supporting root cause analysis, process control, and operator training.
- Support ERP (SAP) alignment, especially for material consumption, recipe consistency, and scrap recording.
11. Tooling, Mold, Automation & Equipment Care
- Ensure molds, tools, and automation are maintained according to defined standards and vendor recommendations.
- Manage mold preventive maintenance schedules, refurb cycles, and rebuild programs.
- Escalate vendor concerns when mold or automation performance is not met.
- Implement tooling audits to track condition, wear, and replacement needs.
- Ensure all tools are labeled, stored, and maintained correctly.
12. Safety, Compliance & Regulatory Expectations
- Promote and enforce a strong safety culture within the Polymer and Thermoforming departments.
- Ensure compliance with OSHA, GMP, HACCP, and customer-specific requirements.
- Support audits and inspections by providing technical documentation and operational insight.
- Lead incident investigations in collaboration with Safety, Maintenance, and Quality.
- Ensure lockout-tagout (LOTO), machine guarding, and material handling practices are strictly followed.
13. Oversight of Polymer Technology Supervisors & Operational Discipline
- Provide direct leadership and oversight to all Polymer Technology Supervisors, ensuring alignment on daily priorities, process discipline, and technical expectations across all shifts.
- Conduct weekly structured meetings with each supervisor to review department performance, scrap trends, downtime drivers, training progress, and open improvement actions.
- Hold supervisors accountable for enforcing standards, executing corrective actions, maintaining process control, and leading their shift teams with clarity, fairness, and consistency.
- Review MES data daily, ensuring supervisors are analyzing downtime codes, cycle-time deviations, scrap categories, and machine trends to drive immediate corrective actions.
- Ensure that Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 meetings (daily production meetings) are productive, structured, and data-driven, with clear action items and follow-up ownership.
- Guarantee that all production records, checklists, parameters, start-up documents, material verifications, and scrap reports are fully completed, reviewed, and archived daily.
- Oversee the completion of NCMRs (Non-Conformance Material Reports), ensuring all Polymer-related NCMRs are fully closed before the end of each month with proper root cause and corrective actions.
- Support and lead Corrective Action Reports (CARs), ensuring supervisors and technicians follow structured problem-solving, verification of effectiveness, and timely closure.
- Monitor team morale, coach supervisors on leadership behaviors, and develop retention plans to keep key technicians, supervisors, and skilled labor engaged and motivated.
- Work long hours and weekends when necessary—particularly during trials, changeovers, breakdowns, large orders, or urgent production needs—to support operational continuity and team performance.
Core Competencies
- Technical Leadership: Strong ability to lead teams through complex technical challenges.
- Polymer Expertise: Deep understanding of polymers, resin behavior, molds, tooling, and thermoforming processes.
- Data Literacy: Advanced skills in MES, ERP, downtime analysis, cycle-time tracking, and digital reporting.
- Lean & Continuous Improvement: Experience driving 5S, Kaizen, and waste reduction initiatives.
- Communication & Collaboration: Ability to influence cross-functional leaders and coordinate across departments.
- Team Development: Skilled at training, coaching, and building high-performing technical teams.
- Root-Cause Problem Solving: Hands-on leader with structured methodology (Ishikawa, 5-Whys).
Minimum Qualifications
- 7+ years of technical/engineering leadership in Polymer, Thermoforming, Injection Molding, or related manufacturing.
- Strong hands-on experience with molds, tooling, automation, and machine troubleshooting.
- Experience collaborating with machine builders, mold makers, resin suppliers, and automation vendors.
- Bachelor’s degree in Polymer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Industrial Engineering, or equivalent experience.
- Strong proficiency in MES and ERP (SAP preferred).
- Demonstrated success reducing scrap, improving cycle times, and leading technical teams.
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) preferred but not required.
Performance Expectations
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): Greater than 95% per line (reviewed weekly)
- Scrap Rate: Less than 2% (reviewed weekly)
- Cycle-Time Stability: 100% recipe adherence (monitored daily)
- Downtime Reduction: Year-over-year improvement (reviewed monthly)
- Training Completion: Greater than 95% completion of technical certifications (reviewed monthly)
- Mold/Tool Preventive Maintenance Compliance: 100% compliance (reviewed monthly)
- R&D Trials: 100% on-time execution (project-based)
Working Conditions
- Must be present on the production floor across all shifts as required.
- Exposure to high-speed machinery, forklifts, noise, and varying temperatures.
- Must be available for occasional weekends, holidays, or extended hours.
- Requires standing, walking, climbing, bending, and hands-on machine interaction.
Pay: From $110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
