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Plant Manager

PQ


Job Location:

Clarksville, IN - USA

Monthly Salary: Not provided by the employer
Posted: 16 July 2026 (30+ days ago)
Application Deadline: 13 October 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

The Plant Manager holds overall accountability for the safe compliant reliable and profitable operation of the National Silicates silicate manufacturing facility in Jeffersonville Indiana.

Leading the sites operations maintenance EH&S quality and supply chain functions the Plant Manager delivers the companys goals for safety environmental compliance quality customer service and financial performance. The role also carries stewardship of the facilitys major assets and provides leadership for significant capital projects working with a multi-disciplinary team across corporate functions (Engineering Finance Quality EH&S Reliability and IT).

 

Key Responsibilities

Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S)

  • Lead the effort to promote a strong EH&S culture that enables an accident-free workplace and ensures compliance with OSHA and all environmental regulatory requirements.
  • Ensure full compliance with OSHA EPA and applicable state environmental requirements including all site operating-permit conditions (air water and spill-prevention obligations) and own accurate on-time regulatory reporting.
  • Maintain robust process-safety contractor-safety and emergency-response programs appropriate to a furnace-based chemical manufacturing operation.
  • Advance leading-indicator programs near-miss reporting audits and behavior-based safety and ensure timely closure of corrective actions.

Operations Quality & Reliability

  • Direct all production operations across all shifts to meet production quality and delivery targets.
  • Embed a Quality Management System that ensures products are manufactured within specification and raw material losses are minimized.
  • Interact with the planning department to design and execute a production plan that meets customer delivery requirements.
  • Improve asset reliability and uptime particularly of furnaces and other critical units through proactive and predictive maintenance and disciplined maintenance planning.
  • Manage utilities and energy (notably natural gas) as both a reliability and a cost lever.

Continuous Improvement & Lean Manufacturing

  • Implement a continuous improvement process that uses Lean tools such as OEE and 5S and engages employees at all levels in driving improvements in safety quality cost and delivery.
  • Personally deploy structured root-cause problem solving and Kaizen and sustain standard work to lock in gains.
  • Drive employee engagement through visible KPIs and daily management / tiered accountability and build continuous-improvement capability across the workforce.

Financial Management

  • Own the plant P&L and develop the annual operating plan.
  • Create and manage annual budgets for capital expenditure fixed costs and variable costs.
  • Apply manufacturing-finance acumen conversion cost / cost-per-ton standard costing variance analysis and an accurate on-time month-end close in partnership with Finance and drive structured cost reduction.
  • Clearly distinguish operating expense (Opex) from capital expenditure (CapEx); prepare and justify capital appropriation requests (AFEs) and manage approved capital to budget and schedule.
  • Control spare-parts and inventory investment working capital and open commitments within delegated authority.

Capital Projects & Asset Stewardship

  • Collaborate with the Engineering department to develop and implement projects that improve productivity and safety.
  • Provide site leadership for major capital projects partnering with Engineering on scope schedule budget permitting and supply continuity through any outage.
  • Steward the long-term condition of the facilitys critical assets to protect safe reliable and cost-effective operation.

Customer & Commercial Interface

  • Serve as the sites senior operational point of contact for key customers in alignment with the customer service team and build trust-based relationships.
  • Assure supply continuity and product quality against contractual commitments leading the plants operational response with a clear communication and escalation plan when supply is at risk.
  • Partner with Customer Service on demand planning service levels (on-time in-full / OTIF) forecasts and customer business reviews.

Procurement Supply Chain & Planning

  • Partner with Procurement to ensure raw materials supplies spare parts and services are available as planned and when needed.
  • Drive on-time in-full (OTIF) and on-time-shipment performance while managing logistics cost.
  • Champion a structured integrated business planning (S&OP / IBP) process to execute the consensus demand and supply plan for production inventory and on-time delivery.

People Leadership

  • Build a high-performing team through effective coaching training and the establishment of clearly communicated goals and objectives.
  • Drive performance management talent development and succession planning to build organizational capability and bench strength.

Compliance & Certifications

  • Maintain certifications for ISO 9001 ISO 14001 NSF and RC 14001 and uphold Responsible Care commitments.
  • Make sure all the regulatory environmental operational and any required permit to the plant operation its kept updated.

Qualifications :

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelors degree in a technical discipline; engineering preferred.
  • A minimum of 510 years of experience in a chemical or process manufacturing environment including progressive leadership responsibility and time in a plant-management or senior operations role.
  • A dynamic leader who can inspire others to work toward a common goal.
  • An effective communicator who delivers information in a clear concise and timely manner.
  • Able to build collaborative relationships based on trust and respect.
  • Ability to think strategically anticipating the future needs of the business and developing a plan to deliver them.
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience leading Lean / continuous-improvement deployment (OEE 5S standard work problem solving) not theoretical knowledge alone.
  • Proven experience building and managing plant operating and capital budgets and leading capital projects from appropriation through execution.
  • Manufacturing-finance acumen P&L ownership standard costing variance analysis cost-per-ton management and month-end close.
  • A track record of building and sustaining key customer relationships and meeting service and supply commitments.
  • A genuine front-line EH&S leadership orientation with a record of improving safety and environmental-compliance performance.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience in glass silicate or other high-temperature / furnace-based process operations.
  • Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.

Key Competencies

  • Safety leadership Results orientation Financial & business acumen Decision quality Customer focus & influence Strategic thinking Change leadership Clear communication Collaboration & relationship building Team development

Additional Information :

EHS Responsibilities

  • Communicates promotes and personally demonstrates Safety/Health (including PQP Principles) as #1 priority
  • Participation in risk assessment audits as applicable
  • Understand PQ Principles (PQP) and how they are implemented in the site organization rules and procedures
  • Completes HSE training requirements identified for the job in a timely manner

PQ is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin disability veteran status or any other legally protected characteristics. Click on the link to read Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal (). For more information please review the link Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ().


Remote Work :

No


Employment Type :

Full-time


About Company

PQ is a leading global provider of silicates, silicas and derivative products. PQ's products are used in a wide variety of industrial processes and many customer products, from decorative paints to green cement, from clean drinking water to green tires and from toothpaste to biofuels ... View more

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