Foundry Operations Manager

Description

Career Area:

Job Description:

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.

When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.

Role Definition:

Leads the day-to-day operations of a medium-sized, multi-shift manufacturing facility whose primary process is metal casting. This role is accountable for safely converting customer demand into high-quality cast products by directing production from core and mold preparation through melting, pouring, shakeout, finishing, and handoff to downstream operations. The Operations Manager develops leaders, optimizes labor and equipment capacity, controls cost and working capital, and partners with safety, quality, maintenance, engineering, supply chain, and human resources to achieve plant objectives for safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and employee engagement.

Responsibilities:

• Lead all shifts, ensuring safety, quality, delivery, cost, housekeeping, and employee engagement.

• Direct core making, molding, melting, pouring, shakeout, finishing, inspection, and material flow.

• Convert customer demand and production schedules into shift priorities, staffing, capacity, maintenance, and recovery plans.

• Develop operations leaders through goals, coaching, performance management, succession planning, training, and recognition.

• Manage daily KPIs for safety, yield, scrap, schedule attainment, throughput, downtime, labor, energy, and cost.

• Partner with Quality and Metallurgy to control process parameters, traceability, defects, containment, and corrective actions.

• Coordinate equipment reliability, preventive maintenance, critical repairs, and capital priorities with Maintenance and Engineering.

• Ensure compliance with safety, environmental, labor, and quality requirements, particularly for foundry hazards.

• Lead continuous improvement to reduce defects, waste, energy use, cycle time, and variation while improving equipment effectiveness.

• Support operating plans and budgets, control expenses, validate savings, and report risks and results.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical, Materials, Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline.

• Progressive manufacturing leadership expertise, including responsibility for multi-shift operations, front-line leaders, production planning, safety, quality, delivery, and cost performance.

• Strong understanding of manufacturing safety, environmental controls, quality systems, equipment reliability, capacity planning, labor management, and operational cost control.

• Advanced English

Skills:

Analytical Thinking:

• Interprets operational, metallurgical, quality, and cost data to identify trends, inconsistencies, risks, and root causes.

• Breaks complex foundry problems into manageable components and selects the appropriate analytical or problem-solving tools.

• Evaluates cost, benefit, risk, capacity, and probability of success before recommending actions or investments.

Effective Communications:

• Communicates expectations, priorities, risks, and results clearly across shifts and to frontline, technical, and executive audiences.

• Adapts reports and presentations to the audience and uses fact-based persuasion to align stakeholders.

• Balances empathy and assertiveness when coaching leaders, addressing performance gaps, or defending an operational position.

Manufacturing Operations:

• Directs multi-shift foundry operations to achieve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and inventory objectives.

• Balances furnace, molding, core, finishing, labor, and material capacity while coordinating workflow across production and support functions.

• Benchmarks performance, anticipates demand, identifies operating constraints, and implements actions that improve throughput and stability.

Mechanical/Machinery:

• Provides operational leadership for the safe use and reliability of furnaces, molding lines, sand systems, dust collection, cranes, conveyors, and finishing equipment.

• Partners with Maintenance and Engineering to resolve chronic losses, establish preventive maintenance priorities, and evaluate equipment or capital alternatives.

• Ensures operating standards, training, and escalation processes support safe, capable, and reliable equipment performance.

Performance Management:

• Translates objectives into measurable goals and behavioral expectations for operations leaders and teams.

• Provides timely, fair, and documented coaching; addresses performance gaps; and creates development plans that build bench strength.

• Uses recognition, training, stretch assignments, and succession planning to improve capability, accountability, and engagement.

Planning and Organizing:

• Convert production requirements into clear priorities, resource plans, milestones, ownership, and follow-up routines.

• Evaluates interdependencies among demand, labor, equipment, materials, maintenance, and quality when balancing competing priorities.

• Develops contingency and recovery plans, communicates changes promptly, and tracks execution through completion.

Production Scheduling and Control:

• Aligns master schedules with furnace campaigns, molding and core capacity, tooling availability, finishing constraints, labor, and maintenance requirements.

• Reviews schedule attainment, work-in-process, bottlenecks, downtime, and shortages; assigns corrective actions and recovery priorities.

• Ensures production documentation, heat and lot traceability, process authorizations, and shift handoffs are accurate and timely.

Quality Management:

• Monitors foundry quality indicators, including first-pass yield, scrap, rework, dimensional conformance, metallurgical results, and recurring defect modes.

• Ensures adherence to process controls, inspection plans, traceability requirements, containment procedures, and corrective-action systems.

• Partners with Quality, Metallurgy, Engineering, and Production teams to eliminate casting defects and sustain process improvements.

Additional Information:

• Location: Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila facility.

• This is an on-site position requiring five days per week at the facility.

• Domestic and international travel of up to 10% may be required.

• A valid passport and travel visa are required.

• Employment sponsorship is not available for this position.

• Domestic relocation assistance is available.

• Please upload an English-language résumé to your Workday profile.

Final details

Please frequently check the email associated with your application, including the junk/spam folder, as this is the primary correspondence method. If you wish to know the status of your application – please use the candidate log-in on our career website as it will reflect any updates to your status.

The Caterpillar Code of Conduct states that we will select, and place employees based on their qualifications for the job to be performed, without regard to race, religion, national origin, color, gender, identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. In this company we do not request pregnancy tests, nor HIV tests as requirements for employment entry, permanence or promotion.

Posting Dates:

Caterpillar is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants of any age are encouraged to apply

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