Production Manager

Kinovate Life Sciences, Inc. established in 2004 in Oceanside, California. A wholly owned subsidiary of Nitto Denko Corporation (www.nitto.com), Kinovate was spun-off from Oceanside, CA based R&D facility Nitto Denko Technical Corp (www.ndtcorp.com) with a mission to provide the highest quality materials to niche life science markets worldwide.

Since its inception, Kinovate has grown to become the market leader in solid support in the oligonucleotide synthesis field. We are bringing the most creative minds in science and technology to develop medical discoveries and breakthroughs. Our customers are well-known in the biotechnology industry. We are in a growth phase within ISO work environment and leading towards a GMP Certification. KLS is seeking extraordinary people to join the team. KLS is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer.

Why Work Here Great place to work. Small subsidiary of large international company headquartered in Japan. Generous discretionary bonuses. Health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance effective from date of hire. Additional benefits include 401(k), 3 weeks vacation in your first year, 12 paid yearly holidays, 5 paid sick days, tuition reimbursement and more.

JOB SUMMARY:

Under general guidance, manageshort-and-long-term business plans for production deliverables to customers within a segment of production. Plan production schedule within budgetary constraints, analyzes human and capital resources selecting the bestmethodology to meet production requirements and ensuring quality standards. Partner with various departments such as technology, engineering, quality, safety and human resources for guidance, collaboration, or attainment of business objectives. Provide leadership and management skills to supervisors ensuring products are produced safely and with on-time deliverables while achieving or exceeding customer expectations.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES and/orRESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Provides day-to-day leadership to Production Supervisors, Leads and/or employeesworking within the production department, including resolving any technical or operational issues.
2. Ensures effective employee relations. Providesemployee coaching, mentoring, training, and development. Resolves employee issues through problem resolution.
3. Manages any personnel issue such as attendance, efficiency, training, quality, safety,etc. encouraging supervisor to document any pertinent information concerning employees. Collaborates with Human Resources in the administration of discipline as necessary. Implements Human Resources advisement of corrective actions.
4. Formulates and recommends manufacturing policies and programs that guide the organization in maintaining and improving its competitive position and profitability of the operation.
5. Directs and facilitates variousprograms essential to manufacturing procedures, e.g., safety, training,cost reduction, employee engagement, lean manufacturing, security, etc.)
6. Creates, prepares, and reviews production reports and data,presents to seniormanagement as necessary.
7. Partners with engineering for new productintroduction and production improvements to resolvemajor technical and/or quality issues in manufacturing.
8. Applies lean manufacturing conceptsin assigned area, e.g., Kaizen,GATE, etc.
9. Other dutiesas assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITES:

1. Production Supervisors

MINIMUM EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:

1. Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, Biochemistry or related field; and seven (7) to ten (10) years’ directly related experience; and two (2) years’ managing/supervising a significate segmentof a medium to large manufacturer with automated process equipment; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
2. Master’s degree in Business Administration or related field, a plus.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS and/orABILITIES:

1. Solid leadership, organization, and people skillsto motivate, guide, inspire, train, coach, mentor to accomplish departmental objectives. Solid ability to resolve moderate to complex employee relations issues.
2. Strong knowledge of automated manufacturing methods and understanding of workflow processes.
3. Ability to analyzeproduct specifications and plant capacitydata and performmathematical calculations to determine manufacturing processes, tools, and manpower requirements.
4. Basic to intermediate knowledge of continuous improvement techniques such as Kaizen,5S, GATE and Lean Manufacturing.
5. Persuasive written and verbal communication skills to communicate with personnel effectively and clearly, across organization functional groups and effectively present to groups of people. Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, proceduremanual, work instructions, operating and maintenance instructions as well as writing routine reports and e-mail correspondence.
6. Advanced understanding of mathematical concepts,including adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividingin units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, decimals, and millimeters.
7. Ability to deal with problemsinvolving several concretevariables in standardized situations and applycommon knowledge understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral and or diagram form.
8. Intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook as well as other enterprise reporting programs such as Net Suite.
9. Professional Membership, highly desirable.

CERTIFICATES and/or LICENSES:

1. Supervisory Certificate, desirable.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS and/or WORK ENVIRONMENT: (Typical physical demands and the work environment characteristics an employee must meet and encounter while performing the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.)

1. Sit for 30%-40%of the time at a desk doing sedentary reports,research, work with computer and attending meetings; 60% -70% of time interfacing with others on the manufacturing floor.
2. Must be able to stand/walk frequently up to 6 hours in a day.
3. Ability to occasionally lift/carry items up to 35 pounds as well as overhead.
4. Ability to push/pull carts or palletjacks loaded with raw materials, work in progressand finish goods occasionally up to 3 hours in a day.
5. Ability to grasp objectswith a force up to 35 pounds.
6. Gross hand manipulation of light-moderate strengthis required to grab raw materials.
7. Fine hand manipulation of light-moderate strengthis required to operate valves,dials, buttons, and touch screen displays on machines.
8. Must see/focus for close eye work (small figures), discriminate colors and perceive depths.
9. Must speak/hear to fulfill verbalcommunications and respondto machine alarms/buzzers.
10. Subject to periodic exposureto varying temperatures, occasional exposure to noise levelsabove 85 decibels, gas/fumes/mists and chemicals or hazardous materials while using personal protective equipment when required.
11. Must wear safety shoes in requiredareas.
12. Must be able to work extendedhours per the demands of the business.