Head of Manufacturing Chemical Industry Expert Supplemental Income

Lifecycle Insights is seeking a Head of Manufacturing / Plant Manager / Director of Operations / VP Manfacturing / Site Director industry expert with knowledge in fine chemicals or specialty chemicals manufacturer in the batch production context (not continuous process). This person has site-level accountability for throughput, yield, cost, and compliance. Experiences changeover as a schedule disruption, a capacity constraint, and a risk management problem. Will have systemic opinions but may be less specific about mechanics than the Process Engineer. Most likely to surface agility and flexibility language unprompted — treat this as a key validation signal. Also the role most sensitive to talent gaps and institutional knowledge loss.

Additional requirements:

• Director or VP-level accountability for a production site or manufacturing function
• Responsible for batch operations in fine or specialty chemicals
• Manages a team with direct floor responsibility — not a purely strategic or corporate role
• Works directly with batch recipes in a fine or specialty chemical environment — not continuous production
• Involved in new product introduction or recipe revision activity within the past 12 months
• Active batch changeover activity — either ongoing NPI, recipe revision, or multi-product campaigns on shared equipment
• Company size $50M in revenue
• Owner-operator preferred — not EPC or contract manufacturer without production accountability

This interview-contributing role will support our research, publishing, and strategy services.

• Contribute remotely through simple, one-hour interviews. We’re looking for you to provide industry insights. We can do that quickly and easily through scheduled interviews. You share your knowledge and expertise. There is no obligation beyond that.
• Share your input. We form our perspective. Your insights are one of many inputs we use to develop our independent perspective internally for our projects. Your insights will not be used directly in our projects or shared with our clients.
• You are paid hourly rate for each interview. At the beginning of our engagement, we pay you an upfront retainer. We then conduct interviews with you until the retainer is consumed. As appropriate, we’ll renew the engagement with another retainer.
• Keep your day job (or stay retired) and receive supplemental pay. Your engagement with Lifecycle Insights doesn’t change your current employment state. Keep doing what you are doing, whether that includes working full-time for another company or enjoying retirement. We’ll provide payment for your contributions.
• Set up to avoid conflicts of interest. Our engagement with you will focus on the business dynamics and trends, processes and practices, roles and responsibilities, organizational structures, and types of solutions in the industry. We will not broach or discuss anything related to your employer. Share this engagement with your employer as appropriate.
• We get started with a short interview. To ensure there is a good fit, we’ll have a short discussion to ensure the engagement works for both parties. If it is a fit, we’ll proceed to get a limited contractor agreement in place and paid projects.

Who We Are

At Lifecycle Insights, our mission is to accelerate engineering transformation to help companies develop better, more sustainable products faster. We bring together leaders and experts from various industries, technical fields, and domains to deliver data-driven insights and industry-proven guidance to achieve that mission.

• We are result-driven self-starters, working with flexibility and autonomy.
• We are insightful thought leaders who provide astute commentary beyond mere statistics and facts.
• We work with integrity and independence, following our principles without compromise.
• We are process-oriented, using established approaches and methodologies while experimenting with new, innovative ones.
• We are positively and respectfully collaborative; each team member is helpful, supportive, and courteous. We are customer-centric, where our client's satisfaction is a crucial gauge of success.

How We Work

The Lifecycle Insights work experience is built on flexibility and autonomy. Our fully remote environment allows you to work where and how you want while maintaining the right work-life balance.

At the same time, we’re a personable, tight-knit group that celebrates our team's shared values and diverse perspectives. We lean into our well-defined processes and roles, utilizing the strengths of each team member to contribute to the achievement of our common goals.

Responsibilities

• Respond to interview requests promptly, within two business days.
• Attend scheduled interviews, participating through online platforms like Zoom.
• Answer interview questions to the best of your ability without sharing any information about your current employer’s efforts in the industry.

Requirements & Experience

Successful candidates should meet the following knowledge, skill, and experience criteria:

• They’ll have at least five years of experience working in the target industry or working in a role that is closely following the target industry.
• They’ll demonstrate familiarity with the business dynamics and trends, processes and practices, personas, roles and responsibilities, organizational structures, and types of solutions in the industry.
• They’ll possess strong verbal and textual communication skills.
• They’ll have an amicable, professional demeanor.
• Ideally, they’ll have experience in software providers' product management, strategy, technical sales, application engineering, or marketing roles, but it’s not required.