Laboratory Manager

The Lab Manager is the technical and operational leader responsible for running two merged dental laboratories day to day. This role owns production execution, case flow, daily labor deployment, technical quality execution, remake reduction, on-time delivery, floor discipline, and development of department leads and technicians.

This position requires meaningful dental lab or orthodontic lab experience. Because the Operations Leader does not bring deep lab technical experience, this role must be capable of making sound lab-specific workflow, quality, remake, and technician tradeoff decisions without depending on the Operations Leader for technical direction. This position reports directly to the Operations Manager.

This role will be worked at International Dental Arts, our dental lab located in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Specialty Appliances is a fast-paced, high-growth company looking for strong team members to support our growing team!

Required Experience

• Dental lab or orthodontic lab operations experience, preferably across fixed, removable, digital, milling, implants, or orthodontic appliance workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to lead production employees, manage case flow, make technical tradeoff decisions, and hold teams accountable in a lab environment.
• Experience in a multi-site lab, merged operation, or high-growth production environment is preferred.

Core Responsibilities

• Own daily production execution across assigned departments, including case flow, due dates, rush cases, bottlenecks, remake work, QC holds, and backlog recovery.
• Lead the daily management rhythm, including production huddles, department priority setting, labor deployment, escalation of risk, and end-of-day follow-up.
• Ensure team members follow approved workflows, standard work, quality expectations, turnaround commitments, safety rules, and customer-specific requirements.
• Use lab technical knowledge to coach leads and technicians, identify quality risks early, and make practical decisions that protect customers, quality, and throughput.
• Own daily performance against on-time delivery, remake percentage, cases per labor hour, department output, backlog, rush completion, QC pass/fail trends, labor utilization, and attendance discipline.
• Partner with Quality/Regulatory, Customer Success, and the Continuous Improvement Manager to identify recurring defects, customer complaints, remakes, and process breakdowns requiring structured corrective action.
• Develop department leads and supervisors into stronger daily managers who can solve problems, coach technicians, reinforce standards, and model the desired culture.
• Build a positive but accountable floor culture based on standards, respect, urgency, facts, and no-blame problem-solving.
• Partner with HR and the Operations Leader on staffing plans, performance feedback, corrective action, hiring needs, cross-training priorities, and employee development.
• Ensure safety, housekeeping, equipment care, PPE compliance, and professional conduct are maintained in all production areas.

Key Deliverables

• Daily production plan executed and risks escalated early.
• Cases completed on time with clear prioritization and customer impact awareness.
• Remakes, defects, QC failures, and repeat issues addressed quickly at the floor level.
• Labor aligned to workload, capacity, due dates, and skill level.
• Department leads actively developed and held accountable.
• Floor standards, housekeeping, safety, and professional conduct maintained.
• CI improvements and approved standard work implemented and sustained on the floor.

Role Boundaries

• Does not own company-wide process redesign, controlled document governance, formal revision control, enterprise KPI dashboard architecture, or cross-lab operating system design.
• Does not bypass the Quality/Regulatory system for controlled documents or corrective action requirements.
• Does not delegate daily production accountability to the CI Manager. The CI Manager can support problem-solving and system improvement, but the Lab Manager owns daily execution and people accountability.

Success Measures

• On-time delivery performance and backlog control.
• Remake and QC failure reduction.
• Cases per labor hour and labor utilization improvement.
• Lead/supervisor capability and bench strength.
• Adherence to approved standard work and safety expectations.
• Employee engagement, accountability, attendance, and floor discipline.

What We Offer

• Competitive Salary
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Short-term and Long-term Disability Insurance
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• PTO
• 9 Paid Company Holidays
• Annual Bonus Plan
• 401(k) with 3% company match

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