Manufacturing Supervisor 1st Shift

Position Summary

Thermo Fisher Scientific is seeking a Manufacturing Supervisor to lead day-to-day manufacturing operations while driving excellence in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and people development. In this role, you will lead, coach, and develop a team of approximately 10–20 manufacturing operators within a GMP-regulated environment. You will maintain an active presence on the manufacturing floor, working closely with your team to understand operational and technical challenges, reinforce Safety and Quality expectations, monitor performance, and implement sustainable improvements.

The successful candidate will bring demonstrated people leadership experience and be able to provide specific examples of how they have coached and developed employees, driven accountability, recognized performance, navigated difficult conversations, and built engaged, high-performing teams. This role also requires a strong technical and operational understanding of manufacturing. You will use KPIs, Gemba walks, Lean/PPI methodologies, structured problem-solving, investigations, CAPAs, change controls, and cross-functional collaboration to identify issues, determine root causes, and improve manufacturing performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead daily manufacturing operations to achieve safety, quality, delivery, and cost objectives.
• Supervise, coach, and develop a team of approximately 10–20 manufacturing operators, establishing clear expectations and driving employee engagement, accountability, and performance.
• Maintain an active leadership presence on the manufacturing floor through Gemba walks, employee engagement, coaching, observation, and structured problem-solving.
• Promote a strong Safety culture by proactively engaging employees, identifying risks, reinforcing safe work practices, and supporting corrective and preventive actions.
• Build and reinforce a strong Quality culture, ensuring employees understand and consistently follow GMP requirements, quality systems, SOPs, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Monitor, analyze, and communicate operational KPIs and performance metrics, ensuring team members understand performance expectations and how their work contributes to site objectives.
• Use operational data and metrics to identify trends, prioritize issues, determine root causes, and drive process improvements.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement using Lean and Practical Process Improvement (PPI) methodologies.
• Lead and/or facilitate Lean activities such as 5S, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, standard work, and other continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead structured problem-solving efforts to identify root causes and implement sustainable solutions to manufacturing and operational challenges.
• Lead manufacturing investigations, CAPAs, and change control activities.
• Oversee production planning, scheduling, and workflow optimization to ensure efficient operations.
• Implement and sustain standard work and 5S practices.
• Drive team accountability by setting clear expectations, following through on commitments, addressing performance concerns, and recognizing positive contributions.
• Coach and develop employees through ongoing feedback, training, development planning, recognition, and opportunities for increased responsibility.
• Effectively manage difficult conversations and employee situations while maintaining professionalism and clear expectations.
• Partner cross-functionally with Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, and other teams to resolve issues, drive improvements, and build consensus.
• Prioritize daily operational activities and adjust plans as conditions change, using safety, quality, production requirements, staffing, KPIs, and other relevant information to make informed decisions.
• Support manufacturing floor activities and cleanroom operations as needed.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

This position requires a hands-on manufacturing leader who can balance people leadership with technical and operational execution. Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate specific examples of:

• People Leadership & Development: Coaching and developing employees, recognizing strong performance, setting expectations, driving accountability, managing performance, and navigating difficult conversations.
• Safety Leadership: Personally leading or implementing activities that improved employee safety, addressed hazards, strengthened safe behaviors, or enhanced the team's overall Safety culture.
• Quality Leadership: Reinforcing Quality and GMP expectations and actively participating in or leading quality investigations, CAPAs, change controls, or related activities.
• KPI Ownership: Owning manufacturing performance metrics and using those KPIs to establish priorities, communicate expectations, engage the team, and improve performance.
• Gemba & Floor Leadership: Using Gemba walks and direct floor engagement to understand processes, identify issues, engage employees, and ensure actions are completed.
• Lean & Continuous Improvement: Leading or actively participating in 5S, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, standard work, PPI, or other Lean initiatives.
• Structured Problem-Solving: Leading teams through operational or technical problems using structured root-cause analysis and problem-solving methodologies.
• Prioritization & Adaptability: Effectively organizing daily priorities and adjusting plans when production, staffing, quality, equipment, or other business conditions change.

Minimum Qualifications

• Proficiency with ERP systems and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Flexibility to work varying shifts and schedules as business needs require.
• Physical ability to perform manufacturing floor activities and work in cleanroom environments.
• Experience leading investigations, CAPAs, and change control processes.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across functions and build consensus.
• Experience implementing standard work and 5S practices.
• Advanced degree with 3+ years of manufacturing operations experience, or Bachelor's degree with 5+ years of manufacturing operations experience, including 2+ years in a leadership role.
• HS Diploma Required.
• In some cases an equivalency, consisting of a combination of appropriate education, training and/or directly related experience in a GMP, ISO, or other regulated manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams.
• Strong understanding of Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Expertise in production planning, scheduling, and workflow optimization.
• Ability to analyze data and metrics to drive process improvements.
• Experience with quality systems, SOPs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Engineering, Science, Business, or a related field.
• Lean and/or Six Sigma certification.